Media Coverage

The Future of Retirement Savings Portability Requires More Than Automation

Writing in the Consolidation Corner blog, RCH’s Tom Hawkins offers his take on the retirement industry’s responses to IRS Notice 2026-49 (Guidance on Section 324 of the SECURE 2.0 Act with Respect to Rollovers), which proposed four model forms and a five-step process designed to facilitate retirement savings portability. Hawkins is encouraged “that a growing number of industry stakeholders recognize that solving these challenges requires a more coordinated infrastructure approach” which he describes as “an important validation of a philosophy that has guided [RCH’s] work for nearly two decades."

Industry Demonstrates Need for Better Retirement Savings Rollover Support for Job Changers

PLANSPONSOR's Emily Boyle addresses recent research from Empower (The Retirement Drift) which lays out their analysis of “left-behind” fragmented accounts and the mobile workforce. Boyle also highlights recent research from Vanguard (Does Portability Services Network preserve retirement savings? Early evidence) which analyzes early results from PSN Auto Portability, indicating that "auto portability through PSN significantly cut cashout rates for balances of less than $1,000 from about 50% to approximately 9%."

Also featured in PlanAdviser

Retirement savings are drifting across old jobs

Retirement industry titan Empower releases a new survey ("The Retirement Drift") which lays out their analysis of “left-behind” fragmented accounts and the mobile workforce. According to their survey, 34% of Americans believe they may have lost track of retirement savings from a previous employer, while 39% have assets spread across multiple employer accounts. Younger workers report the greatest difficulty, with 50% of Gen Z and 45% of Millennials saying they may have lost track of retirement assets. The article cites the Portability Services Network and auto portability as helping move forward and consolidate small-balance (<$7000) accounts following a job change.

Spencer Look and Jack VanDerhei: The Assumptions That Can Put Your Retirement at Risk

In this episode of the Morningstar podcast “The Long View” Spencer Look and Jack VanDerhei of the Morningstar Center for Retirement & Policy Studies discuss what truly drives retirement readiness in the United States and why many traditional retirement projections may overlook important risks. Addressing auto portability, VanDerhei argues that expanding access to retirement plans alone is insufficient. He specifically highlights auto portability as an increasingly accepted solution among major recordkeepers and plan sponsors because it helps preserve retirement savings by automatically moving small retirement balances into a worker’s new employer plan rather than allowing accounts to be cashed out or abandoned -- framing auto portability not as a standalone reform, but as an essential building block in a more comprehensive strategy to improve retirement adequacy across the U.S. retirement system.

How Automation Could Lift Retirement Odds for Millions of Workers

Adam Hardy, lead data journalist at Money.com, analyzes an Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI) issue brief that modeled the impact of three "automatic" defined contribution features - auto enrollment, auto escalation and auto portability. By itself, the EBRI research finds that auto portability could reduce the retirement savings shortfall (RSS) by 11.4%, and if taken together with the other features "the benefits are compounded."

The plan advisor case for auto portability

Writing in BenefitsPro, Steve Holman, Senior Vice President of Portability Services Network (PSN) Strategy and Development, lays out a compelling case for why retirement plan advisors should be all-in for PSN Auto Portability. In his article, Holman opens by observing that auto portability “strengthens advisors’ value by increasing plan assets and expanding opportunities for wealth management” and proceeds to build on that foundation. “The bottom line” for plan advisors, concludes Holman “is auto portability is not a threat, it’s a growth engine for plan advisors – driving asset retention, increasing AUM, and expanding long-term client opportunities.”

RCH Consolidation Corner Channel Ep. 33 - Will Standardized Forms Fix Retirement System Fragmentation?

In this episode, we examine the issue of utilizing standardized forms to facilitate retirement savings portability. We hope you'll find the audio enjoyable and informative.

PBGC Report Points to a Retirement System Solution that Already Exists

Writing in the Consolidation Corner blog, RCH’s Tom Hawkins draws attention to the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC)'s recent report to Congress (Feasibility of Expanding PBGC’s Missing Participants Program) which found that converting PBGC's existing program into a national consolidator of small retirement balances would require substantial new systems, resources, and expertise. Importantly, the PBGC report recognizes that private-sector solutions have already emerged to address the problem, indirectly referring to RCH, PSN and auto portability. Consistent with the PBGC’s report, Hawkins concludes: “public policy can support, encourage, and accelerate the development of a comprehensive clearinghouse network that keeps workers connected to their savings throughout their careers.”