News

Financial literacy can close the minority wealth gap for retirement savings

In observance of Financial Literacy Month, RCH and PSN President & CEO Spencer Williams offers Employee Benefit News readers his perspective on how “members of the retirement services industry have an opportunity to contemplate how they can help empower more people to achieve a financially secure retirement. ” Williams notes that plan sponsors and recordkeepers have a vital role in preventing premature 401(k) cashouts via education about their detrimental effects as well as through auto portability, which will allow them “to transport and consolidate their accounts instead.”

Secure 2.0 Creates an Important Opportunity to Improve Retirement Savings Portability

Writing for Georgetown University's Center for Retirement Initiatives (CRI), retirement and investment expert Catherine Reilly assesses the impact of recent policy reforms, including the passage of the SECURE 2.0 Act in December 2022, which "provide an opportunity to significantly improve retirement savings portability to the benefit of participants, employers, and retirement plan providers." Reilly notes the pitfalls facing retirement savers trying to build wealth, including the difficulties in consolidating multiple retirement savings accounts, which increases the prevalence of cashing out. Reilly notes the formation of the industry-led Portability Services Network, along with provisions of SECURE 2.0 that provide a safe harbor for adopting auto portability, and concludes with a call-to-action, writing: "Now is the time for the U.S. to get it done. Facilitating portability and account consolidation are two of the most important ways to boost retirement savings and enhance the effectiveness of current and future policy reforms."

Corporate Roundup: TIAA and RCH Consortium, Upwise and Savi Collaboration

Writing in the weekly Corporate Roundup feature for 401k Specialist, Amanda Umpierrez recaps the 4/4/23 announcement from TIAA that it is joining the Portability Services Network (PSN), an industry-led consortium of recordkeepers formed to accelerate the adoption of auto portability. Umpierrez includes quotes from Thasunda Brown Duckett, president & CEO of TIAA, as well as RLJ Companies, PSN and RCH Chairman Robert L. Johnson.

30th Anniversary: Plan Access

In PLANSPONSOR's March-April online magazine, reporter Debbie Carlson chronicles the key regulatory developments that have provided employees with greater workplace retirement savings plan access. Carlson devotes a section to auto portability, providing readers with a timeline of key events dating back to 2001, when EGTRRA spawned automatic rollovers, as well as more contemporary developments surrounding the formation of the Portability Services Network (PSN). Carlson turns to RCH executives Spencer Williams and Neal Ringquist, who supply projections for the expansion of PSN's network. Also supporting auto portability's efficacy in stemming cashout leakage is Morningstar's Jack VanDerhei, a respected retirement researcher and formerly of EBRI.

Also featured in the PLANSPONSOR March-April Magazine Edition

Fidelity analysis finds a ‘danger zone’ for employees cashing out 401(k)s

InsuranceNewsNet's Ayo Mseka recaps a recent EBRI webinar, where Mike Shamrell, V.P. of Fidelity’s workplace investing thought leadership, presented cashout leakage data garnered from Fidelity’s defined contribution plans. Shamrell's data included extensive breakdowns of cashout leakage data, including an analysis by generational cohort, where the 'danger zone' was identified as participants between the ages of 30 and 39. According to Mseka, Shamrell cited auto portability as one of several solutions to leakage, which could also serve to "reduce the costs and burden of terminated participants."

Call it the Great Cash Out

Business Insider's Jason Lalljee interviews Yanwen Wang, professor at University of British Columbia, and co-author of a cashout leakage study recently featured in the Harvard Business Review. The study, writes Lalljee: "found nearly half of 162,360 employees who left their jobs between 2014 and 2016 at 28 US companies cashed out of workplace retirement plans like 401(k)s that incentivize saving over time." Lalljee cites Wang as advocating for the adoption of auto portability "in which 401(k)s are automatically moved over to a new employer."

TIAA Joins Auto-Portability Network

Ignites' Alfred Wilkinson reports on the 4/4/23 announcement from TIAA that they have joined the Portability Services Network (PSN) -- an industry-led utility dedicated to accelerating the adoption of auto portability. TIAA is the 5th large recordkeeper to announce their status, joining Alight, Empower, Fidelity and Vanguard. Wilkinson quotes TIAA president and CEO Thasunda Brown Duckett, while noting that PSN "now represents approximately 62.6 million workers across more than 139,000 employer-sponsored retirement plans."

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TIAA Joins Major Recordkeepers in Portability Services Network

PLANSPONSOR's Noah Zuss examines the 4/4/23 announcement from TIAA that it is joining the Portability Services Network (PSN), which Zuss characterizes as a "growing movement started by Retirement Clearinghouse LLC, with Alight Solutions, Empower and Fidelity already on board." Zuss quotes TIAA's president and CEO Thasunda Brown Duckett, while providing readers with a "brief history" of the auto portability initiative.