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The problem of missing participants in employer-sponsored retirement plans is one of the most important, yet perplexing issues facing plan sponsors, and for good reason.

Ensuring that participants (or their beneficiaries) receive their benefits is the essence of an employer’s fiduciary responsibility – and missing or unresponsive participants who become separated from those benefits can generate significant risks for plan fiduciaries.

After the year we’ve had, it’s no wonder there is so much more concern about financial wellness. But while plan sponsors are well-intentioned in their efforts to help participants increase their retirement savings and other financial outcomes, the latter haven’t noticed.

On 1/26/21, Retirement Clearinghouse (RCH) released a study that advances the art and science of locating missing 401(k) plan participants. The study – Improving the Effectiveness of Electronic Missing Participant Searches – comes on the heels of U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) guidance on the topic and is highly-useful for plan sponsors who utilize electronic searches, or “e-Searches” as they are referenced in the study.

You don’t need me to remind you that 2020 has been an extraordinary year that many of us would like to forget. The New Year we have been looking forward to for some time is now here.

In January, Alight Solutions released 2020 Hot Topics in Retirement & Financial Wellbeing, a survey of 130 plan sponsors employing 5.5 million workers and highlighting key trends among plan sponsors, including expanding financial wellbeing programs, increasing efforts to help participants bridge the gap between working and retiring, and strengthening programs to locate missing participants.

401(k) plan sponsors know all too well that sunlight – coming in the form of transparent fees and disclosures – is vital to fulfilling their fiduciary duty to act in the best interest of their participants.

No, this article isn’t about the Presidential election. But this year’s election, which took place in the middle of a global pandemic, reminds us that some things are in our control, and some things aren’t. 

On Wednesday, 11/4/20 the Broadcast Retirement Network’s Jeff Snyder interviewed Retirement Clearinghouse (RCH) President & CEO Spencer Williams and Alight Solutions’ Vice President & Head of Research Rob Austin to address the 401(k) system’s small account problem – where high levels of cashout leakage in small balance segments perennially robs millions of participants of a timely or comfortable retirement.

In the 1960’s, counter-culture guru Timothy Leary urged a generation to “turn on, tune in and drop out.” It’s probably a good thing that I didn’t take his advice….at least not the “drop out” part! 
 

Based on solid research, we’ve long known that typical automatic rollover IRAs result in high levels of cashout leakage. We’ve also suspected that they’ve contributed to an explosion of small-balance IRAs.