On May 16th, Robert L. (Bob) Johnson, Chairman of The RLJ Companies, Retirement Clearinghouse (RCH) and the Portability Services Network (PSN), delivered the keynote address to the 2024 EBRI Spring Policy Forum, co-hosted by the American Benefits Council.  

In Johnson’s address, entitled “Helping to narrow the nation’s lingering racial wealth gap” – the legendary Black American entrepreneur gave Forum attendees insight into the businessman’s long, purpose-driven journey to create entrepreneurial solutions to social problems. Johnson’s achievements began taking shape in the early 1980’s with his creation of Black Entertainment Television (BET) and have culminated in his current efforts in the retirement sector, where he’s become laser-focused on leveraging public/private sector solutions that narrow the wealth gap for minorities and women.

On April 22, we will celebrate the 54^th annual Earth Day, which gives us the opportunity to celebrate our planet’s natural surroundings and contemplate how we can help preserve them. The advent, and ongoing expansion of recycling programs has enabled our society to reduce our waste—and although there is still quite a long way to go, we have evolved significantly from the post-World War II throwaway culture.

On the last day of 2023, a key provision of the SECURE 2.0 Act—increasing the limit on small 401(k) accounts subject to automatic rollovers into safe-harbor IRAs from $5,000 to $7,000—went into effect.

Anyone of sufficient age who exercises regularly knows that gains become harder as you grow older. While improvements are possible, increased effort doesn’t always work. Instead, older fitness aficionados dial in the quality and efficiency of their workouts to experience continued gains.

An interesting and valuable finding lies buried within EBRI’s 2022 Retirement Confidence Survey (RCS), but you won’t find it referenced in the organization’s initial report, officially released to the public on Thursday, April 28^th.

In an excerpt of a report available to survey partners, the RCS found that a plurality of job-changing 401(k) plan participants favored automatic plan-to-plan portability over consolidating their savings to an IRA, or leaving their savings behind in their former employer’s plan. This result comes on the heels of EBRI’s 2021 survey, which found that nearly 9 in 10 participants believed that auto portability would be valuable to them.

Despite my being a long-time, unabashed proponent of auto portability – the new plan feature that provides seamless, end-to-end portability for small 401(k) retirement savings accounts – it’s always felt like an uphill battle to bring about its widespread adoption in our 401(k) system.

While that battle is by no means over, in late 2021, I finally accepted and now firmly believe that auto portability is, in fact, inevitable.

In a 9/13/21 Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI) webinar (The Impact of Proposed Legislative Changes on Retirement Income Adequacy), EBRI Research Director Jack VanDerhei presented an analysis of pending legislative changes, including automatic contribution plans and arrangements (ACPAs), paired with a refundable saver’s credit.

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.
 

It’s no secret that interest rates have been at historically low levels for quite some time, but the recent announcement by Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell indicates that rates will stay near zero for the foreseeable future. Chairman Powell stated in his address last month that the Fed would tolerate above-2% inflation instead of attempting to preemptively control inflation by raising interest rates.

It’s bad enough that more than 50 million Americans have filed claims for unemployment benefits since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic and lockdown. But in addition to the disruption, financial hardship, and uncertainty that unemployed Americans (and their families) are experiencing right now, this crisis also threatens their financial security during retirement.