Thought Leadership

Bob Johnson’s Vision for Reshaping Retirement Security

In an interview with WayMaker Journal, Retirement Clearinghouse (RCH) and Portability Services Network (PSN) Chairman Robert L. Johnson "explains how retirement saving works, why it matters, what he is doing to improve the system and how you can benefit." In the Q&A, Johnson delivers a primer on retirement savings, America's mobile workforce and the importance of PSN and auto portability in preserving retirement savings. Johnson also offers his views on the Saver's Match, a federal program that he believes "may be the incentive needed to encourage minorities to....start saving to improve their financial outlook in retirement." Johnson closes the interview with an optimistic outlook on the prospects for success in "closing the retirement savings shortfall in our country."

America’s Mobile Workforce Meets Their Saver’s Match

A new survey of American workers who would be eligible to receive a Saver’s Match federal matching contribution confirms the significant public policy benefits that the program could have in leveling the playing field for lower income savers – particularly for Black and Hispanic workers – while also finding that high levels of worker mobility could pose challenges in administering millions of annual matching contribution payments.

4 Key Findings from the New Auto Portability Simulation

Writing in 401k Specialist, RCH's Tom Hawkins summarizes the four key findings from the firm's Auto Portability Simulation (APS), a discrete event simulation that models the impacts of auto portability over a 40-year period, and are detailed in a new white paper, Revisiting the Auto Portability Simulation: The Impact of the Portability Services Network, SECURE 2.0 and Expanded Access. Hawkins contends that the new APS analysis has improved the model’s predictive accuracy by incorporating new parameters that reflect “changing realities” driven by three major developments: 1) the advent of the Portability Services Network, 2) the passage of the SECURE 2.0 Act and 3) ongoing progress in expanding access to workplace retirement savings plans. The paper's key findings highlight the growth of the participant population that will be subject to mandatory distributions, as well as auto portability’s effects on reducing cashout leakage, generating incremental retirement wealth, and delivering benefits to minorities and lower-income workers.

Ask an Adviser: What happens if we learn a missing 401(k) plan participant has died?

RCH EVP & Chief Revenue Officer steps up to the plate for Employee Benefit News' Ask an Adviser series, answering the question "what happens if we learn a missing plan participant has died?" Ringquist proceeds to identify a series of steps that plan sponsors can take in the wake of learning the unfortunate news concerning a plan participant's demise. As a preventative measure, Ringquist advises plan sponsors to consider implementing an ongoing program of portability to consolidate participants' balances, reducing the odds that they'll leave behind multiple, smaller-balance retirement savings accounts that wind up being lost in the retirement system.

Senators Scott, Brown Introduce Bill to Increase Retirement Security

Today, U.S. Senators Tim Scott (R-S.C.) and Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) introduced the Advancing Auto-Portability Act of 2022, a bill that would allow a worker’s 401(k) savings account to be automatically rolled over from a previous employer to a new employer. The legislation would cut red tape to help Americans who change jobs frequently to increase retirement savings.

Long Overdue, Pension Auto Portability Is Coming

Writing in the Pension Research Council's (Wharton School, Univ. of Pennsylvania) RetireSecure Blog, Michael Kreps of the Groom Law Group offers his considered view on auto portability, which Kreps believes "is likely to have an enormous impact on the US retirement system" by reducing cashout leakage and consolidating retirement savings. In the piece, Kreps cites a variety of industry statistics and projections, concluding that auto portability "will undoubtedly preserve many small accounts, making retirement more secure for millions of people."

Improving retirement readiness for underrepresented groups

Alight Solutions has released a new research report, entitled "Improving Retirement Readiness for Underrepresented Groups." The new paper identifies six key actions that plan sponsors can undertake to boost retirement savings for historically under-represented groups. In one of those actions, Alight advises employers that "implementing auto-portability can help reduce the number of automatic cash-outs that occur when people change employers" and that auto portability's impact is "most profound for marginalized groups."

Direct link to report (PDF format)

National Urban League, NAACP Endorse 401k Auto Portability

Robert L. Johnson, Founder and Chairman of The RLJ Companies and majority owner of Retirement Clearinghouse (RCH), has secured endorsements for auto portability from two premier civil rights organizations – the National Urban League, and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) – both with over a century of experience advocating for solutions that address the inequities and economic challenges experienced by Black Americans and by other communities of color. Writing in 401k Specialist, RCH's Renée Wilder Guerin, Executive Vice President, Public Policy, summarizes these major developments.