Leakage of Participants DC Assets: How Loans, Withdrawals, and Cashouts Are Eroding Retirement Income

Transcription

1 Cosultig Outsourcig Retiremet Leakage of Participats DC Assets: How Loas, Withdrawals, ad Cashouts Are Erodig Retiremet Icome 2011

2 Leakage of Participats DC Assets: How Loas, Withdrawals, ad Cashouts Are Erodig Retiremet Icome Cotets Backgroud Loas Withdrawals Cashouts Perspectives ad Recommedatios o Leakage Coclusios Refereces Cotact Iformatio

3 Backgroud As may studies have show, there s a growig gap betwee retiremet eeds ad resources. Accordig to a recet Ao Hewitt report, Retiremet Icome Adequacy at Large Compaies: The Real Deal 2010, oly oe i five full-career cotributors i large 401(k) plas is projected to be able to meet their eeds i retiremet. O average, these savers are expected to have a shortfall of 2.2 times their fial pay upo retiremet. May factors cotribute to the savigs shortfall, icludig volatile ivestmet markets, rapidly icreasig health care costs ad reduced pesios from defied beefit plas. I additio, the real deal study makes oe major assumptio that participats do ot take ay fuds out of retiremet savigs prematurely. I reality, savigs leak out of the system before participats retire, further erodig retiremet readiess. This study examies the three mai sources of leakage: Loas take out ad sometimes ot repaid i full Withdrawals take durig active employmet Cashig out retiremet savigs upo a job termiatio This report explores the magitude of the problems, their impact to participat savigs ad ideas to curb these behaviors. More tha 1.8 millio employees were examied across over 110 large defied cotributio plas. Participat data was aalyzed through year-ed Additioally, the Ao Hewitt 2010 Employer Perspectives o Defied Cotributio Pla Leakage Survey was deployed i October 2010 to gauge employer setimet ad plas related to leakage issues (i total, 200 pla sposors respoded). Fially, Employee Beefit Research Istitute (EBRI) provided modelig as to the impact of employee actios through its EBRI Retiremet Security Projectio Model. Loas Withdrawals Cashouts Leakage of Participats DC Assets: How Loas, Withdrawals, ad Cashouts Are Erodig Retiremet Icome 3

4 Loas Loas are geerally cosidered a attractive feature i a defied cotributio (DC) pla. The kowledge that moey is accessible may ecourage some employees to save i a pla. Takig a loa from a DC pla may be preferred over other alteratives like high-iterest rate credit card loas. If participats cotiue cotributig to the pla while payig off their loas ad (evetually) pay off the loa i full, their retiremet savigs are geerally preserved. However, whe participats take excessive loas or default o outstadig loas, it ca udermie the purpose of the pla ad ca put participats retiremet icome adequacy at risk. A loa feature is available i early all defied cotributio plas. Accordig the Ao Hewitt 2010 Employer Perspectives o Defied Cotributio Pla Leakage Survey, 95% of plas have a loa provisio. Virtually all these plas offer geeralpurpose loas, meaig loas ca be for ay purpose ad have a repaymet period of up to five years. Additioally, over three quarters also allow participats to take loas for the purchase of a home with a exteded repaymet period of up to 10 to 30 years. The majority of plas (58%) permit participats to have two or more loas outstadig at ay give time. The loa feature is highly utilized by participats i DC plas. Through the mid-2000s, loa usage was fairly steady. However, i the years followig the 2008 fiacial crisis, loa usage has steadily climbed. As of year-ed 2010, early 28% of active participats had a loa outstadig, which is a record high. Nearly 14% of participats iitiated ew loas durig 2010, slightly higher tha previous years. The average balace of the outstadig amout was $7,860, which represeted 21% of these participats total pla assets. Although the majority of the participats (68.3%) had oly oe loa outstadig, 29.2% had two loas outstadig simultaeously ad 2.5% had more tha two loas. Percetage of Participats With Loas Over Time Percetage of Participats With Loas By Age 4 Ao Hewitt

