Hello NAGDCA Members,

I’m delighted to report that our campaign to build the Public Retirement Research Lab (PRRL) database is proving successful. The PRRL, you’ll recall, is an industry-sponsored collaborative effort of NAGDCA and the Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI) formed in late 2019. It collects and analyzes public sector defined contribution retirement plan data to provide unbiased, actionable findings to better inform public plan administration, participant engagement, innovation, and legislation.

To date, 105 plan sponsors have agreed to share data from 194 plans with the Public Retirement Research Database (PRRD), the first-ever comprehensive participant-level database of public sector defined contribution plans. This infographic shows the breakdown of participation by sponsor and plan. Here’s a sample of the type of research the PRRL will produce from this data: PRRL Study Snapshot.

The majority of plan sponsors that have agreed to share their data with the PRRD are NAGDCA members. Thank YOU!

It’s not too late to share your plans data with the PRRD and become a PRRL Plan Sponsor Participant.

Participation in the PRRD is ongoing. To share your plans data, you need only complete a simple form authorizing your record keeper to transfer it to the PRRD. Data security is paramount and assured; a detailed description of the process is available here. For additional information and assistance, including help navigating unique statutes prohibiting data sharing, please contact me at mpetersen@nagdca.org.

It still may be possible to contribute 2019 data enabling independent assessment and comparison, and inclusion in PRRL analysis. Please check with your record keeper.

PRRL Plan Sponsor Participants receive these benefits:

  • free access to the PRRL Benchmarking Tool enabling independent assessments and comparisons according to select variables (see examples here)
  • a “You vs. the Universe” report comparing their retirement plans with aggregated data from other plans in the database
  • access to exclusive public sector-focused research from EBRI, NAGDCA, and PRRL Founding and Supporting Partners

Additionally, intelligence gathered from PRRL analysis of this data will help public sector retirement plan providers craft retirement plans and programs tailored specifically to the needs of public sector employees (versus those based on assumptions from private-sector 401(k) data analysis), as well as organizations, such as NAGDCA, with legislative efforts supporting improvement of public sector retirement plans.

We’re very excited about the potential for our work together to strengthen public sector retirement plans and enhance retirement plan outcomes for the nation’s 20+ million public sector employees. Thank you for helping ensure the PRRL’s success!

Matt Petersen
Executive Director
NAGDCA