The 401k Podcast with Fexingo: Employer Retirement Plans, Matching, and Long-Term Saving

Episode 79 of The 401k Podcast with Fexingo unpacks the Roth match — a relatively new employer contribution option. Lucas explains how the SECURE 2.0 Act allows plans to deposit matching contributions into a Roth account, turning tax-deferred into tax-free growth. He walks through the mechanics: the match is taxable income in the year it's made, so participants need to plan for the tax bill. Luna...

In this episode of The 401k Podcast, Lucas and Luna break down the often-overlooked after-tax 401k contribution — not to be confused with Roth — and how it enables the so-called 'mega backdoor Roth' strategy. They explain the three-tier contribution system (pre-tax, Roth, after-tax), the annual limit for 2026 ($70,000 for under-50), and why most plans don't automatically allow in-plan Roth convers...

Episode 77 of The 401k Podcast with Fexingo dives into auto-escalation—the automatic annual increase in your 401k contribution percentage. Lucas and Luna explain how this feature, often opt-out by design, can boost savings rates from 6% to 12% over six years without requiring any action. They break down a real-world case: a 30-year-old earning $60,000 who, with auto-escalation of 1% per year, coul...

Episode 76 of The 401k Podcast breaks down the SECURE 2.0 changes to hardship withdrawals that took effect in 2024 and 2025, plus a new IRS rule from early 2026 that lets participants self-certify eligibility without employer review. Lucas and Luna walk through an example: a 42-year-old engineer at a mid-size manufacturer who needs emergency funds for medical bills. They explain the old rule requi...

Episode 75 of The 401k Podcast with Fexingo explores the Safe Harbor 401k match—a provision that ensures your employer's contributions are fully vested immediately and the plan passes nondiscrimination tests automatically. Lucas and Luna break down how the Safe Harbor rules work, why they benefit both high earners and rank-and-file employees, and what happens if your employer switches from a tradi...

Episode 74 of The 401k Podcast dives into the Qualified Default Investment Alternative (QDIA) — the default fund your employer picks when you don't choose one. Lucas and Luna explain why your QDIA is likely a target-date fund, how it protects plan fiduciaries, and what happens if you want to opt out. They also break down the 2026 automatic enrollment rule changes shaping default investments for mi...

Starting in 2025, the Department of Labor launched a new online lost-and-found database for forgotten 401k balances. In this episode, Lucas and Luna dig into how it works, who it helps, and what it means for workers who left small retirement accounts behind at old jobs. They walk through a real scenario: a worker with a $4,200 balance from a job they left eight years ago. The database lets them se...

Lucas and Luna explain non-elective employer contributions to 401k plans — contributions employees get without having to defer a single dollar of their own salary. They walk through how the contribution works, why some employers use it instead of or alongside a matching formula, and the specific rules around vesting, caps, and testing. With a concrete example: a company contributing 3% of salary f...

Starting in 2024, the SECURE 2.0 Act allowed 401k plans to treat student loan payments as elective deferrals for matching purposes. In this episode, Lucas and Luna break down how the student loan match works, who qualifies, and why only a small fraction of employers have adopted it so far. They walk through a concrete example using a hypothetical employee earning $60,000 with $500 monthly loan pay...

Episode 70 of The 401k Podcast with Fexingo explores a practical question many employees overlook: how long should you keep your old 401k statements and quarterly reports? Lucas and Luna walk through the IRS and DOL recordkeeping guidelines, explain the three-year audit window, and discuss why holding onto annual statements until you fully withdraw or roll over the account makes sense. They cite t...

Episode 69 of The 401k Podcast digs into the fee disclosure notice your 401k plan sends every year. Lucas and Luna walk through a real-world example from a mid-sized manufacturing firm in Ohio whose 2025 notice buried a twenty-three basis point increase in the recordkeeping fee on page four. They explain where to find the total plan cost, how to compare it to the industry median of 1.2 percent for...

When your employer gets bought, your 401k doesn't just sit there. Lucas and Luna walk through what actually happens to retirement plan assets in a merger or acquisition — using the 2024 Capital One-Discover deal as a real example. They explain the two most common outcomes: plan termination and plan merger, plus the key deadlines and tax traps employees face. You'll learn why matching contributions...

