Consolidation Corner
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Blog
- 401k Cash Outs
- 401k Consolidation
- 401k Plan Termination
- America's Mobile Workforce
- Assisted Roll-in
- Auto Enrollment
- Auto Portability
- Auto Portability Simulation
- Automatic Roll-In
- Automatic Rollover
- Automatic Rollovers
- Boston Research Technologies
- CARES act
- Common Mistakes
- DIY Roll-In
- DOL Advisory Opinion
- EBRI
- Employee Benefit News
- ERISA Advisory Council
- Financial Services Roundtable
- Financial Wellness
- How-To
- In-Plan Consolidation
- Leakage
- Lifetime Plan Participation
- Lost Participants
- Managed Portability
- Mandatory Distributions
- MarketWatch
- Missing Participant IRA
- Missing Participants
- National Retirement Savings Cash Out Clock
- Participant Transition Management
- PLANSPONSOR
- Portability Services Network
- PSCA
- Public Policy
- RCH Services
- Retirement Income
- Retirement Plan Portability
- retirement research
- Retirement Savings Consolidation
- Retirement Savings Portability
- Roll-In
- Safe Harbor IRA
- Saver's Match
- Security
- Small Accounts
- Stale Dated Checks
- Synthetic Tenure
- Uncashed Check Services
- Uncashed Distribution Checks
- Video
- Webcast
- What is a Missing Participant?
Automatic Rollovers
Consolidation Corner Blog
Consolidation Corner is the Retirement Clearinghouse (RCH) blog, and features the latest articles and bylines from our executives, addressing important retirement savings portability topics.
Beyond Missing: Targeting Unresponsive Participants in Retirement Plans
In the retirement plan industry, we frequently discuss the challenges posed by missing participants – those former employees with outdated contact information. However, a related phenomenon often receives less attention: unresponsive participants.
On Earth Day, Consider Auto Portability to ‘Recycle’ 401(k) Savings
April 22 marks the 55th 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.
Three Steps to Getting Off the Uncashed Distribution Check Treadmill
If you’re a defined contribution plan sponsor struggling with uncashed distribution checks, it can feel you’re on a never-ending treadmill.
Here’s to the Future “Graduates” of Auto Portability
Auto portability, delivered via the Portability Services Network (PSN), is revolutionizing retirement savings preservation by addressing the critical challenges of cashout leakage and account fragmentation.
The Compelling Case for Women and Auto Portability
Auto portability will deliver broad-based benefits to America’s workforce, but research has shown that the new feature disproportionately benefits under-saved and underserved demographic segments, including minorities, women, lower-income and younger workers.
Dressing Up Traditional Automatic Rollovers
Recently, we’ve read – mainly via paid promotions – about the existence of so-called “world-class” automatic rollover IRA services, which seem to be little more than old-school, traditional automatic rollover IRAs laying claim to unspecified, premium features.
Safe-Harbor IRAs Don’t Offer a Long-Term Saving Solution for Plan Participants
During the past several years, much progress has been made to simplify the process of enabling defined contribution plan participants to transfer their savings from one plan to another when they change jobs. These strides have been made thanks to an ongoing partnership between the private and public sectors, and between Democrats and Republicans in Congress.
In November 2023, we saw the launch of the Portability Services Network, with our nation’s leading retirement plan record-keepers—Alight Solutions, Empower, Fidelity Investments, Principal, TIAA, and Vanguard—on board as founding members. The Portability Services Network makes the digital auto portability solution a reality for helping Americans keep their retirement savings invested in the system and working for them.
A More-Enlightened Approach to Uncashed Distribution Checks
No retirement plan sponsor likes the idea of dealing with uncashed distribution checks, nor do they wish to draw unwanted regulatory attention or to become embroiled in costly litigation because of their uncashed check policies.
Unfortunately, many plan sponsors place themselves in precisely that spot, becoming unnecessarily over-burdened with unresolved uncashed checks, while inviting unwanted regulatory scrutiny and/or legal challenges by embracing flawed uncashed check policies.
A more-enlightened approach to managing the problem of uncashed checks seeks to minimize their numbers, while simultaneously steering clear of the “red flags” that could land them in hot water.
Focus Shifts to Plan Sponsors as Portability Network Set to Go Live
When the Portability Services Network (PSN) goes live at the beginning of the fourth quarter of 2023, the focus of attention for auto portability will shift from the industry-led network of service providers to the leading plan sponsors who will begin adopting the new plan feature.
As PSN operations commence, and the automated plan-to-plan consolidation of small balances begins, a familiar industry adoption pattern will emerge – where innovators within the plan sponsor community lead the charge and are quickly followed by others.
The Future is Brighter for Small-Balance Retirement Accounts
While small-balance retirement savings accounts have fared poorly in the past, their future has never looked brighter. Real progress is being made in reducing their numbers while simultaneously preserving and consolidating their savings, vs. previous “solutions” that encouraged them to cash out or exiled them to dead-end safe harbor IRAs.
-
Blog
- 401k Cash Outs
- 401k Consolidation
- 401k Plan Termination
- America's Mobile Workforce
- Assisted Roll-in
- Auto Enrollment
- Auto Portability
- Auto Portability Simulation
- Automatic Roll-In
- Automatic Rollover
- Automatic Rollovers
- Boston Research Technologies
- CARES act
- Common Mistakes
- DIY Roll-In
- DOL Advisory Opinion
- EBRI
- Employee Benefit News
- ERISA Advisory Council
- Financial Services Roundtable
- Financial Wellness
- How-To
- In-Plan Consolidation
- Leakage
- Lifetime Plan Participation
- Lost Participants
- Managed Portability
- Mandatory Distributions
- MarketWatch
- Missing Participant IRA
- Missing Participants
- National Retirement Savings Cash Out Clock
- Participant Transition Management
- PLANSPONSOR
- Portability Services Network
- PSCA
- Public Policy
- RCH Services
- Retirement Income
- Retirement Plan Portability
- retirement research
- Retirement Savings Consolidation
- Retirement Savings Portability
- Roll-In
- Safe Harbor IRA
- Saver's Match
- Security
- Small Accounts
- Stale Dated Checks
- Synthetic Tenure
- Uncashed Check Services
- Uncashed Distribution Checks
- Video
- Webcast
- What is a Missing Participant?