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DConversations - Automatic Portability: A New Approach to Addressing Retirement Plan 'Leakage'

Deb Dupont 11/29/2016

LIMRA Consumer Research

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Participants Cash Out... But Would Value Roll-In Help (Infographic)
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Panel Discussion (Transcript)

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Summary

About 10 million Defined Contribution (DC) participants change jobs each year – 3.4 million with account balances of less than $5,000.

More than half of these “low balance” participants cash out their DC plans when they change jobs.

Over the longer term, these participants – most of them younger – lose out on the potential for long-term growth of their retirement investment.

Cashing out is the “easy” behavior for these smaller balance accounts.

Automatic portability is a new approach to helping individuals retain retirement assets, in the Defined Contribution system, as they change jobs throughout their careers – and may be especially beneficial for younger workers. 

LIMRA Secure Retirement Institute Assistant Vice President Matthew Drinkwater, Ph.D., FLMI, AFSI, PCS hosted Retirement Clearinghouse’s Spencer Williams and Tom Johnson at LIMRA’s 2016 Retirement Industry Conference to discuss the notion of Automatic Portability in DC plans, and advances on the regulatory and policy fronts. 

Panel Discussion (Full Video)

 

Full Video (48 minutes)

 

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Meet the Project Director

Deb Dupont

Deb Dupont is responsible for the Secure Retirement Institute's institutional (retirement plans) retirement research program.  She conducts and supervises research, benchmark reporting and study groups focused on the issues and trends faced by constituents of the defined contribution industry. She also provides guidance and thought leadership in helping LIMRA's member firms better understand the opportunities available for improving delivery of institutional retirement solutions.

Prior to joining LIMRA in 2014 Deb was the Director of ING's Retirement Research Institute (the Institute), where created, managed and published a research platform that included work focusing on multi-cultural, generational, and gender-based analyses of retirement behaviors, and also  published insights and analyses of ING's own cross-Defined Contribution (i.e. across employment sectors) participant base. Deb's work has been recognized for effectiveness and quality by some of the most prestigious awards in the financial services and communications industries, including the Insurance and Financial Communicators' Association and the International Association of Business Communicators. She is a graduate of the University of Connecticut. 

Assistant Vice President, Institutional Retirement Research
Secure Retirement Institute
ddupont@limra.com