DECEMBER 2025 NEWSLETTER
Cybersecurity: A Top Plan Sponsor Concern
According to Escalent’s 2025 Retirement Planscape study, more than half of plan sponsors rank cybersecurity as their No. 1 “plan fear,” ahead of poor investment performance (45%) and insufficient participant savings (43%). That concern is not without evidence. High profile breaches such as the recent attack on a leading recordkeeper affecting more than 1,000 participants and traced to a third-party client management cloud application, demonstrates how a single...
Advisor Support is Key to Driving Confidence and Outcomes Among Younger Participants
Access to an advisor tends to improve retirement confidence, according to a recent survey by the Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI). The Retirement Confidence Survey found that 83% of workers with advisory access feel confident about retirement readiness, compared with just 53% of those without. But is that only because those with advisors are more likely to also have accrued greater wealth over time — or will it also hold true for younger workers with smaller portfolios?
A Kiplinger deep dive into the EBRI data suggests...
Auto Portability: Helping Reduce 401(k) Leakage After Job Changes
The Problem: Cash‑Out Leakage and Lost Accounts
American workers now hold an average of more than 12 jobs over the course of their careers. During job changes, many end up cashing out small 401(k) balances and not rolling them into tax-qualified retirement plans. Industry studies estimate this trend may be causing an annual savings “leakage” of more than $90 billion due to taxes, penalties, and the missed growth and compounding potential of those cashed-out dollars. “Forgotten” 401(k) accounts may also be...