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Retirement Clearinghouse in the News

Find news articles referencing RCH and our services, including Auto Portability

Aug
14
2018

Advisors, Don’t Let Your Clients Throw Away Their 401(k)s

Advisor News contributor Brian O'Connell urges advisors to "step in and save 401(k) cash out takers from themselves" by emphasizing the downside. To make his point, O'Connell utilizes market research from Retirement Clearinghouse, which reveals that 6 million, or 41% of all 401(k) job-changers will cash out each year. O'Connell also quotes RCH's Tom Hawkins, who states "participants who have cashed out have effectively removed themselves from the defined contribution system, as if they'd never enrolled."

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Aug
10
2018

401(k) or ATM? WSJ Article Examines Cashouts, Features RCH Data

The Wall Street Journal's Anne Tergesen takes a look at the latest research on auto-enrolled participants in 401(k)-style plans, which finds that these workers tend to treat these savings "like automated-teller machines" -- a phenomenon known in the retirement industry as "leakage." To support her point, Tergesen uses data supplied by Retirement Clearinghouse (RCH), indicating that 60% of 401(k) participants with balances below $10,000 will cash out their savings, paying income taxes and a 10% penalty. Tergesen also notes that "policy experts recommend automating the process of transferring money from an old employer's plan to a new employer's plan" -- a process known as auto portability.

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Aug
09
2018

US sends ‘myRA’ accounts to Retirement Clearinghouse

On 8/9/18, the Editorial Staff of the Retirement Income Journal reported that the Treasury Department will transfer remaining, unmoved assets from the myRA program (discontinued in 2017) into Roth IRA accounts at Retirement Clearinghouse (RCH). The article references the notice posted on the myRA.gov website, which provides current myRA accountholders with instructions on how to withdraw or transfer their balances prior to the deadline of August 31, 2018, as well as providing information about going-forward arrangements for account balances that are moved to RCH. Also highlighted are RCH's ongoing efforts to obtain regulatory approval for auto portability, a clearing system that will "automatically transfer 401(k) assets....when a participant changes jobs."

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Aug
08
2018

ASSPA Net Reviews RCH Article on 401(k) Cashouts, Missing Participants

On 8/8/18, ASSPA Net's John Iekel reviews the 7/26/18 article in BenefitsPRO by RCH's Tom Hawkins, which draws a comparison between 401(k) missing participants and cashouts. In making the argument that 401(k) cashouts could be "orders-of-magnitude worse" than missing participants, Iekel summarizes Hawkins' logic, including: 1) missing participants have preserved their savings, 2) participants cashing out are far more numerous than those going missing and 3) almost two-thirds of cashouts are unnecessary. Hawkins' answer to address both problems, says Iekel, is the "introduction of auto-portability."

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Aug
03
2018

NAPA Net Readers Identify RCH as Solution to Missing Participant Problem

In an online poll of readers, NAPA Net's Editor-in-Chief Nevin Adams reports that Retirement Clearinghouse (RCH) was identified by respondents as an effective solution to address plans' missing participant problems. The results, which were published on the NAPA Net website on 8/3/18, showed that nearly a third of plan sponsor clients (32%) identified missing participants as a key issue, and that RCH's services were cited multiple times by respondents as delivering significant value in helping plan sponsors locate missing participants.

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Aug
02
2018

RCH in WISER: Understanding & Solving the Problem of Women's 401(k) Cashout Leakage

The Women's Institute for a Secure Retirement (WISER) features a guest article by RCH's Tom Hawkins, showcasing research presented at a 5/22/18 WISER forum, indicating that women with small 401(k) balances cash out more frequently than their male counterparts. As women’s 401(k) balances grow, they become more likely than men to preserve their retirement savings. These behaviors, along with the results of the Auto Portability Simulation, suggest that a program of retirement savings portability could incubate women’s small 401(k) balances, allowing them to more effectively grow their savings to higher balance levels, where more beneficial behaviors can prevail.

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Jul
26
2018

RCH in BenefitsPRO: 401(k) Truth Bomb: Missing Participants are Bad, 401(k) Cashouts are Worse

In his 7/26/18 article in BenefitsPRO, RCH's Tom Hawkins addresses the dual problems of missing participants and 401(k) cashouts, which both share common causes – a mobile American workforce and a lack of retirement savings portability. While missing participants are bad and have been receiving a great deal of attention, the issue of 401(k) cashouts is actually much worse, as annual cashouts outpace new missing participant accounts by a factor of almost 25-to-1. Fortunately, retirement savings portability, in the form of auto portability, delivers a “two-fer” by providing a strategic solution to both.

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Jul
19
2018

401k Specialist Features Recent Retirement Savings Portability Developments

401k Specialist features a July 2018 article by RCH's Tom Hawkins, addressing recent public policy activities on the issue of retirement savings portability. In his article, Hawkins examines three developments, all taking place in late June, and looks ahead to the anticipated delivery of an Advisory Opinion by the Department of Labor on auto portability.

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