More than $80 billion in retirement assets were lost to 401(k) cashouts and loans during 2014.

That’s according to Cerulli Associates research.

In the report “Evolution of the Retirement Investor 2015: Insights into Investor Segmentation and the Retirement Income Landscape,” Cerulli looked at retirement decisions made by individual investors throughout their retirement planning lifecycle, with particular emphasis on 401(k) plan participants, IRAs and rollovers, and retirement income.

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“Premature distributions, cashouts of retirement accounts and defaults on loans are major sources of DC asset leakage and were responsible for outows of nearly $81 billion in 2014,” Shaan Duggal, research analyst, said in a statement.

Duggal added, “Limiting these leaks is of the utmost importance to participants and the retirement industry.”

The report suggested that better retirement-related options for participants who take these actions could help recordkeepers focus on limiting these outflows.

Since distributions outpaced contributions in 2014, “representing a significant turning point in the 401(k) world,” according to the report, the projected growth of assets because of market performance will not be enough to offset these outflows.

As a result, recordkeepers and advisors will need to generate more contributions from younger employees to do so.

Duggal pointed out in the report that interaction with a recordkeeper or IRA service provider is basically the only thing stopping a participant from gaining early access to a terminated defined contribution or IRA account.

GenXers in particular ended up paying the 10 percent tax penalty levied by the IRS for completing an early cash distribution from a 401(k), in addition to the regular taxes on the money. “When a distribution is requested, recordkeepers should spring into action, conveying the benets of preserving the tax-deferred nature of the assets,” he wrote.

Loans also presented a leakage problem, because the taxes and penalties levied on a default increase the financial pressure on “the already cash-strapped individual.”

Eliminating the loan function from a plan, the report said, might be an extreme means of reducing participant use of loans, but if instead the number of outstanding loans permitted is cut to one “will slowly do away with the idea that the DC plan is meant to be a source of short-term liquidity.”

Instant Insights /

Cashouts, loans responsible for $80 billion in retirement outflows

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