In the retirement community, momentum is growing to make our 401(k) system more inclusive and to ensure that retirement savings are more equitable.

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.

August 14^th 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.

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.

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.

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.

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. 

“America’s retirement system is sustainable” said no one, ever.

That’s the basis for my somewhat cynical reaction to a February 14^th, 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 20^th, 2021 Executive Order, and asks respondents to identify climate change related threats to “the life savings and pensions of U.S. workers and families.”

I’m old enough to remember a time when auto portability was a concept, scarcely worthy of serious attention by practically anyone except a few zealots with an idea.

For years, regulators, policymakers and, of course, 401(k) plan sponsors have struggled with the vexing problems of missing participants, uncashed distribution checks and small, forgotten accounts. Every year, sponsors beseech regulators for clear guidance to mitigate their fiduciary risk, while lawmakers propose policies such as lost and found registries to help deal with the problems. Yet, the problems persist and have grown worse over time, even accelerating recently due to The Great Resignation.