CHARLOTTE, NC—December 3, 2024—Portability Services Network (PSN) announces that, in its first year of operation, more than 15,000 plans representing approximately 5 million participants have signed up for auto portability. Robert L. Johnson, Chairman of the Portability Services Network and Retirement Clearinghouse, said, “I heartily applaud the six recordkeepers that launched Portability Services Network for their unwavering commitment to improving the retirement welfare of America’s under-saved and under-served workers. Auto portability was conceived as an innovation to benefit minority and women savers, and it is immensely gratifying to witness its coming to fruition through the hard work of Alight, Vanguard, Fidelity Investments, Empower, TIAA, and Principal® to make auto portability a reality. We encourage more plan sponsors and recordkeepers to join and do their part to assist low-income workers in achieving a financially secure retirement."

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.

On September 2, 1974, President Gerald Ford signed the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) into law. Since that time, ERISA has become the regulatory backbone of the retirement services industry. And on September 12, members of the industry, along with legislators, government regulators, and other private and public sector representatives, came together to celebrate ERISA’s golden anniversary in Washington, D.C. My colleagues and I were honored to be among those in attendance.

New retirement innovations, however compelling they may be, face their biggest challenge in surmounting the glacial pace of change that prevails in the retirement industry, where nothing comes easy.

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.

The 401(k) cashout leakage problem is once again in the news, with the publication of an alarming study by academics, as well as new data from Fidelity Investments revealing a cashout leakage ‘danger zone’ facing participants between the ages of 30-39.

These studies, combined with the mounting weight of empirical evidence gathering for more than a decade, confirm that 401(k) cashout leakage is a huge, persistent problem.

A newly proposed bill -- the Advancing Auto Portability Act of 2022, co-sponsored by Senators Tim Scott (R-S.C.) and Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), will offer tax credits to plan sponsors who implement auto portability, and codify rules for an industrywide auto portability network. The bill is expected to be rolled into the Senate version of the bipartisan Securing a Strong Retirement Act of 2022, which passed the U.S. House of Representatives on March 29 of this year.

Here are five reasons why the new auto portability legislation introduced in the Senate is so important.

Last year marked the 15^th anniversary of the Pension Protection Act of 2006. This legislation included well-intentioned provisions for helping Americans increase their retirement savings, including the capability for defined contribution plan sponsors to automatically enroll employees in their plans. Despite the good intentions behind auto enrollment, and all the positive outcomes that have resulted, its introduction also coincided with high workforce mobility and a lack of seamless plan-to-plan savings portability, which has led to a surge in small, stranded 401(k) savings accounts.

On 12/6/21, the Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI) conducted day 1 of their two-day 90^th Annual Public Policy Forum.  This forum’s theme was “A Path to a More Equitable Solution: Solving the Retirement Coverage Gap” and it seems to have been highly popular, as it broke EBRI’s previous record for forum attendance. 

Traditionally, the anniversary gift for couples celebrating their 15^th wedding anniversary is crystal. When the Pension Protection Act of 2006 was signed into law 15 years ago, a crystal ball would have been useful. Although this legislation was (commendably) crafted with the best of intentions, its unintended consequences for defined contribution plan participants and sponsors continue to reverberate.