Personal, face-to-face retirement advice to employees boosts annual investment returns in a portfolio by 2.5 percentage points over workers who did not receive any advice, according to a study sponsored by Wisconsin’s Carroll College.

“Over two percentage points of return per year is significant over the long run,” said Kelli Send, who conducted the study. “We’re talking about plan balances at retirement being potentially 50% greater due to the improved long-term returns.” The study, touted to be the first of its kind, found that employees who received advice in both a group setting and individual setting invested in an average of 7.8 funds, compared with 5.6 funds for those who were advised only in a group setting and 5.3% for those who received no advice at all.