1 in 3 Americans fall victim to ‘retirement drift’ — is your nest egg at risk? Protect your financial future now

The study tracked “retirement drift” — a term denoting how forgotten retirement accounts can create a mess of scattered savings that, in some cases, trace back to multiple workplaces.

The study found that 39% of Americans still have retirement savings accounts with an old employer. Of those, 34% said they “lost track” of those accounts. Broken down by generation, the number jumped to 50% of Gen Zers and 45% of Millennials, with Gen Xers hitting 30% and Boomers at 14%.

“Deciding what to do with a 401(k) from a previous employer can take a back seat when you’re starting a new job and managing other financial priorities,” Jane Bartosik, Empower’s SVP, Wealth Solutions, said in a statement. “These accounts can accumulate, making it harder to see your complete retirement picture and know what steps to take next.”

And beyond clouding your retirement picture, losing track of those savings accounts can actually cost you retirement income in the long run.

The hidden costs of forgotten retirement accounts

Over the course of a 40-year career, the Government Accountability Office says that the average American could change jobs more than 10 times and that “indecision about what to do with their retirement savings” during that process can impact their retirement security.

Generally, when an employee leaves a job with a retirement plan like a 401(k), they have four options: roll over the money into a new employer’s retirement plan, keep it where it is, move it into an IRA or cash out.

Fidelity advises that rolling it over to a new account is easiest if the new employer’s plan allows it, while an IRA could offer a wider array of investment options.

Leaving the money with your old employer, meanwhile, prevents you from contributing to the account, while plans with less than $7,000 can be legally rolled into an IRA by that employer. And, of course, cashing out means handing a chunk of your savings to the tax man.

Mychal Eagleson, founder and president of financial planning firm Teach, Plan, Retire, told Moneywise that his clients who left retirement plans with old employers only earned about 2% to 3% in compounding returns on it.

“For those closer to retirement, it’s incredibly important to be able to create a plan that accounts for their entire financial picture,” he added. “Having possibly a large account not included in that plan can lead to having to delay retirement by looking like they don’t have enough for it to be sustainable.”

And some of those forgotten retirement accounts are quite large. As of July 2025, almost 32 million 401(k) accounts were “left-behind or forgotten,” totalling around $2.1 trillion worth of assets, according to fintech company Capitalize. The same report found that those accounts boast an average balance of $66,691 and that the accounts “remain at risk of erosion by fees and stale asset allocation.”

In fact, they estimate that fees and mismanagement incurred with the forgotten accounts could cost a person up to $500,000 in “foregone savings over a career.”

When asked how respondents lost track of their retirement savings at past employers, an Empower representative told Moneywise that the confusing nature of retirement planning, a lack of prioritizing retirement savings and feeling the retirement rollover process is “overwhelming” are the biggest reasons.

How to find your forgotten retirement savings

If you’re inspired to track down old retirement accounts, Eagleson recommends starting by making a list of the relevant old employers and then searching online for their respective retirement vendors for account information. If that doesn’t work, calling their HR or benefits department or the 401(k) vendor usually leads to someone who can help.

He also suggested that, to mitigate the overwhelming nature of the process, you could either hire a firm to help you or simply tackle the old workplaces one account at a time.