PROFESSOR SAMANTHA PRINCE QUOTED IN MARKETWATCH ARTICLES DISCUSSING 401(k) PLANS WITH VESTING SCHEDULES

Samantha PrinceApril 2024 — Professor Samantha Prince was recently quoted in two MarketWatch articles this month: “U.S. workers are losing $1.5 billion a year in 401(k) contributions” by well-known financial writer, Brett Arends, and “Vesting schedules can turn ‘free’ 401(k) money into ‘pretend’ money” by financial-planning columnist, Beth Pinsker.

Both articles cite to Professor Prince’s latest co-authored empirical work, “The Effects of 401(k) Vesting Schedules — in numbers” (forthcoming Yale Law Journal Forum), and amplify her work generally that people are losing out on large amounts of retirement money due to vesting schedule use.

Professor Prince has written and spoken on retirement insecurity partly blaming 401(k) vesting schedules and lack of easy-to-find, plan language disclosure of these vesting schedules prior to hiring. She has written several articles in this space, including “Benefits Transparency” (forthcoming Marquette Law Review), and “Megacompany Employee Churn Meets 401(k) Vesting Schedules: A Sabotage on Workers’ Retirement Wealth” published in the Yale Law & Policy Review in 2022.


Professor Samantha Prince is an Assistant Professor of Law and Director of Legal Analysis & Writing at Dickinson Law. She has a Master of Laws in Taxation from Georgetown University Law Center and was a partner in a regional law firm where she handled transactional matters that ranged from an initial public offering to regular representation of a publicly-traded company. Most of her clients were small to medium sized businesses and entrepreneurs, including start-ups. A significant part of her practice was in employee benefits including retirement plan design and operation. An expert in entrepreneurship law, she established the Dickinson Law entrepreneurship program, is an advisor for the Entrepreneurship Law Certificate that is available to students, and is the founder and moderator of the Inside Entrepreneurship Law blog. Her research mainly comprises the changing world of work.