Principal Financial Group announced it has joined the Portability Services Network, a consortium of retirement plan service providers focused on helping underserved and under-saved workers improve their retirement outcomes by making it easier to transfer workplace retirement accounts when changing employers. According to a news release, Principal is a board member and one of seven owning members of PSN, which uses the auto-portability program created by Retirement Clearinghouse. Employees changing jobs more frequently and a limited ability to match participant accounts across plan provider systems have increased the need for auto-portability, according to Retirement Clearinghouse. About $92 billion in savings is prematurely cashed out of workplace retirement accounts every year, leading to additional tax implications and early withdrawal penalties for workers. This disproportionately affects those with lower retirement account balances – typically less than $5,000. PSN will assist workers with lower balances who change employers by automatically matching and moving their workplace retirement savings to their new retirement plans. The consortium currently represents about 82 million workers across more than 185,000 employer-sponsored retirement plans. As the latest owning member to join PSN, Principal adds approximately 11 million retirement plan participants and more than 46,000 plans to the coalition. The new service is expected to go live for participants in plans with administrative services provided by Principal in early 2025.