Media Coverage

Auto Portability | Helping Reduce 401(k) Leakage After Job Changes

Writing in their Insights blog, the Retirement Plan Advisory Group (RPAG) provides their plan advisor audience with an overview of auto portability. The piece nicely summarizes the problem of a mobile workforce and cashout leakage, and presents auto portability -- as delivered by the consortium of recordkeepers who formed the Portability Services Network -- as a solution to the problem, delivering "an extra $1.6 trillion in retirement savings over the next generation."

Top earners are saving more for retirement. Everyone else is saving less.

Writing in USA Today, personal finance reporter Daniel de Visé examines new retirement research from Dayforce with troubling findings, suggesting that "many American workers [are] losing ground on retirement savings between 2021 and 2024" while "top earners" have gained the most. De Visé turns to Matt Bahl, vice president and head of workplace solutions at the nonprofit Financial Health Network, who suggests that employers take advantage of several strategies, including "auto-portability, a mechanism that automatically transfers a retirement plan to a new employer when someone changes jobs."

Also featured in Financial Advisor, MSN.com, Yahoo! Finance and other publications

Millions lose out as job changes trigger involuntary 401(k) rollovers

Seeking Alpha's Rob Williams reports on the problems encountered by small-balance, job-changing participants who are involuntarily forced-out of their former employer's 401(k) plan and into safe harbor IRAs. Drawing upon the 11/15/25 article on the same topic by Anne Tergesen in the Wall Street Journal, Williams refers to comments by RCH & PSN CEO Spencer Williams, who leads the effort dedicated to reforming the longstanding practice through auto portability, which automatically moves these small-balance retirement balances forward.

Also featured in MSN Money

Forgotten 401(k) Accounts Are Costing Americans Billions in Lost Investment Gains

The Wall Street Journal's Anne Tergesen takes on the topic of left-behind 401(k) savings and the participant outcomes that occur when small-balance accounts are forced out in safe harbor IRAs, where they can languish in an environment characterized by high fees and sub-optimal investments. Tergesen turns to RCH and Portability Services Network (PSN) CEO Spencer Williams, along with Fiona Grieg of Vanguard (an owner-member of PSN), who provide their views on the problem, while Tergesen goes on to describe auto portability's emerging role in moving these balances forward within the 401(k) system.

*Subscription required; also featured in MSN Money

RCH Consolidation Corner Channel Ep. 21 - Portability: The Real Story of 'Forgotten' 401(k) Accounts

Welcome to the 21st edition of the RCH Consolidation Corner Channel, where we provide you with audio content that explores key issues in the preservation and consolidation of retirement savings. In this episode, we take a look at what’s really driving the problem with so-called ‘forgotten’ 401(k) accounts – a lack of retirement savings portability – and we examine three potential solutions to address the problem. We hope you’ll find the audio enjoyable and informative.

‘Forgotten’ Accounts: Forget Hyperbole, Here’s a Solution

In the wake of media hyperbole surrounding the issue of so-called 'forgotten' 401(k) accounts, RCH’s Tom Hawkins, writing in 401k Specialist, 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.”

Universal Automatic Portability: A Close Look

Writing in ASPPA Net, American Retirement Association's Paul Mulholland identifies the absence of universal auto portability as one of the "primary obstacles to consistent retirement saving" and "is especially obnoxious because it undermines the security of those who have access to a plan and are actually saving." Mulholland chronicles the woes of safe harbor IRAs, when used as final resting places for participants' forced-out balances, and turns to RCH's Neal Ringquist and Groom Law Group's Michael Kreps for their views on the Portability Services Network and auto portability.

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.”