Thomas Hawkins

The recent U.S. Presidential election brought renewed focus upon large infrastructure projects: massive, capital-intensive efforts required to rebuild America’s roads, bridges, railways and airports. Desperately needed, these projects could cost taxpayers hundreds of billions, perhaps even trillions of dollars.

This video presentation is designed to give the viewer a basic understanding of the problem of uncashed 401(k) distribution checks.

This video presentation is designed to provide qualified retirement plan sponsors with an overview of key actions that they can take in order to help reduce 401(k) plan leakage.

Why is 401(k) Plan Leakage a Problem?

When it comes to the 401(k) plan feature known as automatic enrollment, most industry observers seem to agree that it’s a good thing. In a world of scarce resources, you can never have too much of a good thing, right?

What is 401(k) leakage, and why should I care? This video presentation is designed to provide qualified retirement plan sponsors with an understanding of the facts and popular misconceptions surrounding the topic of 401(k) plan leakage.

Why should plans care about roll-in contributions? Establishing a program that encourages participant rollover contributions (or “roll-ins”) is one of the most beneficial programs that a plan can implement.

What is a Missing Participant? 

With the advent of the Department of Labor's Fiduciary Rule, more employers are looking to promote lifetime plan participation and encourage participants to consolidate retirement assets in their current, active 401(k) plan. The plan feature to enable consolidation in the active 401(k) plan is the roll-in contribution. Retirement Clearinghouse is the recognized thought leader in roll-in facilitation.  We have prepared this video - The ABCs of Roll-Ins -- as a resource for plan sponsors who are considering a formal roll-in program, as well as offering a roll-in facilitation service for their plan participants. 

In the first half of 2016, not only has the retirement industry awakened to the problem of cashout leakage, but it’s begun to acknowledge its root cause: a lack of retirement savings portability. At the same time, Auto Portability has emerged as the only viable solution to cashout leakage, delivering portability for the small-balance (less than $5,000) job-changer, automatically moving their balances forward when they change jobs and enroll in a new plan.

 On June 8^th, 2016 Retirement Clearinghouse (RCH) and the Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI) teamed up to present consolidated testimony to the ERISA Advisory Council on Auto Portability,  the automation of plan-to-plan transfers for small accounts, when participants change jobs.