Since late 2023, when auto portability – as delivered via the Portability Services Network (PSN) – became operational, the new plan feature has been steadily working its way from an innovative concept into a core best practice for addressing the chronic problem of retirement plan cashout leakage.

April 22 marks the 56th Earth Day, a time to reflect on our relationship with the environment and the progress made in reducing waste through recycling. While society has made strides in curbing physical waste, a similar problem persists in the U.S. retirement system: the inefficient handling of 401(k) accounts when employees change jobs.

As the Saver’s Match Program must soon transition from legislative concept to operational reality, one question looms larger than any other:

​​How will the Program operate at scale, in the real world, across tens of millions of people annually, thousands of institutions, and billions of federal dollars?

On March 31, 2026 I had the opportunity to attend the SPARK Champions for Financial Literacy event in Washington, DC, kicking off Financial Literacy Month, which takes place in April.

On March 5, 2025, Retirement Clearinghouse (RCH) released a landmark whitepaper – Building Out Clearinghouse Services for the U.S. Retirement System: A Blueprint for a Digital Infrastructure.

As a co-author of the paper who has also spent a great deal of time chronicling the real‑world retirement savings challenges faced by America’s mobile workforce, I believe that this paper arrives not a moment too soon.

New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day remind us that, no matter what happens in our lives, or how much we might want to slow down, the world continues to turn. No, this column is not a plug for the defunct soap opera As The World Turns. It is instead a reminder that, with each passing year, life not only goes on, but the Americans born today will be part of future generations that will grow up with more technological advancements than those who came before them.

October has been a phenomenal month for auto portability, with plan sponsor adoption surging and industry thought leaders increasingly recognizing the promise of auto portability in finally solving longstanding 401(k) system portability issues.

In October, retirement industry media outlets urgently reported on updated research estimating that there are 31.9 million “forgotten” 401(k) accounts, totaling about $2.1 trillion in assets.

Several factors, including the gender pay gap, the education and economic gaps in communities of color, and the lack of plan-to-plan retirement savings portability for job-changers, have led to a serious retirement savings deficit in the U.S.

For almost two decades, industry analysts, policymakers, and retirement advocates have warned about the corrosive effects of 401(k) cashout leakage. Every year, billions of dollars that should remain invested for retirement instead vanish from the system when participants change jobs.