5 Loa usage varies sigificatly based o the participat s situatio: Middle-aged ad middle-icome participats are most likely to have outstadig loas participats i their 40s, ad those earig betwee $40,000 ad $60,000 had sigificatly higher loa prevalece. Wome with lower salaries are more apt to take loas tha their similarly paid male couterparts. I fact, amog those earig betwee $20,000 ad $40,000, 35.9% of wome had a loa outstadig versus 33.6% of me. Wome are also more likely to take more tha oe loa at a give time as compared to me. A majority of the participats with a loa cotiued to cotribute i their DC pla. Overall, 81.7% of participats with outstadig loas cotiued to defer cotributios to the DC pla. However, the average savigs rate of those with loas was slightly lower (6.2% of pay) tha those who did ot have loas outstadig (8.1% of pay). Geerally speakig, the employees who stopped deferrig to the pla while repayig their loas are lower-earig idividuals i their 30s or 40s. Defaultig o a loa makes the leakage permaet, which sigificatly impairs retiremet savig. The most likely poit of default occurs whe a participat has a loa outstadig at employmet termiatio. Presetly, the vast majority of plas require employees to repay loas i full upo termiatio of employmet (usually withi 60 days). This ca be challegig for employees, ad may subsequetly default o the loa causig the moey to be treated as a taxable distributio ad subject to pealties for those uder age 59½. Whe employees with loas termiate employmet, early 70% subsequetly default o the repaymet. Amog participats i their 20s, the default percetage jumps to early 80%. I cotrast, o average, active employees default o their loas less tha 3% of the time. Loa Defaults Amog Termiated Employeess By Age Leakage of Participats DC Assets: How Loas, Withdrawals, ad Cashouts Are Erodig Retiremet Icome 5

6 Impact of loas o participat retiremet security EBRI s Retiremet Security Projectio Model simulated the impact of loas o DC participat retiremet savigs. The projectio simulates a full-career employee who takes a loa ad the stops savig for the duratio of the loa repaymet period (five years). The projectios assume the idividuals are i the middle to early part of their careers. Ceasig deferrals durig the loa repaymet period is expected to erode future retiremet icome by 10% to 13%, depedig o the type of erollmet (automatic or volutary) ad the participat s icome level. If two loas are take, this reductio early doubles. O the other had, if the participat cotiues to save durig the repaymet period, the loa causes little chages to expected retiremet icome. Defaultig o the loa by termiated employees paits a more omious picture as the default permaetly removes moies from the retiremet system. Media Balace Reductio as Result of Oe Loa (Loa is Repaid) 6 Ao Hewitt

7 Withdrawals As tax-qualified plas, DC plas must limit participats ability to withdraw their savigs before they termiate employmet. These withdrawals are permaet ad caot be redeposited i the future, yet may orgaizatios make these optios available. I geeral, plas caot allow withdrawals of before-tax savigs i a DC pla except as a last resort whe fiacial crisis occurs (a hardship withdrawal ). Accordig to the Ao Hewitt Leakage Survey, early all plas offer employees hardship withdrawals, ad the majority of plas also susped employee cotributios ito the pla for the esuig six moths after a hardship withdrawal. Plas ca allow employees who reach age 59½ to take a withdrawal of before-tax savigs without a hardship (a 59½ withdrawal ). Nearly all plas offer these types of withdrawals as well. Other types of withdrawals, such as the withdrawal of after-tax cotributios or withdrawal of employer moey, are also possible. More tha half of plas offer these types of ohardship withdrawals. Similar to loas, withdrawals from DC plas have icreased i the wake of the 2008 fiacial crisis. Durig 2010, 6.9% of participats took a withdrawal, which is close to the record high of 7.1% i Before the 2008 ecoomic dowtur, oly aroud 5% of participats took a withdrawal. Twety percet of all withdrawals were hardships, with a average amout of $5,510. The remaider was ohardship withdrawals, icludig 59½ withdrawals, with a average amout of $15,480. Percetage of Participats Takig a Withdrawal Over Time Percetage of Participats Takig a Withdrawal By Salary Leakage of Participats DC Assets: How Loas, Withdrawals, ad Cashouts Are Erodig Retiremet Icome 7

