As much as $2 trillion could be retained in the U.S. retirement systems if Auto Portability were fully implemented, according to new research by the Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI). The research establishes Auto Portability as a leading retirement industry public policy initiative, placing it ahead of auto IRA initiatives and just behind universal DC coverage in terms of impact on total retirement savings shortfall.
Jack VanDerhei, Research Director at EBRI, presented these findings at “Retirement Plan Portability & Public Policy: Unlocking the Potential in Portability,” a forum hosted by the Financial Services Roundtable (FSR) on March 30, 2017 in Washington, D.C. Former Senator Kent Conrad, Co-Chair of the Bipartisan Policy Center’s Commission on Retirement Security and Personal Savings, Stephen Saxon, Principal and Chairman of Groom Law Group, and Spencer Williams, President & CEO of Retirement Clearinghouse, also presented at the FSR event. The full presentation deck is available for download, and videos of each presentation can be found here.
Auto Portability - the routine, automated movement of a participant’s retirement savings from a former employer’s plan to that employee’s current employer-sponsored plan as they change jobs – is emerging as a best practice to plug cash out leakage and address the growing small account problem among DC plans.