Within eight years of joining a 401(k) plan, the results indicate that automatically enrolled workers withdraw nearly half of the extra they manage to save, compared with workers left to sign up for the retirement plan on their own.
After leaving a company, just over 60% of 401(k) participants with balances below $10,000 liquidate their accounts—paying income taxes and often a 10% penalty—rather than leaving the money or transferring it to another tax-advantaged retirement plan, according to Retirement Clearinghouse LLC.