Behavioral scientists boast that their insights have increased savings in 401(k) plans. Evidence shows that careful use of default decision settings and nudges can prevent decisional errors and encourage behavior that aligns with public policy while retaining individual power of choice. Indeed, even the Swedish National Academy of Sciences highlighted the effect of his behavioral science work on retirement savings when it awarded the 2017 Nobel Prize in economics to Professor Richard Thaler. This article shows, though, that, unlike the three plan default settings attributed to behavioral science insights, the default setting that I term automatic retention fails. That failure means too many savers take affirmative actions to move (rollover) assets from their 401(k) plans to individual retirement accounts (IRAs). Primarily because of rollovers, IRAs hold more than 11.5% of U.S. household financial assets. However, usually the decision to roll over is not an optimal choice for the saver. This last mile problem undermines the goal of the first three default settings to help employees build long‐term retirement savings. This article examines research on what causes default settings to be slippery, as is the case for automatic retention, instead of sticky, as is the case for the other 401(k) default settings. It then evaluates three categories of potential interventions to mitigate the popularity of rollovers: aggressive regulation, expansion of fiduciary obligation, and use of incremental impeding altering rules. It concludes that adoption of incremental impeding altering rules would be both politically feasible and effective in increasing the stickiness of the automatic retention default setting.

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行为科学如何最终使退休储蓄者失败：一项崇高的实验

行为科学家吹嘘说，他们的见解增加了401（k）计划的成本。有证据表明，谨慎使用默认决策设置和微调可以防止决策错误，并鼓励符合公共政策的行为，同时保留个人选择权。的确，甚至在瑞典国家科学院（Richard Thaler）授予2017年诺贝尔经济学奖时，也强调了他的行为科学工作对退休储蓄的影响。但是，本文显示，与归因于行为科学见解的三个计划默认设置不同，我称之为自动保留的默认设置会失败。这种失败意味着太多的储户会采取平权行动，将资产（从401（k）计划转移（转存）到个人退休帐户（IRA）。主要是因为结转 IRA持有美国家庭金融资产的11.5％以上。但是，通常决定进行过渡不是保护程序的最佳选择。最后一英里的问题破坏了前三个默认设置的目标，即帮助员工积累长期退休储蓄。本文研究了导致默认设置变得不光滑（如自动保留的情况）而不是像其他401（k）默认设置那样变得发粘的原因的研究。然后，它评估了三类缓解过渡现象的潜在干预措施：积极的监管，信托义务的扩大以及使用渐进式阻碍性变更规则。