In this episode, Lucas and Luna explain how the new Emergency Savings Account (ESA) feature in some 401k plans works. They break down the SECURE 2.0 provision that allows employers to offer a short-term savings bucket within your retirement plan, with different tax treatment and contribution limits. Using a recent Vanguard report showing 42% of large plans plan to add this feature by 2027, they ex...

Many workers think they understand their 401k match, but common misconceptions can cost thousands. Lucas and Luna break down the three main match formulas—dollar-for-dollar, partial match, and safe harbor—and walk through a real example: an employee earning $75,000 at a company that offers a 50% match on the first 6% of pay. They explain how cliff vesting vs. graded vesting affects what you actual...

In this episode of The 401k Podcast, Lucas and Luna break down the new Roth catch-up contribution rules that took effect in 2026. Under the SECURE 2.0 Act, participants aged 60 to 63 can now contribute up to $11,250 as a catch-up, but only into a Roth account if their plan offers it. The hosts explain the mechanics with a concrete example: a 62-year-old earning $150,000 who previously saved $7,500...

Episode 64 of The 401k Podcast with Fexingo digs into the SECURE 2.0 changes to catch-up contributions that took effect in January 2026. Lucas and Luna break down the new rules: starting at age 60, the catch-up limit jumps to $11,250 per year for most plans, but the big shift is that all catch-ups for workers earning over $145,000 must now be made as Roth contributions. The hosts walk through a co...

Episode 63 of The 401k Podcast with Fexingo dives into the often-misunderstood world of in-service withdrawals from employer retirement plans. Lucas and Luna break down the key distinctions between traditional pre-tax and Roth accounts, the age-59-and-a-half rule, and the little-known hardship withdrawal exceptions. They use a concrete example of a 45-year-old employee at a mid-sized tech firm con...

Episode 62 of The 401k Podcast with Fexingo dives into the managed account services offered by many employer retirement plans. Lucas and Luna break down a real-world case from Vanguard's 2025 participant data: the average managed account fee is 0.30% annually, but how does that compare to a simple three-fund portfolio? They explore whether the active management, tax-loss harvesting, and rebalancin...

Lucas and Luna explore the self-directed brokerage account (SDBA) option inside 401k plans. Many participants don't realize they can invest beyond the plan's core menu — into individual stocks, ETFs, or even alternative assets. But with freedom comes risk: trading costs, cash drag, and the lure of performance-chasing. They walk through a real example: a Fidelity-managed plan where the average SDBA...

Lucas and Luna uncover a quiet risk hiding in millions of 401k accounts: a missing or outdated beneficiary designation. They walk through what happens when a plan participant dies without naming a beneficiary — the default payout order, probate delays, and potential tax surprises for spouses and non-spouse heirs. Lucas cites data from a 2025 recordkeeper survey showing roughly 30% of participants...

In this episode of The 401k Podcast, Lucas and Luna explain the often-overlooked forfeiture account inside employer retirement plans. When employees leave before they are fully vested, their unvested employer contributions go into a forfeiture pool, which can be used to pay plan expenses, reduce future employer contributions, or even fund profit-sharing. Using a real-world example of a mid-sized c...

In this episode of The 401k Podcast, Lucas and Luna explore the rise of financial wellness programs embedded within employer 401k plans. They focus on a specific case: how a midsize manufacturing company, Acme Industries, integrated a financial wellness platform that included student loan counseling, emergency savings accounts, and personalized budgeting tools. Lucas walks through the data: within...

In this episode of The 401k Podcast, Lucas and Luna dig into the details of 401k vesting schedules. Lucas explains the difference between cliff vesting and graded vesting, using a concrete example of a company with a three-year graded schedule. He walks through how much an employee actually owns of their employer match after one, two, and three years. Luna asks whether changing jobs resets the ves...

Episode 56 explains auto-portability — the feature that automatically moves your 401k balance from an old job to a new one when you change employers. Lucas and Luna walk through how the Retirement Clearing House and Portability Services Network enable this, why it matters for the 24 million forgotten 401k accounts, and what it means if your plan offers it. They also discuss the SECURE 2.0 provisio...

In this episode of The 401k Podcast, Lucas and Luna explore the automatic reenrollment feature in 401k plans—a provision that can sweep employees who opted out back into the plan at a default contribution rate and investment option. They discuss how this feature works under SECURE 2.0, the fiduciary considerations for plan sponsors, and what it means for employees who may have opted out years ago....