8 Withdrawals were foud to be correlated to pay, age, ad geder, as the followig details illustrate: Participats with lower salaries were more apt to take withdrawals. Amog participats with a salary betwee $20,000 ad $40,000, 3.6% of participats took a hardship withdrawal ad 5.9% took a ohardship withdrawal durig 2010, but oly 0.5% of those earig $100,000 or more took a hardship ad 3.9% took a ohardship. Participats age 59½ or older (who are geerally able to take ohardship withdrawals from their before tax accout) were early three times as likely, o average, to take a ohardship withdrawal. Lower-to-middle icome wome were more likely to take a withdrawal tha me with similar icome. Four percet of females earig betwee $20,000 ad $40,000 took a hardship withdrawal ad 6.5% took a ohardship withdrawal versus 3.1% of males i the same icome bracket took a hardship ad 5.1% took a ohardship. I terms of the ratioale behid hardship withdrawals, half of all employees listed avoidig a home evictio or foreclosure as the reaso for the withdrawal. Educatio ad medical bills were tied for a distat rakig of secod (12.6%). Top Reported Reasos for Hardship Withdrawals 8 Ao Hewitt

9 Impact of withdrawals o participat retiremet security Withdrawals ca dagerously decrease retiremet icome for participats. EBRI s Retiremet Security Projectio Model simulated the impact of withdrawals o DC participat retiremet savigs. The projectio illustrates that full-career cotributors who take withdrawals ad stop cotributig for two years thereafter reduce their retiremet icome by 7% to 25% depedig o icome ad erollmet methodology. Media Balace as a Result of a Withdrawal Leakage of Participats DC Assets: How Loas, Withdrawals, ad Cashouts Are Erodig Retiremet Icome 9

10 Cashouts Cashig out retiremet accouts also jeopardizes future retiremet security. Of the various forms of leakage, cashouts are the most ijurious behavior due to the prevalece of the behavior ad the magitude of the impact. Eve a seemigly small cash distributio ca have a immediate cost impact due to taxes ad pealties; however, the larger impact is at retiremet whe a seemigly small cashout costs tes of thousads of dollars i savigs. The time to address pla cashouts is ow, as the DC pla has become the primary employer vehicle for retiremet icome ad employees are more mobile. Amog workers who termiated from employmet i 2010, 42% took a cash distributio, which is cosistet with pre dowtur levels. Additioally, 29% left assets i the pla ad 29% rolled assets over to a qualified pla. The cashout behavior of termiated employees was greatly iflueced by their pla balace, age, ad geder. Participats with lower balaces are far more likely to cashout their retiremet accout. Amog those workers with balaces below $1,000, 75% took a cash distributio i the past 12 moths of course, may of these participats were forced out of the pla. But eve at higher balaces, a sigificat umber cashed out. For istace, 24% of idividuals with balaces betwee $30,000 ad $49,999 cashed their moey out ad oe i 10 with balaces of $100,000 or more did so. Posttermiatio Behavior Percetage of Employees Posttermiatio Behavior Percetage of Employees by Pla Balace Remai i the Pla Rollover Cash Distributio 10 Ao Hewitt

