When I first started in the 401(k) business, investment selection by participants was still being predominantly done by paper and phone. The first websites I encountered dealing with 401(k) plans gave the participant their account balance and that was pretty much it. Looking at what some of these large bundled providers and independent third-party administrators have done with their websites is absolutely amazing. The only problem is that despite the technology, there will always be a group of plan participants that still want to do things with a pen and paper.
No matter the technological gains made in the business that makes running 401(k) plans easier, there will always be a population of participants that will never access it because of their age or their issues with using the web. Whatever the reason, plan providers need to still get their message out to participants that will never access the website. Keep in mind that notices still need to be readily available, as well as statements. It would be great if we can go paperless, but there is enough of a population that still needs paper.
