For employers, the recordkeeping that goes into managing their defined contribution retirement savings plan can sometimes be an afterthought—until something goes wrong or they want to make a significant change to their plan.

Even as employers have improved their defined contribution retirement savings plans, funding one’s own retirement remains, for many workers, a challenging task.

When defined contribution retirement plans started to become popular in the 1980s, they were viewed primarily as a supplement to defined benefit pension plans. But over time, many employers stopped offering DB plans in favor of DC plans, making the latter the principal retirement savings vehicle for most employees.