11 Posttermiatio Behavior Percetage of Employees by Age Remai i the Pla Rollover Cash Distributio Youger participats were more proe to take cash distributios at termiatio compared to older participats, i large part due to their relatively smaller balaces. More tha half of people i their 20s took cash distributios i 2010, 20 percetage poits higher tha the rate of those ages 50 ad older. Across geder, wome were less likely to cash out their savigs ad more likely to roll their savigs over to aother qualified vehicle. This fidig was true across all pla balace levels. This differece equated to more wome rollig over their accouts whe balaces were over $5,000 ad thus preservig retiremet wealth. For example, whe pla balaces were betwee $30,000 ad $49,999, 36% of wome rolled over their assets versus 31% of me. Notably, the presece of automatic erollmet did ot have a sigificat factor o results. Holdig thigs equal by pla balace, participats subject to automatic erollmet cashed out balaces at the same rate as those who actively erolled i the pla. While cashouts are the most popular optio o a participat-weighted basis, o a pla asset-weighted basis the most popular optio is leavig assets i the pla (54.7%) followed by rollig assets to aother retiremet accout (38.0%) ad cashout (7.3%). This is attributable to the fact that higher-balace idividuals are most likely to keep their balaces i the pla ad least likely to take a cash distributio. Percetage of Assets By Locatio/Actio ad Age Age Assets Remai i Pla Assets Rolled Over Assets Cashed Out % 30.7% 20.0% % 34.0% 12.7% % 37.3% 9.1% % 38.1% 6.1% % 41.1% 4.6% % 38.8% 4.1% Overall 54.7% 38.0% 7.3% Leakage of Participats DC Assets: How Loas, Withdrawals, ad Cashouts Are Erodig Retiremet Icome 11

12 Impact of cashouts o participat retiremet security Cashouts have a substatial impact o savigs, typically larger tha loas ad withdrawals. Depedig o the erollmet approach, icome level, ad the umber of job chages, participats who cashout beefits ca expect to have a reductio of aywhere from a sigificat 11% to a startlig 67% of retiremet icome. The EBRI projectio assumes a full-career employee takes a cash distributio from the 401(k) pla after a differet umber of job chages. Impact of Cashout After the First Job Chage Automatic Erollmet Lowest Icome Quartile Highest Icome Quartile Impact of Cashout After the First Job Chage Volutary Erollmet Lowest Icome Quartile Highest Icome Quartile 12 Ao Hewitt

13 Perspectives ad Recommedatios o Leakage Loas Accordig to the Ao Hewitt s 2010 Employer Perspectives o Defied Cotributio Pla Leakage Survey, more tha half of DC plas experieced a icrease i loa activities i the past two years due to the impact of the recet recessio. Nearly a quarter of plas saw a rise i loa repaymet defaults. This made the vast majority (94%) of employers cocered about participats payig off a loa ad takig aother loa right away, carryig multiple loas, or defaultig o a loa. However, while may sposors ote sigificat cocer, oly a quarter of pla sposors pla to take actios to curb loa activity Employer Perspectives/Actios o Loas Icrease i Loa Activities 54% Icrease i Loa Default 23% Cocered About Excessive Loa Usage 94% Pla to Take Actio to Curb Loa 2% 0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100% Pla sposors could cosider the followig desig, admiistrative, ad commuicatio alteratives to help deter loa usage: Add or icrease loa applicatio fee ad/or maiteace fee. Ao Hewitt s research shows that loa fees (exceedig $75) may lead to fewer loas. Pla sposors who feel ucomfortable pealizig participats who require a loa ca cosider a free first loa with fees applyig to the secod ad subsequet loas. Reduce the umber of loas allowed. The majority of plas (58%) curretly allow employees to take more tha oe loa. By reducig the umber of available loas, it may repositio the loa feature as somethig to be used for sigificat eeds. Ad, it will aturally decrease the use of loas amog the early oe-third of participats with multiple loas outstadig. Restrict the available loa balace to oly employee moies. The loa provisio ca be altered to allow loa access to oly employee cotributios. I additio to shrikig the size of the available loa, it also seds the message that employer moey should be earmarked for retiremet. Leakage of Participats DC Assets: How Loas, Withdrawals, ad Cashouts Are Erodig Retiremet Icome 13

