If you’re one of the millions of Americans saving for retirement with a 401(k) or similar account, you assume (and hope) your financial and personal information are safe.
But did you know that retirement plan service providers may share or sell your personal information or use it to market other financial products and services?
Today’s WatchBlog post looks at our new report on why retirement plans share data and what’s being done to protect your personal information.
More than 126 million Americans participated in employer-sponsored retirement plans with assets totaling more than $9 trillion (as of 2023). When your employer offers a 401(k) or other retirement account, they usually rely on outside service providers to manage it. For example, asset managers need access to your data to invest employee and employer retirement contributions. Payroll providers need the information to ensure retirement contributions are accurately processed. And record keepers need it to manage your account.