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401k consolidation blog posts
Assessing the State of DC Plans & Retirement Savings, 15 Years After the Pension Protection Act
Marking the 15th anniversary of the Pension Protection Act (PPA), RCH President & CEO Spencer Williams offers readers his views on the unintended consequences of that legislation that “continue to reverberate” for both plan participants and sponsors. Acknowledging that the automatic enrollment feature has been successful in promoting increased plan participation, Williams notes that the feature has also resulted in a “sharp uptick in small, stranded 401(k) savings accounts” that – absent easy plan-to-plan asset portability – has led to increased participant fees as well as higher levels of cash outs. In response, Williams observes that “the private and public sectors have worked together to create solutions” such as auto portability, which can help rectify the PPA’s flaws, and allow Americans to save more for retirement.
Four Reasons Why Auto Portability Can't Wait
Writing in RCH's Consolidation Corner blog, Tom Hawkins makes the case that auto portability can wait no longer and cites four key reasons that the new "automatic" feature should be adopted. Hawkins' key reasons include: 1) cashout leakage isn't waiting, 2) the "Great Resignation" is accelerating, 3) policy initiatives that expand access to workplace retirement plans require auto portability to realize their intended benefits, and 4) auto portability is here, now and working.
Solving Cashout Leakage, Auto Portability Featured in Senate Committee Hearing
RCH Executive Vice President of Public Policy Renee Wilder Guerin examines the 10/28/21 hearing held by the Senate Special Committee on Aging -- A Financially Secure Future: Building a Stronger Retirement System for All Americans -- and found it to be highly-focused on the problems of cashout leakage, as well as its most promising solution, auto portability. Re-capping key testimony and Q&A from the hearing (including excerpted video), Wilder Guerin concludes that lawmakers are more focused than ever on solving retirement savings problems for under-served and under-saved demographic segments.
The Top Five Misconceptions About Auto Portability
Auto portability is a new “automatic” plan feature that is rapidly gaining acceptance by large defined contribution recordkeepers serving almost 10 million participants. While the feature is relatively new, it has received a great deal of attention in the media and has also been the beneficiary of definitive regulatory guidance, promulgated by the Department of Labor (DOL). Despite this, significant misconceptions persist about auto portability. The top five misconceptions are presented here, which includes a link to a short video.
Beware of Second Order Effects for Retirement Savings Public Policies
RCH's Tom Hawkins examines “second order effects” that can occur with retirement savings public policies currently that would dramatically expand access to, and participation in, defined contribution plans. While the benefits are impressive, additional undesired consequences can arise that are antithetical to the policies’ original intent, including increased cashout leakage, missing participants, uncashed checks and forgotten/stranded accounts. Understanding these highly predictable second order effects, Hawkins identifies plan-to-plan portability as a means of addressing them, while significantly boosting the overall policies’ benefits.
Refundable Saver’s Tax Credits Would Significantly Reduce Retirement Savings Shortfall—Especially for Minorities
Writing in RCH's Consolidation Corner, RCH President & CEO Spencer Williams examines pending retirement savings legislation, and focuses upon the benefits of a refundable saver's credit, which would be directly deposited into taxpayers' 401(k) and IRA accounts. Taking his analysis a step further, Williams considers the infrastructure required to transfer these funds to savers, and identifies considerable synergies with the existing technology that supports auto portability.
Senate Hearing Reveals Large Employer Support for Auto Portability
RCH’s newly-appointed EVP of Public Policy, Renée Wilder Guerin finds a lot to like in the 7/28/21 Senate Finance Committee hearing, where lawmakers heard testimony on how to increase retirement savings, including tackling the longstanding problems of cashout leakage, missing participants and “forgotten” retirement savings accounts. Wilder Guerin notes that auto portability was favorably mentioned twice by Aliya Robinson (SVP, Retirement & Compensation Policy for ERIC), as a policy initiative her organization – comprised of the nation’s largest plan sponsors – supports. Coming on the heels of EBRI’s 21st Annual Retirement Confidence Survey, where nearly 9 in 10 participants indicated their preference for the feature, Senate Finance Committee testimony “bodes extremely well for auto portability’s widespread adoption, as well as the enactment of public policies that further enhance it.”
Don’t Relegate Lost & Missing Accounts to the Lost & Found—Consolidate Them in the Retirement System
RCH’s President & CEO Spencer Williams, writing in the Consolidation Corner Blog, opines on draft provisions in SECURE 2.0 legislation that call for establishment of a “lost & found” – including housing sub-$1,000 balances for all terminating 401(k) participants. As proposed, Williams observes that simply moving sub-$1,000 balances to the PBGC does little to reduce cashouts or stranded savings and offers auto portability as a “far more constructive method” to reduce cashouts and to promote consolidation of retirement savings.
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