News

RCH Updates Missing Participant Policy Template

PLANSPONSOR journalist Emily Boyle reports on the recent release by Retirement Clearinghouse (RCH) of an updated missing participant policy template, which the firm has made available for download. The new template, writes Boyle: "reflects the Department of Labor’s increased focus on documentation, process integrity and proactive oversight as it oversees sponsors’ attempts to locate individuals who have become disconnected from their retirement savings accounts over time" and offers "three updates to a template that RCH released in 2024."

Shoring up retirement readiness will renew the American Dream

Writing in Employee Benefit News, RCH & PSN CEO Spencer Williams links America's 250th birthday celebration with the American Dream and achieving a financially secure retirement -- emphasizing the importance of protecting small-balance retirement savings when workers change jobs. As Williams observes: "making money is only half the battle to a secure retirement – saving money is the other half" -- and appeals to the retirement industry to "renew our commitment to helping Americans preserve their retirement savings, in order to increase the income they can enjoy after retiring."

Previously featured in the RCH Consolidation Corner blog

Saver's Match missing a crucial component

Writing in Employee Benefit News, RCH president & CEO Spencer Williams examines the critical infrastructure that will be required to support the Saver's Match Program. When the program goes live in 2027, the volume of direct deposits from the U.S. Treasury into 401(k) plans and IRAs will require technology infrastructure that can handle millions of transactions on a timely basis every year. Every transaction will require locating a taxpayer’s retirement savings account, matching the identities of the taxpayer and accountholder, and transporting the contribution from the U.S. Treasury into the active account. That's why having the infrastructure in place to seamlessly, effectively, and securely facilitate the millions of Saver’s Match contributions will be essential to the program's success.

Previously featured in the RCH Consolidation Corner blog

The ‘Free Lunch’ That is Retirement Savings Portability

Writing in 401k Specialist, Tom Hawkins asserts that "retirement savings portability helps everyone, hurts no one – and with no cost to plan sponsors to implement – it’s the equivalent of a 'free lunch' for the retirement savings ecosystem." Hawkins goes on to back up that claim by detailing the benefits of portability programs to key stakeholders, directing readers to empirical support for those benefits and identifying "five recent, broad-based developments that, taken together, make a compelling case that full retirement savings portability is close to becoming a reality."

Previously featured in the RCH Consolidation Corner blog

How The Saver's Match Could Transform Saving For Retirement

Spencer Williams, President & CEO of Retirement Clearinghouse (RCH) and the Portability Services Network (PSN) sits down with Russ Alan Prince of Financial Advisor Magazine to discuss the opportunities and challenges posed by the federal Saver’s Match program, slated to replace the Saver’s Credit for tax years starting in 2027. Williams offers his research-based views on the quantitative benefits of the program, while realistically identifying the operational challenges that the program could face, which Williams believes could benefit from a clearinghouse framework similar to the PSN Auto Portability model.

Retirement Savings Portability: An Idea Whose Time Has (Finally) Come

Writing in 401k Specialist, RCH's Tom Hawkins takes stock of five recent, broad-based developments that, taken together, make a compelling case that full retirement savings portability is getting closer to becoming a reality. Key developments Hawkins describes include: 1) auto portability and the rise of the Portability Services Network, 2) key government retirement savings initiatives, 3) potential provisions of SECURE 3.0, 4) an increased focus on “forgotten” accounts and 5) expanding the portability of Roth balances.

Previously featured in RCH's Consolidation Corner blog

What if the government just gave every baby a $1,000 'Trump Account'?

USA Today's Daniel de Visé reacts to a Washington Post op-ed, where a pair of researchers make the case for applying an automatic enrollment feature for Trump account recipients, vs. the current process, whereby parents must manually enroll their newborns. De Visé turns to multiple industry experts for their views, including RCH founder and CEO Spencer Williams, who cautions: “our experience in the private sector with very small accounts is that a significant percent of the population never connects with their accounts,” and "you end up with these sort of stranded, orphan accounts.”

Billionaires may be allowed to donate stock to Trump Accounts

USA Today's Daniel de Visé provides an update on the status of Trump Accounts, a program that is evolving to include more savers and more options to accumulate savings, including charitable stock gifts. De Visé provides the latest program statistics, including the enrollment of about 5 million children, including 1.2 million babies who are eligible for the $1,000 federal seed money. De Visé quotes RCH president and CEO Spencer Williams, whose comments focus on the "invest in America" theme of the program, as well as the eventual transition of a Trump account into "an ordinary IRA" when the accountholder reaches 18 years of age.