PROFESSOR SAMANTHA PRINCE QUOTED IN MARKETPLACE ARTICLE DISCUSSING 401(k) VESTING SCHEDULES
August 2023 — Professor Samantha Prince was recently quoted in the Marketplace article titled, “You may be losing out on retirement money if you leave your job early.” The article is part of its “I’ve Always Wondered” series.
The article explains 401(k) retirement plan vesting schedules, particularly as they apply to an employer’s matching contributions. Professor Prince discusses specifically how certain companies like Amazon and Home Depot that have high turnover use a vesting schedule that results in a large number of people losing out on their matching contributions.
Professor Prince also discussed the benefits of abolishing the vesting schedule altogether, including simplification of reports. “If you get rid of vesting schedules, you’re going to significantly increase people’s retirement wealth, first of all. Then you’re going to make it simpler for people to understand how much they have in retirement money. Under these schedules, workers can easily get confused about what portion of their assets is vested. Removing them would make it that much easier for workers to track their savings and figure out whether they need to save more.”
Professor Prince has written and spoken on retirement insecurity partly blaming 401(k) vesting schedules. Her article entitled, “Megacompany Employee Churn Meets 401(k) Vesting Schedules: A Sabotage on Workers’ Retirement Wealth” was published in the Yale Law & Policy Review in 2022. It provided a detailed look at vesting schedule issues with a focus on high turnover businesses.
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.