"The recommendations focus primarily on getting terminating participants to leave their retirement savings in their (former) employer's plan. This has been presented by many as a solution to the 'leakage' problem. It's unclear, however, whether sponsors actually want to retain the assets of terminating participants. And the changes in sponsor practice which the [ERISA Advisory Council] proposes to encourage participants to do this -- post-termination loan initiation, brokerage and mutual fund windows, lifetime income options and stable value funds, allowing consolidation of multiple accounts and providing access to financial advice -- all come with a cost."

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