2025: A Breakthrough Year for Portability

During 2025, important developments emerged related to the topic of retirement savings portability, including auto portability. Taken together, they represent a breakthrough year for portability, including:

• Auto portability’s surging adoption
• Powerful, on-the-record support for auto portability from top DC recordkeepers
• A reframing by industry thought leaders of the “forgotten” 401(k) accounts issue, understood through the lens of retirement savings portability
• Widespread, favorable coverage by influential, independent media

Let’s examine each of these developments and understand how retirement savings portability is being positioned to increase retirement security in 2026 and beyond.

#1: Surging Auto Portability Adoption

Auto portability, the emerging plan feature delivered via the Portability Services Network (PSN), that automatically moves forward small balances (less than $7,000) of job-changing participants, experienced surging adoption by plan sponsors, as reflected by published adoption statistics.

2025 commenced with 15,000 plans having made the decision to adopt auto portability, as announced in a December 2024 PSN press release. As of 9/30, there were 20,997 plans adopting – an increase of 40% over the first three quarters of 2025.

Drilling down to individual recordkeepers, the numbers were even more impressive:

• In September, Empower’s Dave Gray, EVP of the firm's Enterprise Solutions group, stated that "over 11,000 of the plans we work with have signed up" for auto portability.
• In November, Fidelity created headlines when they announced – as part of their Q3 2025 retirement reporting – that 9,200 Fidelity plans had adopted auto portability, representing over one-third of the 26,500 Fidelity’s corporate defined contribution plans.

#2: Top DC Recordkeepers Go On-the-Record with Support for Auto Portability

Three of the nation’s top defined contribution recordkeepers – Fidelity, Empower and Vanguard, all went on the record with their strong support of auto portability:

• On 6/13/25, Financial Advisor Magazine’s Russ Alan Prince interviewed Vanguard's Steve Holman, principal and head of Vanguard’s Workplace Solutions Distribution Enablement division, and who also serves on the board of directors for PSN. Holman described how Vanguard came to embrace auto portability, how the firm has made significant progress with plan sponsor adoption, and why Holman believes adoption is in the best interests of plan sponsors and participants.
• On 9/4/25, Prince followed up by interviewing Empower's Dave Gray, a founding member of the board of directors for PSN and a strong advocate for auto portability. In addition to offering Empower’s 11,000 plan adoption figure noted above, Gray cited growing interest from large sponsors, stating that "as more time goes by….we are seeing more and more large plan sponsors become comfortable enough as fiduciaries to add the auto portability service to their plans."
• On 9/12/25, Fidelity showcased auto portability in their September video edition of the Fidelity Regulatory Roundup, with show host Tre Hearn and guest Katie Hutchinson, VP, Defined Contribution Product Platforms. The podcast covered a lot of ground and brought viewers up-to-speed on why Fidelity is so supportive of auto portability.

#3: Reframing the “Forgotten Accounts” Issue Through the Lens of Portability

In late September, a recurring analysis was released asserting there are 31.9 million “forgotten” 401(k) accounts housing $2 trillion, a finding which was emphatically debunked by several retirement industry thought leaders, including Nevin Adams. Other voices then weighed in, identifying a lack of portability as the real culprit, and calling for expanded application of auto portability to extend to all balances.

Read more about the issue here.

#4: Widespread, Favorable Media Coverage of Auto Portability and the Portability Services Network

Meanwhile, widespread, independent and favorable media coverage for auto portability, PSN and participating DC recordkeepers became commonplace, including mainstream outlets such as the Wall Street Journal, USA Today and Forbes, as well as highly-respected retirement industry information sources such as Pensions & Investments, American Retirement Association affiliates (NAPA Net, PSCA and ASPPA Net), InvestmentNews, 401k Specialist, PLANSPONSOR, Employee Benefit News and too many others to list here.

For a complete list of auto portability-related media coverage, visit the Auto Portability Media Coverage page, RCH1.com News, or PSN1.com News.

What’s Ahead for 2026?

I don’t have a crystal ball, but it’s easy to spot the clear pattern emerging – where retirement savings portability in general, and specifically – auto portability, will figure prominently in the drive for increased retirement security in 2026 and beyond.

Whatever the future may hold, I hope that every reader has a joyous holiday season and enjoys a safe and prosperous New Year!