At a glance
- The study draws on 6,634 retirement plan participants surveyed from May through July 2026 and scores providers across four factors in order of importance: design, system performance, tools/capabilities, and information content.
- J.D. Power ties those satisfaction levels to concrete participant behavior, finding that respondents with the highest digital experience scores are more likely to hold a favorable view of their employer, roll over money from other retirement accounts, and stay with the existing provider after changing jobs.
- Digital satisfaction is becoming a plan-design metric in its own right, and recordkeeper choice is where it gets decided.
Bank of America has again topped J.D. Power's retirement plan digital experience rankings, placing first in both the website and mobile app categories of the 2026 U.S. Retirement Plan Digital Experience Study and marking its second consecutive year at the head after leading the combined 2025 edition, 401(k) Specialist reports.
The study draws on 6,634 retirement plan participants surveyed from May through July 2026 and scores providers across four factors in order of importance: design, system performance, tools/capabilities, and information content. Bank of America's 775 points out of 1,000 on the website put it 40 points clear of Charles Schwab at 735 and 52 points clear of Vanguard at 723; those are the only three providers above 700, against a 671 average. On mobile, the top shape repeats with Bank of America at 804, Schwab and Fidelity Investments tied at 768, Vanguard at 760, and Ascensus at 741, against a 724 average.
J.D. Power ties those satisfaction levels to concrete participant behavior, finding that respondents with the highest digital experience scores are more likely to hold a favorable view of their employer, roll over money from other retirement accounts, and stay with the existing provider after changing jobs. Mike Foy, managing director of the firm's wealth management practice, calls it a triple win: providers with strong digital engagement see participants spending more time in the tools and becoming more committed to the retirement investing process and the plan's brand.
Those findings move the rankings out of the marketing department and into plan design. Digital satisfaction is becoming a plan-design metric in its own right, and recordkeeper choice is where it gets decided. The recordkeeper is becoming the new wealth platform: if a provider's app persuades participants to consolidate outside accounts and stay after a job change, that provider is doing more than administering the plan; it is accumulating the wealth around it.
Bank of America's 40-point lead over Charles Schwab on the website side is twice the distance from the fourth-place tie between Fidelity Investments and T. Rowe Price at 691 to the 671 segment average. Since J.D. Power links the top of that scale to rollovers and retention, a 40-point digital gap starts to read like a balance-sheet gap in the making.
Reported by the Plans & Sponsors desk from 401(k) Specialist. Published . Corrections