News

Empower joins Fidelity, Vanguard and Alight in Portability Consortium

PLANSPONSOR's Alex Ortani reports on the news that Empower Retirement is the latest recordkeeper to sign on with the Portability Services Network (PSN), an industry-led utility focused on accelerating the nationwide adoption of auto portability. Ortani quotes Empower President & CEO Edmund F. Murphy III from the Monday, 2/13 announcement as well as RCH and PSN President & CEO Spencer Williams, who offers his views on the most recent developments.

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Five Questions With: Rita Assaf

Rita Assaf serves as vice president of retirement and college products for Fidelity Investments, and the Providence Business Journal's Nancy Levin posed five questions to Assaf about recent Fidelity research on retirement savings attitudes and trends among young investors, as well as the impact of the SECURE 2.0 Act. In her responses, Assaf noted that, "as a retirement leader, Fidelity believes auto portability is a critical component to help underserved and under-saved employees achieve financial wellness and longer-term retirement security."

Retirement Savings Update: There’s a New, Easier Option To Move 401(k)s When You Change Jobs

Writing in GOBankingRates and syndicated in other media outlets, reporter Selena Fragassi captures the essential points in a 2/10 New York Times article by Ann Carrns, which highlighted the new, industry-led Portability Services Network (PSN) and its focus on accelerating the nationwide adoption of auto portability. Fraggasi's piece characterizes PSN as a "one-stop portal" for moving small-balance retirement savings forward.

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A New Option for Moving Retirement Savings When Switching Jobs

New York Times 'Your Money' columnist Ann Carrns writes that "[m]oving retirement savings when switching jobs is about to get easier for millions of workers with small balances" -- identifying the driving force as the formation of the new Portability Services Network, launched in October 2022 by "three big 401(k) administrators" in conjunction with Retirement Clearinghouse (RCH). Taking a Q&A approach, Carrns turns to Alight Solutions' Greg Long, Fidelity's Kevin Barry and Vanguard's Steve Holman, as well as RCH & PSN Founder, President & CEO Spencer Williams.

SECURE 2.0 Law Aims to Reconnect You With Your Long-Lost 401(k)

Bloomberg Law reporter Austin Ramsey examines provisions of SECURE 2.0 legislation that helps "reunite millions of Americans with retirement accounts they lost by switching jobs or leaving the workforce." Focusing on auto portability and the retirement savings lost & found registry, Ramsey turns to industry experts, including RCH and PSN President & CEO Spencer Williams, and Fidelity's Sterling Ingui. Williams cites the complementary aspects of these provisions, stating: “Without auto-portability and these other measures, the expanding access provisions of SECURE 2.0 will be sub-optimal. They wouldn't work." Ingui adds that "provisions for auto-portability...reinforce the work and the mission that brought us together to help the minorities, the women, the low-income earners, and young workers" who frequently change jobs and cash out their retirement savings.

Dialing Up the Intensity of Missing Participant Searches

Writing in 401k Specialist, RCH's Tom Hawkins helps plan sponsors understand how and when they should increase the intensity of their missing participant searches. When it comes to locating missing retirement plan participants, Hawkins notes that “there’s no substitute for an effective electronic, or ‘e-search.’ However, retirement plan sponsors will inevitably encounter scenarios where periodic e-searches alone will not suffice.” Hawkins provides plan sponsors with six actionable steps to increase search intensity and offers tips on how to minimize the cost & effort associated with missing participants.

SECURE 2.0 to expand auto enrollment

Courtney Degen, P&I Washington reporter, examines SECURE 2.0 provisions that expand the use of automatic enrollment for all newly-formed plans, starting in 2025. Degen turns to several industry observers, including David Stinnett, head of strategic retirement consulting at Vanguard Group, who states that the provision is "a very good signal from policymakers that this is the best practice that works." EBRI's Craig Copeland links the auto enrollment feature's success to auto portability and emergency savings accounts, noting that these provisions "work together with auto enrollment to alleviate potential issues," and that "you really need to have those other provisions to go with (auto enrollment) for it to be most effectively increasing retirement security."

SECURE 2.0 enshrines auto portability into law

P&I Washington reporter Brian Croce examines specific provisions of recent SECURE 2.0 legislation "codifying" auto portability and helping to create a highly-favorable environment for adoption of the new plan feature. Croce turns to industry experts, including RCH EVP Neal Ringquist and Fidelity's Sterling Ingui, head of next generation products, workplace investing. Ringquist states that the legislation "removed some potential uncertainty some of those record keepers and plans had regarding the permanence of auto portability" while Ingui adds that the provisions "will help address the long-standing problem of plan leakage in the industry."