The Key Differences Between a Defined Benefit and Defined Contribution Pension Plan

Defined benefit pension plan

Defined contribution pension plan

Contributions

Both the employer and the employee will contribute to the pension plan. The amount that you contribute each year will depend on what kind of expenses the pension plan has, and the amount of funding it will require that year.

Employees contribute a set amount each year into their pension. As an employer, you can choose to match or “top up” the employees’ contributions to a set amount that you define in advance.

Investment Management

As an employer, you or your pension plan administrator will be responsible for managing the funds. This is applicable whether the employee is actively contributing to the fund or has retired and is receiving funds from it.

You can let your employees choose how they want to invest their funds. This provides employees with more flexibility and choice and takes the responsibility off you, as the employer, to manage pension funds. However, you will still need to have a range of funds for your employees to select from.

Costs

An actuary will work with you (approximately every three years) to calculate how much money you will need to cover the pension expenses. The actuary must consider everything from cost of living adjustments to how many employees will be retiring.

The costs will be lower as less active management is required. Employees will receive whatever amount their investments are worth when they retire.

Employee Retention

Both types of pension plans will help attract and retain employees. Since a defined benefit plan builds in value each year, it is more likely to attract employees interested in staying with the company for a long time.

A defined contribution plan will also attract employees, but the pension will be less appealing than a defined benefit plan.