WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - As most of us are painfully aware, the days of the pension are mostly gone.
The percentage of employers still offering a traditional defined benefit pension plan to newly hired employees fell from about 50% to 5% between 1998 and 2015, according to advisory firm Willis Towers Watson.
Many companies have moved to 401k plans; others simply leave it to their employees to either open their own IRAs (Individual Retirement Arrangements) or not save at all.
Lots of companies either froze their retirement plans or closed them altogether.
Now, the most popular way to save for retirement is through a company sponsored plan like a 401k.
But not all of these plans are created equal. Employers determine many of the features that make one plan better than another, like whether they match a certain amount their employees' contributions, what investment options are available in the plan, and how much investment and administration costs take out of their employees' returns.
The amount an employer matches (to employee contribution) eventually has a big impact on the employee's life after the earning years have passed. Because of compound interest, a variation of just a few percentage points could mean the difference of hundreds of thousands of dollars over the course of a career.
The following is a list of the companies that, on an average, have the best retirement plan for their employees. As can be seen, all types of companies populate this list - it is not dominated by any particular sector or industry.
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