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RCH Thought Leadership
Read about RCH's thought leadership positions, including Auto Portability.
Building Out the Clearinghouse Our Retirement System Demands
On March 5, 2025, Retirement Clearinghouse (RCH) released a landmark whitepaper – Building Out Clearinghouse Services for the U.S. Retirement System: A Blueprint for a Digital Infrastructure. In this article, RCH's Tom Hawkins, a co-author of the paper, summarizes the high-level, compelling case for expanding the set of clearinghouse services beyond auto portability, and explains why this initiative is absolutely required in order to "create a retirement ecosystem that does what it should have done all along: protect workers’ savings as they move through their careers, not lose them along the way."
RCH Proposes ‘Digital Clearinghouse’ to Modernize Retirement Infrastructure
Writing in NAPA Net, Ted Godbout addresses the newly-released whitepaper from Retirement Clearinghouse (Building Out Clearinghouse Services for the U.S. Retirement System: A Blueprint for a Digital Infrastructure), which "details how a 'neutral, digital clearinghouse' can reduce retirement plan cash‑outs and the number of dormant accounts, all while enabling seamless interoperability across recordkeepers, custodians, and government programs." Godbout writes "[t]he clearinghouse concept would be modeled after the firm’s Auto Portability Network, but expanded to include additional functionality, such as a Saver’s Match Network, Auto Locate Network, and Digital Rollover Network."
MEDIA ALERT: Whitepaper Presents Comprehensive Framework for Modernizing America’s Fragmented Retirement Ecosystem
MARCH 5, 2026 – Retirement Clearinghouse (RCH) today announced the release of a landmark whitepaper, Building Out Clearinghouse Services for the U.S. Retirement System: A Blueprint for a Digital Infrastructure. Authored by Spencer Williams, Thomas Hawkins, and Dr. Ricki Ingalls, the paper presents the most comprehensive framework to date for modernizing America’s fragmented retirement ecosystem.
Commentary: Once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to close America’s wealth gap
Retirement Clearinghouse and Portability Services Network Chairman Robert L. Johnson, writing in Pensions & Investments, makes a compelling case for three public policy initiatives -- Auto Portability, the Saver’s Match and Trump Accounts -- that represent a chance "to reshape the trajectory of retirement savings -- and finally confront America’s stubborn wealth gap." Johnson recounts his personal journey, a timeframe which coincides with some key milestones, including the inception of America's 401(k) system, and a widening of the wealth gap. Johnson closes with a call to action, urging "public and and private sectors to seize this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to give America’s chronically under-served and under-saved workers generational wealth."
How 401(k) Auto Portability Boosts Women's Retirement Savings
Writing in Kiplinger, RCH and PSN President Spencer Williams offers readers his views on the potential benefits of auto portability for women. While women face significant disparities in earnings, Williams notes that those disparities also drive a "lower amount of retirement benefits women earn compared to men" and cites research suggesting that "over the course of a generation, 116 million women will cash out nearly $290 billion in retirement savings." Conversely, if auto portability were widely adopted, Williams writes that "111 million women would preserve $753 billion (measured in today’s dollars) in our nation’s retirement system."
After 50 years of milestones, the retirement industry is bracing for yet more innovation
Writing in BenefitsPRO on the occasion of National 401(k) Day, Retirement Clearinghouse (RCH) and Portability Services Network (PSN) President & CEO Spencer Williams takes the long view -- looking back at the 50 years that have elapsed since the passage of ERISA in 1974. As Williams writes, "[m]uch has been accomplished over the previous 50 years, and more innovation is on the horizon" while proceeding to describe the "long and winding road" of innovations that have led to present day. The accumulation of innovative features, asserts Williams, has positioned the industry for the adoption of auto portability, where "people really can take their benefits with them from job to job, and keep their retirement savings vested."
Two Saver’s Match Resources Now Available
Retirement Clearinghouse (RCH) has launched two new Saver’s Match resources, which offer plan sponsors, plan providers and participants with consolidated information about the Saver’s Match program, as well as a new saver-focused tool – the Saver’s Match Estimator – which will calculate an estimated matching contribution under the program. RCH encourages everyone to use the new tools, and to share them within their network.
Safe-Harbor IRAs Don’t Offer a Long-Term Saving Solution for Plan Participants
Writing in the RCH Consolidation Corner blog, RCH and PSN President & CEO Spencer Williams reflects on the 20-year history of safe harbor IRAs, which were intended to be "a temporary solution to the problem of too many small, stranded accounts in defined contribution plans." Williams provides readers with examples of the dysfunction that has occurred when safe harbor IRAs have failed to act as long-term repositories of savings, or worse, when participants cash out completely. With the advent of auto portability, Williams maintains that the new auto feature will "allow participants to maximize the time retirement savings are invested in their plan accounts—and minimize the time those balances are languishing in underperforming safe-harbor IRAs along the journey to retirement."
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