Automatic IRAs present risks, opportunities
Unless workers opt out, contributions to 401(k)s and similar retirement plans are automatically deducted from their paychecks. Now Congress wants to add IRAs, too.
By Simone Baribeau | Contributor to The Christian Science Monitorfrom the September 17, 2007 edition
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NEW YORK - Uncle Sam wants you to save for retirement. And, if a new bill makes it through Congress, he's going to do his best to make sure you do.
The bill, introduced in both the House and Senate, would require most employers to enroll employees in IRAs – automatically deducting money from their employees' paychecks and depositing it into a retirement account, unless workers explicitly opted out. It follows legislation that last year authorized companies to set up automatic 401(k)s for their employees, a practice that previously had fallen into a legal gray area.
But while automatic IRAs have the potential to increase retirement savings for millions of US workers, some say there are also risks.
Lower-income workers may increase their consumer debt to make up for lost income or suffer stiff penalties if a financial crisis forces them to withdraw money from an automatic IRA early.
"Some people end up not saving because of inertia. If you can make it that the inertia [turns into savings], it's a good thing," says Dean Baker, codirector of the Center for Economic and Policy Research in Washington, D.C. But "some people just don't have the money."
About 75 million US workers have no access to employer-sponsored retirement plans, according to a recent study commissioned by AARP. The study predicts that 48 million of these workers could see increased retirement savings if the proposed legislation were to become law.
The bipartisan bill would require companies that are at least two years old, have more than 10 employees, and do not already offer retirement plans to automatically enroll their employees in an IRA, unless individual employees opt out.
While "auto IRAs" are a relatively new idea, other retirement programs – including pensions and, increasingly, auto 401(k)s– have long made automatic deductions from employee paychecks.
But auto IRAs would be fundamentally different from the other programs: Employers will not contribute to an employee's retirement savings. Instead, they will act as the conduit to enable employees to save for themselves.
The bill looks as though it has legs, but details – how it will be administered, how the fee structure will work, what happens when someone switches jobs – may change as the legislation progresses. "I've never seen a bill that isn't amended," says Evelyn Morton, AARP's national coordinator for economic issues.
Studies indicate that automatic-enrollment savings programs effectively encourage retirement savings. The participation rate of workers hired under automatic 401(k) enrollment who had been with a company for three years was 30 percentage points higher than those hired under traditional opt-in plans, says a 2004 study of three large companies written for the National Tax Journal Forum on Pensions.
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