Many of us are lucky enough to work for an employer who provides some form or combination of retirement plans for our benefit. There are many different types of plans available, each with different benefits for you and your employer.

ING is one of the countries leading providers of employer sponsored retirement plans with over 50,000 employers entrusting over $78 billion dollars to us to manage for their employees.

While retirement plans can come in several different “flavors,” they fall into three main categories as traditional pension plans, profit-sharing plans and savings plans. While all three types of plans are still available, the rising cost of retirement and (hence) the rising cost of funding retirement plans has made many employers shift from traditional pension plans where the employer foots the bill, to savings plans where you are given incentives to contribute to your own retirement.

Here’s a quick breakdown of the types of plans available. Talk to your employer about the plan(s) he/she provides.

Pension Plans can come in a couple of different forms. There are plans set up so the employer says, “When you retire, I will pay you $X each year.” Then, each year, the employer must put in enough money to make sure that there will be enough in the kitty to fulfill the promise. The amount that they have to put into the plan will fluctuate as the workforce changes.

It’s easy to see that this type of plan would get more expensive for the employer as the employees get older and the number of years available to fully fund the plan goes down.

Another type of plan (and more common today) is the type of pension where the employer says, “I will put $X (or percent of your income) into a pension plan and when you retire, we’ll see how much is in the kitty and then you can generate an income from that amount.” This type of plan is obviously better for the employer because the amount that goes into the plan is known ahead of time.

Profit-sharing plans are the type of plan where the employer puts in a percentage toward your account; however, the employer doesn’t have to make a contribution to the plan if they didn’t make a profit that year. This gives the employer the most flexibility.

Companies who provide pension plans commonly use a combination of a pension plan that requires a contribution and a profit sharing plan that lets them contribute more when business is good.

Employer sponsored plans are a means of stashing some serious money away for retirement. You can save exponentially more through an employer-sponsored plan than you ever could on your own.

Probably the best known type of employer sponsored savings plan, the 401(k) plan lets you set aside a portion of your income on a pre-tax basis and then invest that money for your retirement. Most employers then match part or all of the amount you put into the plan. Any size employer can have a 401(k) as well as governmental and tax-exempt employers. However, the costs associated with administering the 401(k) makes it somewhat expensive for many small companies.

Similar to the 401(k), employees contribute part of their salary on a pre-tax basis to the plan and the employer may match part, all, or none of that amount. However, 403(b) tax-sheltered annuities are not available to all types of employers. Only tax-exempt 501 (c)(3) employers, such as, educational organizations, churches, tax-exempt hospitals, schools, or charities are eligible. You can learn more about the specifics of 403(b) TSAs.

Under a Section 457 plan, employees may contribute a portion of their salary on a pre-tax basis. However, these plans are restricted to state, county, and municipal government workers or if the employer is tax-exempt, to select management and highly compensated employees. You can learn more about 457(b) plans for governmental workers, including public schools.

For most of us, our primary source of retirement income will be what we’ve saved in our employers' 401(k), 403(b) or 457 plans. Unfortunately, only 71 percent of employees say they’ve saved anything for retirement, even though most large employers offer this benefit, according to ASEC.

Those who are saving are contributing, on average, only 6.8 percent of their pre-tax income, according to Hewitt Associates. At this rate, many retirees may find their plans coming up short.

Whatever employer sponsored plan you have access to, we encourage you to participate in that plan, and contribute as much as you can.