401(k) Loan Defaults

Who Is at Risk and Why?

Timothy (Jun) Lu, Olivia Mitchell, Stephen P. Utkus

Published Dec 28, 2011

Many 401(k) retirement plans allow participants to take loans from their accounts before they retire. However, if they have not paid them off before leaving their jobs, they must pay them in full immediately. Based on a large dataset from Vanguard, this study is the first of its kind to quantify how many people take out loans and, of those, how many default. It proposes changes in retirement policy to reduce the financial risk posed by these loans, particularly for vulnerable groups.

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Document Details

  • Copyright: RAND Corporation
  • Availability: Web-Only
  • Year: 2011
  • Pages: 2
  • Document Number: WB-112

Citation

RAND Style Manual
Lu, Timothy (Jun), Olivia Mitchell, and Stephen P. Utkus, 401(k) Loan Defaults: Who Is at Risk and Why? RAND Corporation, WB-112, 2011. As of September 7, 2024: https://www.rand.org/pubs/working_briefs/WB112.html
Chicago Manual of Style
Lu, Timothy (Jun), Olivia Mitchell, and Stephen P. Utkus, 401(k) Loan Defaults: Who Is at Risk and Why? Santa Monica, CA: RAND Corporation, 2011. https://www.rand.org/pubs/working_briefs/WB112.html.
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