The spike in hardship withdrawals speaks to financial stress felt in the workplace, and its potential impact on employee health and productivity. (Photo: Shutterstock)
Hardship withdrawals from 401(k) plans have spiked in the short time since provisions in the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2018 gave plan participants more access to their tax-deferred savings, according to new data from Fidelity.
“We are seeing accelerations this year,” said Rashmi Venkatesh, senior vice president, Fidelity Investments.
The budget bill extended hardship withdrawals to not only individual deferrals, but also to sponsors’ non-elective contributions, matching contributions, and profit-sharing contributions, effective at the beginning of 2019.
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Nick Thornton
Nick Thornton is a financial writer covering retirement and health care issues for BenefitsPRO and ALM Media. He greatly enjoys learning from the vast minds in the legal, academic, advisory and money management communities when covering the retirement space. He's also written on international marketing trends, financial institution risk management, defense and energy issues, the restaurant industry in New York City, surfing, cigars, rum, travel, and fishing. When not writing, he's pushing into some land or water.
