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Thought Leadership

Retirement Clearinghouse (RCH) is an innovator in the retirement services industry, developing and introducing industry best practices that are moving retirement forward by delivering retirement portability for millions of job-changing Americans. RCH is proud to showcase our thought leadership, as well as other public policy makers and industry leaders whose positions are consistent with our own views and practices.

Nov
19
2018

The Hill: Labor Department rightly trying to plug pension portability leaks

In his 11/19/18 opinion piece in The Hill, former U.S Treasury official and senior fellow in economic studies at The Brookings Institution Mark Iwry writes about his personal, 22-years long advocacy for 401(k) portability, dating back to the Clinton administration. Not much had changed in that time, says Iwry, until last week's guidance by the Department of Labor (DOL) on auto portability, led by the efforts of RCH executives Spencer Williams and Tom Johnson. With the way cleared by the DOL, Iwry notes that auto portability's success will now depend on the "willingness of recordkeepers...to cooperate so participants can enjoy expanded portability."

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Sep
27
2018

Pairing 401(k) Savings Preservation and Expanded Access for America’s Minorities

In this article, RCH's Spencer Williams and Tom Hawkins address an important retirement public policy question: How would a pairing of auto portability with open multiple employer plans (or “open MEPs”) impact the retirement savings of America’s minorities, and particularly, African-Americans?

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Aug
16
2018

A Tale of Two 401(k) Balance Segments

RCH's Tom Hawkins reveals new research that predicts 401(k) participant outcomes following separation for two balance segments – those above & below $15,000. Using logic developed in the Auto Portability Simulation to track & tally participant outcomes 8 years following separation, the results reveal a startling contrast between the two segments – with participants in the over-$15,000 segment experiencing far-superior outcomes to those in the under-$15,000 segment. To address the disparities, Hawkins advocates for a new “automatic” in the form of auto portability.

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Jul
25
2018

401(k) Truth Bomb: Missing Participants are Bad, 401(k) Cashouts Are Worse

It may surprise many to learn that there’s another problem that’s orders-of-magnitude worse, which silently devastates millions of Americans’ prospects for a timely or comfortable retirement every year. I’m referring to 401(k) cashouts, and it’s time we took serious action to address them head-on.

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Jun
07
2018

CRR Offers Retirement Policy Suggestions to the DOL

PLANSPONSOR’s Rebecca Moore examines the Center for Retirement Research’s (CRR) report “An Analysis of Retirement Models to Improve Portability and Coverage,” presented to the Department of Labor in February 2018. One of the report’s key recommendations includes the establishment of a clearinghouse to automatically move small balances forward, a framework now widely-known as auto portability.

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Mar
13
2018

PRESS RELEASE - First-of-its-Kind Survey Sheds New Light on Missing Participant Problem

Boston Research Technologies and Retirement Clearinghouse have issued a joint press release announcing the key findings from a first-of-its-kind survey examining the retirement industry’s missing participant problem. The survey is the first to examine the problem from the perspective of the participant, offering unique insights into its various dimensions.

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Feb
13
2018

Why We Urgently Need A ‘Sustainable’ 401k Defined Contribution System

In his latest article in 401k Specialist, RCH's Tom Hawkins makes the case for creating a 'sustainable' 401(k) defined contribution system. According to Hawkins, the current 401(k) system is unsustainable due to 1) rampant cashout leakage, 2) an explosion of small-balance accounts and 3) a surge in missing participants. Auto portability, says Hawkins, can address these problems and bring sustainability to our defined contribution system.

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Jan
31
2018

RCH in BenefitsPRO: Why CSIRTs are crucial to cybersecurity in the financial industry

In his latest article in BenefitsPRO, RCH Chief Information Officer Mike Goode addresses the critical importance of the Computer Security Incident Response Team, or CSIRT, and advocates for increases coordination of CSIRT teams in the retirement industry.

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