Auto Portability in the News
Browse the most comprehensive collection of articles in the media that feature auto portability.
The Surprising Migratory Patterns of Job-Changing Participants
In his latest Consolidation Corner article, RCH President & CEO Spencer Williams utilizes EBRI data to examine the migratory patterns of job-changing participants. Looking specifically at the size of their former employers' plans (expressed in terms of numbers of participants) compared to the size of their most-recent active plan, Williams finds that the vast majority (82.98%) of these participants go to an employer with a plan equal in size, or larger than, their former employer’s plan. Only 17.02% of participants go to employers with smaller plans, and a mere 1.9% leave employers with large plans to go to an employer with a small plan (less than 100 participants). This data, says Williams, should significantly allay industry concerns that the adoption of auto portability for small balances could result in harmful participant outcomes.
EBRI: IRA Rollovers Often Deviate from 401(k) Asset Allocations
ASPPA Net reporter Ted Godbout examines new EBRI research that finds job-changing 401(k) participants' carefully-crafted asset allocation strategies can become dramatically inconsistent after rolling over balances to IRAs. This issue, the research says, "was particularly acute for small-balance rollovers of less than $5,000, as a large percentage of these assets ended up in MMFs as a default investment in the IRAs." EBRI noted that "facilitating the movement of the IRA assets of those still working back into 401(k) plans, such as through auto portability measures...could help achieve the longer-term asset allocation strategies...developed in 401(k) plans, particularly for accounts with lower balances."
Ways to Combat Pervasive Leakage
PLANSPONSOR's Lee Barney reports on the Savings Preservation Working Group's recent analysis (link) of the problem of 401(k) cashout leakage, estimated to be between $60 billion and $105 billion per year, and affecting 33% to 47% of job-changing participants. The report -- the most-comprehensive analysis of cashout leakage to date -- represents a meta-analysis of studies conducted by EBRI, large recordkeepers, the Government Accountability Office (GAO), Boston Research Technologies and RCH's own Auto Portability Simulation. The SPWG's conclusions were reviewed and validated by a team of industry experts, trade associations and advocacy groups, and specifically acknowledges the contributions of RCH's Spencer Williams, Tom Johnson and Tom Hawkins.
A National Program Like OregonSaves Would Reduce Retirement Deficit
PLANSPONSOR reporter Lee Barney joins the chorus of media coverage of the EBRI Issue Brief examining 2 policy initiatives -- a nationwide expansion of an OregonSaves-like program, as well as the adoption of 401(k) safe harbor plans. While the EBRI analysis found that both initiatives delivered significant benefits in the form of reductions to the nation's retirement deficit, the addition of auto portability delivered even more-dramatic benefits to both by reducing the amount of cashout leakage experienced by job-changing participants.
NAPA Net Covers EBRI Issue Brief, Auto Portability
Following the release of a 10/31 EBRI Issue Brief and its 11/4 coverage in 401(k) Specialist, NAPA Net's Ted Godbout reports on EBRI's findings that auto portability, when paired with 2 policy initiatives -- a nationwide OregonSaves program and adoption of 401(k) safe harbor plans -- dramatically improves their benefits, as measured by projected reductions in the nation's retirement savings shortfall (RSS).
EBRI: Nation-Wide Auto IRA Program Would Get Huge Boost from Auto Portability
401(k) Specialist Managing Editor Brian Anderson addresses the latest EBRI Issue Brief, which examined two policy initiatives -- the rollout of a hypothetical, nationwide OregonSaves-like auto IRA program, as well as the widespread adoption of 401(k) safe harbor plans. While EBRI found that both policy initiatives could have a substantial impact on the nation's retirement savings shortfall (RSS), combining them with auto portability turbo-charged their results. When combined with auto portability, a nation-wide OregonSaves initiative generated additional, incremental benefits of $303 billion, while adding a whopping $386 billion to the benefits of 401(k) safe harbor plans.
EBRI: Big Benefits When OregonSaves, Safe Harbor 401(k)s Paired with Auto Portability
A 10/31/19 EBRI Issue Brief -- What if OregonSaves Went National: A Look at the Impact on Retirement Income Adequacy -- examines the impact of a nationwide roll-out of a hypothetical "national" OregonSaves plan, as well as the nationwide adoption of 401(k) safe harbor plans by employers not currently offering a DB or DC plan. Not surprisingly, EBRI finds that the increased access to workplace retirement savings plans generated by these programs produces substantial reductions in EBRI's all-important metric, the Retirement Savings Shortfall (RSS). However, when each program is further paired with auto portability, their benefits are dramatically increased -- from $459 billion to $759 billion for OregonSaves, and from $645 billion to $1.0 trillion for 401(k) safe harbor plans.
401(k) auto portability making critical turn toward acceptance
In his 10/28/19 article in Pensions & Investments, reporter Brian Croce examines the "critical turn toward acceptance" that the Retirement Clearinghouse (RCH) auto portability program has made, following the "green light" the program received from the U.S. Department of Labor. In the piece, Groom Law Group's Michael Kreps characterizes the DOL's actions as the "starting gun", while RCH's Spencer Williams and Neal Ringquist provide important updates on progress-to-date with 401(k) recordkeepers. Tim Rouse, executive director of SPARK, an industry group representing recordkeepers, voices his support for auto portability, while ERIC's Aliya Robinson states that "once [auto portability] hits critical mass I think it's something we'll see pretty widely across the retirement system."
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