Editor's note: The Center for Due Diligence 2014 conference includes a presentation by Chris Carosa – "Using Proven Psychological Techniques to Motivate Plan Sponsors & Participants to Implement Your Recommendations" – scheduled for 11:45 a.m. Wednesday. Click here for the full conference schedule

Everybody talks about better preparing 401(k) savers for retirement, but it's very difficult to actually accomplish the task.

It turns out, even when you drag them to the meeting room for their (usually) annual dose of "general" education, their minds drift off. Even plan sponsors suffer from this. Perhaps, rather than relying on gimmicks from the world of entertainment, maybe we'd be better off applying the tested tools of behavioral psychology.

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Christopher Carosa

Chris Carosa has been writing a weekly article and monthly column for BenefitsPRO online and BenefitsPRO Magazine since 2011 and is a nationally recognized award-winning writer, researcher and speaker. He’s written seven books, including From Cradle to Retire: The Child IRA; Hey! What’s My Number? – How to Increase the Odds You Will Retire in Comfort; A Pizza The Action: Everything I Ever Learned About Business I Learned By Working in a Pizza Stand at the Erie County Fair; and the widely acclaimed 401(k) Fiduciary Solutions. Carosa is also Chief Contributing Editor of the authoritative trade journal FiduciaryNews.com and publisher of the Mendon-Honeoye Falls-Lima Sentinel, a weekly community newspaper he founded in 1989. Currently serving as President of the National Society of Newspaper Columnists and with more than 1,000 articles published in various publications, he appears regularly in the national media. A “parallel” entrepreneur, he actively runs a handful of businesses, including a small boutique investment adviser, providing hands-on experience for his writing. A trained astrophysicist, he also holds an MBA and has been designated a Certified Trust and Financial Advisor. Share your thoughts and story ideas with him through Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/christophercarosa/)and Twitter (https://twitter.com/ChrisCarosa).