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401k consolidation blog posts
On Earth Day, Consider Auto Portability to ‘Recycle’ 401(k) Savings
On April 22nd, we celebrate the 56th annual Earth Day, and
that gives RCH’s Tom Hawkins the opportunity to consider how the concept of
recycling applies to our nation’s 401(k) system, which Hawkins characterizes as
having a “waste problem” that manifests in the form of excessive cashout
leakage and stranded accounts. By contrast, auto portability represents a
sustainable solution that ‘recycles’ small-balance accounts, and its adoption
is rapidly accelerating via members of the Portability
Services Network (PSN).
Financial Literacy and the Power of Preservation
Writing in the RCH Consolidation Corner blog, Tom Hawkins shares his impressions from the 3/31/26 SPARK Champions for Financial Literacy event in Washington, DC, which kicked off Financial Literacy Month. Hawkins notes the impressive line-up of speakers, including policy headliners Kevin Hassett, Director, National Economic Council and Luke Pettit, Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Financial Institutions, and many others – all sharing relevant personal and professional experiences that spoke directly to the transformative power of financial literacy. However, it was the address by RCH President & CEO Spencer Williams, whose laser focus on savings preservation and his passionate advocacy for the building out of a “neutral, industry-scale clearinghouse” that could wind up being the most consequential message delivered at the event. Williams’ full speech is included in the article.
Building Out the Clearinghouse Our Retirement System Demands
On March 5, 2025, Retirement Clearinghouse (RCH) released a landmark whitepaper – Building Out Clearinghouse Services for the U.S. Retirement System: A Blueprint for a Digital Infrastructure. In this article, RCH's Tom Hawkins, a co-author of the paper, summarizes the high-level, compelling case for expanding the set of clearinghouse services beyond auto portability, and explains why this initiative is absolutely required in order to "create a retirement ecosystem that does what it should have done all along: protect workers’ savings as they move through their careers, not lose them along the way."
Generation Beta: The First Americans to Start Saving for Retirement at Birth
Writing in RCH's Consolidation Corner, President & CEO Spencer Williams examines the phenomenon of Generation Beta, the first Americans "who will start saving for their retirement when they are born" - by virtue of their qualifying to receive federally-funded Trump Accounts. Williams further observes that "[w]hen recipients of Trump Accounts turn 18, those accounts are eligible to be rolled in to their employer’s 401(k) plan" and sees opportunities for "digital, paperless account portability" to facilitate the consolidation of these balances and allowing for their ongoing growth.
2025: A Breakthrough Year for Portability
Writing in the Consolidation Corner blog, RCH’s Tom Hawkins looks back on 2025, when four important developments emerged related to the topic of retirement savings portability. Taken together, Hawkins asserts that these developments represent a “breakthrough year for portability” with a “clear pattern emerging – where retirement savings portability in general, and specifically – auto portability, will figure prominently in the drive for increased retirement security in 2026 and beyond.”
Auto Portability: Adoption Figures Soar; Thought Leaders Want More
RCH’s Tom Hawkins, writing in RCH’s Consolidation Corner, recounts an extraordinary month of October for auto portability, with “with plan sponsor adoption surging and industry thought leaders increasingly recognizing the promise of auto portability in finally solving longstanding 401(k) system portability issues.” This level of interest and support for auto portability indicates that “the shift is on” and auto portability “is now clearly winning the day.”
‘Forgotten’ Accounts: Forget Hyperbole, Here’s a Solution
In the wake of industry media outlets’ reporting on research estimating there are 31.9 million “forgotten” 401(k) accounts totaling about $2.1 trillion in assets, NAPA Net posted two sober-minded takes on the matter, contending there’s no justification for broadly labeling these accounts as “forgotten” while also observing that the figures “serve as a proxy for a lack of efficient account portability." Following NAPA Net’s lead, RCH’s Tom Hawkins, writing in the RCH Consolidation Corner blog, evaluates three potential solutions to enable broad portability, zeroing in on an “affirmative consent-based automatic transfer process, applying to all balances not covered by auto portability and supporting IRA rollovers, plan-to-plan roll-ins, as well as those who choose to stay in-plan.”
Proof Positive: Retirement Savings Portability Works
We’ve long known – through sophisticated models such as EBRI’s Retirement Security Projection Model (RSPM) and the RCH Auto Portability Simulation Model – that retirement savings portability has the potential to significantly reduce cashout leakage and to generate systemic benefits. But models, however sophisticated they may be, can be inherently less convincing than hard, empirical data. In this RCH Consolidation Corner article, Tom Hawkins provides readers with definitive, real-world empirical data proving that portability not only works – it works at scale – and will deliver consistent results over many years and for millions of job-changing participants.
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