PROFESSOR SAMANTHA PRINCE AND RESEARCH ASSISTANT ANA MARIA MATOVIC FILE PUBLIC COMMENTS ON FINANCIAL INCLUSION WITH THE U.S. DEPARTMENT OF TREASURY
February 2024 — Professor Samantha J. Prince joined a member of her research team, Ana Maria Matovic ’25, in a public comment responding to the Department of Treasury’s request for information to aid its development of a national strategy to advance financial inclusion.
Their public comment drew on Professor Prince’s scholarship in the employee benefits space to inform Treasury as to how 401(k) vesting schedules exacerbate people’s ability to achieve financial well-being and health. The comment unveiled an impactful statistic that 1,870,947 participants across 909 single-employer 401(k) plans terminated employment prior to vesting in their employer’s contributions in 2022. As examples, the comment mentioned the 401(k) plans of Amazon, Cognizant Technology Solutions, Inc., Goldman Sachs, Home Depot, IBM, Walmart, and Wells Fargo.
This comment builds off research illustrated in Professor Prince’s recent published scholarship: “Megacompany Employee Churn Meets 401(k) Vesting Schedules: A Sabotage on Workers’ Retirement Wealth?” and “Employee Turnover & Partial Plan Terminations.”
The comment was directly submitted to the Department of Treasury’s Office of Consumer Policy on February 20, 2024.
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. She is an expert in company benefits schemes and retirement plans. In furtherance of her interest in aiding entrepreneurs, she is the founder and moderator of the Inside Entrepreneurship Law blog. Her research mainly comprises 401(k) plans and other employee benefits, and app-based work.