
Missing participants are bad
Missing participants sponsors survey401(k) cashouts are MUCH worse
1. Missing participants have preserved their retirement savings, while participants cashing out have not. 2. Far more cashouts occur than participants who go missing.- 6 million will eventually cash out. Incredibly, that's 41% of the total.
- 2.1 million participants, or 14.5% of job-changers, will remain in their former employer's plan. 11.3% of these, or about 243,000, will have stale addresses and be considered missing.

Portability: A “two-fer” solution?
EBRI Tom Hawkins is Vice President of Sales and Marketing at Retirement Clearinghouse.© 2025 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.