Thomas Hawkins

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. 

When the Auto Portability Simulation (APS) model was recently unveiled at EBRI’s 78^th Policy Forum, a lot of attention was paid to the “marquee” numbers, and rightly so.  I’m referring here to the $154 billion reduction in cashout leakage, as well as the $115 billion increase in plan-to-plan roll-ins that occur under the adoption of Auto Portability. 

 On May 12th, Retirement Clearinghouse President & CEOJ. Spencer Williams unveiled theAuto Portability Simulation(APS) at theEmployee Benefit Research Institute's 78th Policy Forum. The APS was developed by Retirement Clearinghouse in conjunction with Dr. Ricki Ingalls, Chair of Computer Information Systems at Texas State University, and Principal at Diamond Head Associates, Inc.

In virtually any area of specialty, a unique jargon evolves that’s highly-specific to that field.  To insiders using the lingo every day, it seems familiar and perfectly normal.  To outside observers, it can feel like a foreign language -- with words, terms and acronyms that make no sense.  

As we observe the 46^th annual Earth Day this April 22^nd, we appreciate the awareness that this event has brought to the need to protect our environment, the urgency that it’s instilled in all of us, and the tangible results that have been achieved in so many important areas. Although we have much work to do, we’ve clearly come a long way since the “throwaway” culture that emerged following World War II.

Automatic rollover programs allow plan sponsors to force out of their plan separated participants with balances less than $5,000 into a Safe Harbor IRA.  These programs can be quite effective at helping sponsors resolve many of the problems associated with housing small-balance accounts in-plan, such as: