Washington, D.C., January 27, 2015 – Judy Diamond Associates, the leading 401(k) plan intelligence provider, today released an analysis of the worst states in which to have a 401(k) plan.
“We looked closely at about 540,000 401(k) plans across all 50 states and the District.” said Eric Ryles, Managing Director of Judy Diamond Associates. “We then determined which state had the highest concentration of under-performing plans, as a percentage of their overall number of plans. Each of these plans suffers from significant challenges.”
Rankings were established based on Judy Diamond’s proprietary Plan Score, which measures key metrics of plan performance, management, and design. Such metrics include rate of return, participation rate, and employee contributions. Plan scores can be found for over 700,000 retirement plans in Judy Diamond’s Retirement Plan Prospector database, an industry tool used by financial services professionals to gauge the strength of 401(k) plans.
Notable findings from the research include:
• Despite its continuing spot at #1, Arizona showed the greatest improvement in number of poor plans year over year, moving down from 17.59% to 16.17%.
• Mississippi had the biggest year over year increase in the percent of its plans rated in the poor category, increasing from 11.61% last year to 12.88% this year.
The top 10 states with the greatest concentration of troubled plans are:
| Rank | Prior Rank | State | % of Plans that significantly underperformed |
| 1 | 1 | Arizona | 16.17% |
| 2 | 2 | Nevada | 15.19% |
| 3 | 3 | Utah | 15.17% |
| 4 | 4 | Florida | 14.42% |
| 5 | 7 | Tennessee | 13.37% |
| 6 | 10 | South Carolina | 13.18% |
| 7 | 6 | Georgia | 13.12% |
| 8 | 5 | Texas | 13.11% |
| 9 | 16 | Mississippi | 12.88% |
| 10 | 13 | Alabama | 12.81% |
Judy Diamond Associates based this research on the most recently available 401(k) plan disclosure documents released by the Department of Labor, which are available in its Retirement Plan Prospector database. Retirement Plan Prospector is an intuitive and comprehensive online sales prospecting and plan analysis tool, providing insights to the defined contribution and defined benefits markets.
For more information about this research, please contact us at www.judydiamond.com/about/contact or follow us on Twitter @401kFacts.
ABOUT JUDY DIAMOND ASSOCIATES
Judy Diamond Associates is the premier provider of sales prospecting and plan analysis tools for benefits brokers, financial advisors, plan providers, and carriers serving the employee benefits and retirement markets. Judy Diamond Associates offers instant access to 5500 plan data and a broad suite of analytical tools designed to support the lead generation, relationship building, market research, and plan analysis needs of benefits and retirement professionals. Judy Diamond Associates’ business is built on a commitment to superb customer service and data integrity. We provide all of our customers with free training and access to our customer support hotline, 800-231-0669. Our team of data professionals is dedicated to ensuring our tools offer the most comprehensive, accurate and current data available.
Judy Diamond Associates is a Summit Professional Networks company.
###
Media Contact:
Eric Ryles, Managing Director
Judy Diamond Associates
202-370-4811
