Rethinking Retirement Savings

Icon CEO, Laurie Rowley, recently sat down with Jeremy Goldman on the FutureProof podcast to discuss the structural problems with 401ks, the looming retirement savings crisis and how Icon’s portable retirement plan is the answer.

Over half the workforce doesn’t have access to a 401k. Of those who do have access, the problem is changing jobs with your plan — it’s hard to do. $100 billion is cashed out of 401k plans at job change every year. Add to this the fact that in five years, half the workforce will likely be independent contractors (so they won’t even have access to a workplace retirement savings plan unless a change is made), and it’s not hard to imagine that there’s a $4.2 trillion gap between the savings people will need when they retire and what they’ll have.

The retirement savings industry is well aware of this crisis and spends a lot of time trying to fix the structural bugs in the 401k system. But up until now, they’ve only managed to make a bad product worse. Portable retirement savings is the answer.

Icon is the workplace retirement savings plan for the modern worker and employer alike. It leverages advances in digital technology to deliver a flexible, frictionless and low cost way to invest and save for the employee. And it gives employers a low-cost, no-risk benefits solution to employing people across multiple regulatory environments.