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Consolidation Corner Blog
Consolidation Corner is the Retirement Clearinghouse (RCH) blog, and features the latest articles and bylines from our executives, addressing important retirement savings portability topics.
This One Simple Trick Radically Boosts Financial Wellness!
Writing in RCH's Consolidation Corner, Tom Hawkins offers 401(k) plan sponsors "one simple trick" -- retirement savings portability -- to radically boost their participants' financial wellness. Best of all, writes Hawkins, "adopting a program of retirement savings portability has never been easier" and the measurable benefits accrue not only to participants, but to the plan, the retirement system and even to retirement savings public policy initiatives.
Missing Participants: Five Important Considerations for Plan Sponsors
Writing in RCH's Consolidation Corner, Tom Hawkins offers retirement plan sponsors five important considerations that can help focus their efforts in designing, implementing and administering an effective program of locating missing participants. By staying focused on some key principles, including the adoption of sound search practices and retirement savings portability, plan sponsors can successfully navigate their near-term missing participant problems, while positioning their plan for far fewer problems in the future.
Nudge Theory can Help Sponsors Strengthen Financial Wellness Initiatives
In his latest post on RCH’s Consolidation Corner, President & CEO Spencer Williams examines the potential applicability of “nudge theory” by plan sponsors to promote 401(k) account consolidation and to discourage premature cashouts. Nudges, which are “easy and cheap” interventions, could include simple and subtle messages to participants that Williams asserts “can make a big difference to the retirement preparedness, and overall financial health, of their plan participants.”
New Research on Locating Missing Participants Augments DOL Guidance
On 1/26/21, Retirement Clearinghouse (RCH) released a study that advances the art and science of locating missing 401(k) plan participants. The study – Improving the Effectiveness of Electronic Missing Participant Searches – comes on the heels of U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) guidance on the topic and is highly-useful for plan sponsors who utilize electronic searches, or “e-Searches” -- as they are referenced in the study.
How Sponsors can Facilitate Better Participant Outcomes and Improve Plan Metrics in 2021
Writing in the Consolidation Corner blog, RCH President & CEO Spencer Williams offers 401(k) plan sponsors two New Year's resolutions that could improve participant outcomes and boost plan metrics. Specifically, Williams suggests that plan sponsors 1) implement a robust missing participant search program and 2) eliminate the practice of automatic cash-outs. Fortunately, adds Williams, both of these resolutions can be achieved when plan sponsors embrace an auto portability program.
Three New Year's Resolutions for Plan Sponsors to Consider
Writing in Consolidation Corner, RCH EVP Neal Ringquist offers retirement plan sponsors three New Year's resolutions that, if adopted, will facilitate retirement savings portability and make 2021 a better year for the plan as well as for its participants.
Bringing Sunlight to the Dark Corners of Safe Harbor IRA Fees
Safe harbor IRAs exist due to the success of 401(k) plans, combined with the propensity of America’s mobile workforce to change jobs. While safe harbor IRAs have helped plan sponsors mitigate their cost and risk associated with small accounts, they’ve failed miserably for former participants. In his latest article in RCH’s Consolidation Corner, Tom Hawkins focuses sunlight on the unsavory practice of excessive safe harbor IRA fees, and offers advice to plan sponsors for promoting greater fee transparency and disclosure.
Elections Have Consequences—Elect to Help Participants Keep Their Savings, Instead of Losing Their Savings via Mandatory Distributions
Against the backdrop of uncertainty surrounding the 2020 Presidential election, RCH President & CEO Spencer Williams takes to RCH’s Consolidation Corner to remind us of the real impact other choices can have on people’s lives. For plan sponsors who care about preserving their participants’ retirement benefits, Williams urges them to “elect” auto portability and play a decisive role in helping millions of Americans save more for retirement.
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