Consolidation Corner
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Blog
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- What is a Missing Participant?
Missing Participants
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.
Five Tips for Documenting Missing Participant Searches
If a tree falls in the forest, does it make a sound? Opinions are split on this weighty philosophical matter, but a more-definitive answer to another question may surprise you.
If a search for a missing participant is not properly documented, is it a diligent search? To regulatory authorities who may scrutinize a plan sponsor’s search efforts, the answer is decidedly “no.” For a regulator to consider a search to be diligent, it must be well-documented, and to do otherwise can result in audits, penalties and increased fiduciary risk.
The Important Task of Determining Participants’ Life Status
Determining retirement plan participants’ life status is an important, albeit uncomfortable task for plan sponsors. Whereas plan participants are typically more concerned about securing a comfortable retirement income that lasts for life, plan sponsors must deal with deceased participants who will leave behind residual plan benefits requiring proper administration.
Why DEI and ‘Traditional’ Automatic Rollovers Don’t Mix
In the retirement community, momentum is growing to make our 401(k) system more inclusive and to ensure that retirement savings are more equitable.
How Consultants Can Miss the Mark on 401(k) Automatic Rollovers
I'm a big fan of 401(k) plan consultants, who’ve been forceful advocates for the adoption of best practices at leading retirement plan sponsors. So, it’s surprising to me that, when it comes to automatic rollover programs, consultants sometimes miss the mark, at least in terms of participant outcomes.
Three Ways 401(k) Plan Sponsors Can Boost Participants’ Awareness on National Financial Awareness Day
August 14th is National Financial Awareness Day, and 401(k) plan sponsors have been instrumental in increasing the financial awareness of millions of Americans by providing them with access to workplace retirement savings plans that materially enhance their prospects for a timely and comfortable retirement.
Why Missing Participants Are So Misunderstood
Winston Churchill, once referring to the intentions of the former Soviet Union, stated: “it is a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma.” For 401(k) plan sponsors, that’s an apt description for the problem of missing participants.
Re-Thinking the Automatic Rollover IRA
Selecting an automatic rollover IRA provider used to be easy.
Most 401(k) plan sponsors simply accepted the solution offered through their recordkeeper or TPA. Others performed due diligence, using a limited set of criteria including basic fees, investment options and accountholder service.
401(k) Portability in Four Movements
Over the past 15 years, a very large (250,000+ participants) 401(k) plan sponsor that our company has had the opportunity to serve has been highly successful in delivering improved participant outcomes by incrementally adopting a full program of retirement savings portability.
Were the plan’s experience set to music, it could be described as “401(k) Portability in Four Movements” – opening with discordant levels of cashout leakage but quickly building towards more satisfying participant outcomes, including substantial improvements in the preservation and consolidation of retirement savings.
Consolidation is Vital to Reducing 401(k) Cybersecurity Risk
With $10 trillion in 401(k) and other defined contribution retirement assets to safeguard, retirement industry regulators are intensely focused on the issue of cybersecurity.
The latest developments signifying regulatory resolve include enforcement actions by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), who in August 2021 sanctioned 8 firms in three separate actions (links here, here and here), for failing to have cybersecurity policies and procedures in place, potentially leading to compromised private client data.
Towards a Sustainable and “Greener” 401(k) System
“America’s retirement system is sustainable” said no one, ever.
That’s the basis for my somewhat cynical reaction to a February 14th, 2022, Request for Information (RFI) issued by the DOL’s Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA). The RFI (Request for Information on Possible Agency Actions to Protect Life Savings and Pensions from Threats of Climate-Related Financial Risk) was issued pursuant to a May 20th, 2021 Executive Order, and asks respondents to identify climate change related threats to “the life savings and pensions of U.S. workers and families.”
-
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 Savings Consolidation
- Retirement Savings Portability
- Roll-In
- Safe Harbor IRA
- Security
- Small Accounts
- Stale Dated Checks
- Synthetic Tenure
- Uncashed Check Services
- Uncashed Distribution Checks
- Video
- Webcast
- What is a Missing Participant?