When it comes to 401(k) plans, less than a third ofsmall-business owners provide them totheir employees — and nearly half of the ones who don’t just don’tsee the value in such plans.

And maybe that’s because they haven’t taken a long-term view ofhow 401(k)s should be used and viewed — although that appears to bechanging.

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The August 2016 Surepayroll Small Business Scorecard found thatnot only do 66 percent of small-business owners not offer theiremployees a 401(k) plan, 42 percent of those nonproviders don’tthink 401(k)s add value. Beyond that, 35 percent said the fees aretoo expensive and 23 percent said they don’t know how to manage401(k)s.

But the scorecard also found that 34 percent of small-businessowners see 401(k)s as the primary way they’ll save for retirement;28 percent of small-business owners currently offer 401(k)s, and 6percent said that they plan to add one soon.

One reason business owners may be reluctant to offer 401(k)scould be the way they view such plans — more as retirement savingsthan as a source of retirement income, according to the MetLife2016 Lifetime Income Poll.

The MetLife poll found that, while 85 percent of plan sponsorsagreed that the core purpose of a defined contribution plan shouldbe to serve as a lifetime income source during retirement, only 6percent of them say their 401(k) plan includes a lifetime incomeoption.

That 85 percent, by the way, is up from only 9 percent who madethe distinction on what 401(k) plans should do when asked the samequestion in 2012.

But just because they view their plans differently, that doesn’tmean they’ve taken action to make them function differently.

The vast majority (92 percent) appear to be looking for asafe harbor from the U.S. Department ofLabor before they add income annuities to definedcontribution plans, and 76 percent would rather be allowed to relyon certifications from the annuity provider based on the regulatoryprocess carried out by a state insurance commissioner, rather thanto conduct the solvency due diligence process themselves as part oftheir regular due diligence process for plan providers.

One way that transition to lifetime income provider might beeffected is if there were a requirement to communicate definedcontribution plan balances in terms of lifetime income, as well asin terms of total account balance, on benefit statements. That’ssomething 96 percent of plan providers could get behind.

Oh, and those small-business owners?

While 34.4 percent of respondents to the SurePayroll scorecardsaid the way they themselves primarily save for retirement is in a401(k), 24.7 percent said they do so with earnings from theirbusinesses; 13.7 percent rely on a Roth or traditional IRA; 9.3percent invest in real estate (outside of their homes); 4.5 percentare counting on their homes increasing in value; and 8.9 percentput away money in stocks, bonds and cash outside of a retirementaccount. But 4.8 percent of those small business owners “don’t havea plan to save for retirement.”