Empower: up to one in three workers may have lost track of old workplace savings

As many as one in three workers may have lost track of retirement savings from a previous employer, according to Empower research reported by 401(k) Specialist. The study, "The Retirement Drift," puts the share at 50% for Gen Z workers and 45% for Millennials.

Empower describes retirement drift as the orphaning of 401(k) and other workplace savings accounts when employees change or lose jobs, leaving misplaced benefits and missed investment opportunities. More than half of U.S. workers are likely to change employers at least three times over their careers, the study says, so the accounts can accumulate.

Fifty-four percent of respondents said managing retirement savings is their absolute lowest financial priority, with stronger results among younger workers. Fifty-seven percent said they put off financial tasks that seem complicated, including 69% of Gen Z and 66% of Millennials.

Two-thirds of respondents said they wished someone had helped explain their retirement savings rollover options when they changed jobs. "Changing jobs is a normal part of a career, but our financial lives don't always transition as neatly," said Jane Bartosik, SVP of Wealth Solutions at Empower, in a press release. She said deciding what to do with a 401(k) from a previous employer can take a back seat when someone is starting a new job and managing other priorities.

For plan sponsors and recordkeepers, the survey points at the job-change window rather than the account itself: the balance stays put, but the explanation of what to do with it, by two-thirds of respondents' account, arrives late or not at all. That reading is inference from the survey's answers, not something Empower's release states about plan design.