Hewitt: 45% Of Departing Workers Cash Out 401(k)s

Close to half of workers who take part in 401(k) plans cash out of the plans when they leave their employers, according to researchers at Hewitt Associates Inc.[@@]

The researchers at Hewitt, Lincolnshire, Ill., a consulting firm, studied about 200,000 401(k) plan participants and found that 45% elected to take cash distributions once they left their jobs.

Although 32% of departing plan participants kept their savings in their current 401(k) plans, only 23% rolled the money over into qualified individual retirement arrangements or other retirement plans.