Readiness and the Mobile Workforce. Interview with Spencer Williams, President & CEO Retirement Clearinghouse

In a series dedicated toward informing Plan Sponsors on promoting retirement readiness, Spencer Williams, President & CEO Retirement Clearinghouse, a provider of portability solutions for the retirement industry speaks to 401kTV Editor-in-Chief, Fred Barstein.

Williams talks about providing services to companies with a “mobile workforce” and the issues associated with retirement plans.

• “Job-Hopping” – Today’s worker holds on average 7 to 8 jobs in their lifetime. This can cause a “start & stop” effect according to Williams. Gaps in contributions to retirement plans has a negative effect on outcomes in the form of lower balances.
• “Multiple Accounts” – Switching jobs frequently leads to workers having multiple accounts (401(k) or IRA). This leads to inefficiencies and higher costs in the way of separate fees for each account.
• “Leakage” –Cashing out of a qualified plan is by far the worst outcome according Williams. He says that when faced with a decision, participants are inclined to cash-out, incurring penalties in addition to paying taxes. But also many participants leaving a job will leave retirement accounts unattended.

Identifying the top three issues associated with a mobile workforce, Williams says that the bottom line is that employee’s outcomes can be severely diminished by the issues above. This points to the issue of readiness. Williams says that fine-tuning and taking advantage of every opportunity is critical for a successful retirement plan.

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Fred Barstein

Founder & Editor-in-Chief at 401kTV | TRAU | TPSU

Fred Barstein is the Founder & Editor-in-Chief of 401kTV. Fred is also the Founder and CEO of The Retirement Advisor University (TRAU), a collaboration with UCLA Anderson School of Management Executive Education and The Plan Sponsor University (TPSU).Mr. Barstein was also Founder and Editor-in-Chief of NAPA Net.

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