14 Implemet a waitig period. A ewer cocept i the idustry has focused o stoppig the loa cycle of perpetual loa takig. Cosider a waitig period, say 6 or 12 moths, that forces employees to have a loa fully repaid before they are able to iitiate a subsequet loa. Allow loa paymets after termiatio. Curretly, oly oe i five compaies allows a loa repaymet optio for termiated employees. Most employers do ot accept termiated loa repaymet largely because paymets ca o loger be made via payroll deductio. Employers ca recosider this ad sigificatly reduce defaults by allowig repaymets through the term of the loa by regular paymets from their persoal accouts at fiacial istitutios. Educate ad commuicate with employees. Provide geeral educatio that explais the pros ad cos of 401(k) pla loa-takig, as well as the importace of cotiued cotributios. Embed Iteret tools that will allow participats to model the impact of takig a loa o their future retiremet est egg ad iclude iformatioal liks. Target commuicatio messages to employees, especially those with loas outstadig, to focus o topics such as the importace of cotiued deferrals, the impact of loas o security, ad the dramatic impact of defaults. Withdrawals Withdrawals from retiremet savigs plas ca be more detrimetal tha loas, as withdrawals are permaet losses from retiremet accouts. Accordig to the Ao Hewitt 2010 Employer Perspectives o Defied Cotributio Pla Leakage Survey, 63% of plas experieced a icrease i hardship withdrawals i the past two years. The survey also shows the vast majority of the employers (85%) are cocered about hardship withdrawals, yet oly 12% of sposors pla to take actios to curb withdrawals. Employer Perspectives/Actios o Withdrawals 14 Ao Hewitt

15 Below are some recommedatios o pla desig chages ad participat commuicatios that ca help pla sposors reduce withdrawal activity i their pla. Restrict the balace that is available for a i-service withdrawal. For example, the pla ca allow participats uder age 59½ to withdraw oly up to the balace attributable to employee i a after-tax accout. Limit the reasos for hardship withdrawals. Cosider limitig the reasos for hardship withdrawals to the six safe harbor criteria. Automatic restart of savigs after a suspesio. The majority of plas susped employee cotributios for the six moths followig a hardship withdrawal. Give may participats may ot restart their savigs i a reasoable time frame, cosider helpig them restart their savigs by automatically defaultig them ito the pla ad reistatig their prewithdrawal deferral rate. Educate ad commuicate with employees. Cosider usig distributio specialists or referrig to debt couselors whe a participat is takig a withdrawal. Provide geeral educatio that explais the pros ad cos of hardship withdrawals ad accessig moies prior to retiremet. Embed Iteret tools that will allow participats to model the impact of i-service withdrawals, ad provide iformatioal liks. Target commuicatio messages to employees posthardship withdrawals to ecourage reparticipatig i the pla, whe able. Cashouts Rare are the people who work for oly oe employer throughout their career. Therefore, it is essetial that termiatig employees view their DC moies as log-term retiremet beefits rather tha as cosumable icome. Nearly 75% of employers i the Ao Hewitt 2010 Employer Perspectives o Defied Cotributio Pla Leakage Survey are cocered about employee cashout behavior, ad oe-third have see a icrease i cashouts over the past two years. However, oly 12% of employers pla o takig ay actio to address these worries. Pla sposors ca take the opportuity to help ew employees focus o preservig wealth from prior employers to help them meet their retiremet eeds. Ad, eve with employees who are leavig the pla, there are optios ad alteratives to help ifluece behaviors to keep savigs focused o log-term eeds like retiremet. Employer Perspective/Actios o Cashouts Leakage of Participats DC Assets: How Loas, Withdrawals, ad Cashouts Are Erodig Retiremet Icome 15

16 Below are some pla desig, admiistrative, ad commuicatio optios to help ecourage idividuals to maitai a log-term focus ad remai i the retiremet system. Promote the merits of the qualified pla. May employees do t recogize the beefits of the qualified pla (lower-fee istitutioal assets, ivestmet moitorig ad oversight, etc.) or the fact that they ca keep moey i the pla after they termiate (assumig they have eough assets), so it s importat to educate employees o this topic. Simplify rollover process. Rather tha the log, paper-itesive procedure curretly used by may employers, compaies could adopt a Web-based, paperless rollover process. Provide greater distributio optios. Allow more flexibility aroud partial distributios, which may ecourage more employees to leave moies withi the pla ad take out oly small amouts for curret eeds. Provide retirees with i pla retiremet icome solutios, such as auity, maaged payout fuds, ad a maaged accout with drawdow feature. These features help employees buy ito the cocept of log term retiremet icome rather tha short-term eeds before they re tempted by a cash distributio. Educate ad commuicate with employees. Cosider usig distributio specialists whe a participat is takig a cash distributio. Provide geeral educatio that explais the impact of cashouts ad the beefits of assets remaiig i the pla or beig rolled over to a IRA or aother employer pla. Embed Iteret tools that will allow participats to model the impact of cashouts ad provide iformatioal liks. Keepig Assets i the Pla I spite of marketig efforts arguig otherwise, there are some tagible beefits to participats i retaiig assets i a qualified pla, especially if the idividual has access to a mid- or large-sized pla. Withi the defied cotributio system, pla participats ot oly geerally have access to high-quality ivestmet optios at reasoable prices (through lower-cost istitutioal fud products such as collective trusts ad separate accout vehicles), but also beefit from fiduciary protectios. Workers caot obtai these beefits idividually i the retail market. While iertia is likely playig a role i the retetio of assets i the pla, some participats may i fact leave their moies i the pla to take advatage of these beefits. By leveragig the assets of active ad termiated pla participats, lower fees may be achieved for the etire populatio. Accordig to Ao Hewitt s Leakage Survey, oe third of pla sposors prefer termiated employees to leave moey i the pla ad 26% prefer them to leave the pla. The remaiig 41% had o preferece. As more plas leverage istitutioal fud alteratives, this tred is expected to cotiue. 16 Ao Hewitt

17 Coclusios Actios are eeded to improve participats future retiremet security. While employers ca use automatic erollmet ad cotributio escalatio to ecourage earlier participatio ad higher savigs, they should ot lose sight of the impact of leakage o the retiremet program. Reducig loas, withdrawals, ad cashouts is a critical part of the efforts pla sposors ca take. Removig cash from the retiremet program decreases the participats expected wealth at dramatic rates: by as much as 67% i some cases. It is especially detrimetal for youger employees give the greater potetial for future compoudig. As job teure declies, it is critical that savigs maitai a retiremet focus. Leakage of Participats DC Assets: How Loas, Withdrawals, ad Cashouts Are Erodig Retiremet Icome 17

18 Refereces The followig reports ad aalyses were used throughout this aalysis: Ao Hewitt s How Well Are Employees Savig ad Ivestig i 401(k) Plas: 2011 Uiverse Bechmarks Ao Hewitt s 2011 Employer Perspectives o Defied Cotributio Pla Leakage Survey Ao Hewitt s Retiremet Icome Adequacy at Large Compaies: The Real Deal 2010 Additioally, the Employee Beefit Research Istitute provided modelig as to the impact of employee actios through their EBRI Retiremet Security Projectio Model. Cotact Iformatio Rob Austi, FSA, EA Retiremet Cosultat Ao Hewitt rob.austi@aohewitt.com Pamela Hess, CFA Director of Retiremet Research Ao Hewitt pam.hess@aohewitt.com Barbara Hogg, FSA Retiremet Commuicatio Leader Ao Hewitt barb.hogg@aohewitt.com Ya Xu, CFA Research Cosultat Ao Hewitt ya.xu@aohewitt.com 18 Ao Hewitt

19 About Ao Hewitt Ao Hewitt is the global leader i huma capital cosultig ad outsourcig solutios. The compay parters with orgaizatios to solve their most complex beefits, talet ad related fiacial challeges, ad improve busiess performace. Ao Hewitt desigs, implemets, commuicates ad admiisters a wide rage of huma capital, retiremet, ivestmet maagemet, health care, compesatio ad talet maagemet strategies. With more tha 29,000 professioals i 90 coutries, Ao Hewitt makes the world a better place to work for cliets ad their employees. For more iformatio o Ao Hewitt, please visit Copyright Ao Hewitt 2011 Leakage of Participats DC Assets: How Loas, Withdrawals, ad Cashouts Are Erodig Retiremet Icome 19