February 17, 2022
New state-facilitated retirement savings programs are making a significant contribution to closing the gap for 57 million private sector workers who have lacked access to employer-sponsored retirement savings plans. In just the past six years, 14 states have adopted programs with the potential to reach almost 20 million of these workers.
The success of these programs is already evident. Even though many of these efforts remain in their early stages of planning and implementation, just three of these states — CalSavers, Illinois Secure Choice, and OregonSaves — have already accumulated $420 million in assets from more than 440,000 savers working for 47,000 different employers, and they are still bringing new employers and savers on board every day.
More of the new state programs are slated to begin working with employers and enrolling new savers in 2022. State leadership continues to drive innovation as states are now also looking to create interstate agreements and partner to launch such programs. Colorado and New Mexico are working on a partnership agreement, and more seem likely to consider this approach to increase retirement savings access affordably and effectively.
During this one-hour webinar several of these state-facilitated retirement savings programs shared their experiences to date, how these new program continue to innovate in their design and implementation, and what the experience has been for both employers and employees.
Moderator:
- Angela Antonelli, Research Professor and Executive Director, Center for Retirement Initiatives, Georgetown University’s McCourt School of Public Policy
Panelists:
- The Honorable Stacy Garrity, Treasurer, Commonwealth of Pennsylvania
- The Honorable Josh Gotbaum, Chair, MarylandSaves
- Mary Morris, CEO, Virginia529 and the VA Retirement Savings Program
- John Scott, Retirement Savings Project Director, The Pew Charitable Trusts
- Katie Selenski, Executive Director, CalSavers Retirement Savings Board
- The Honorable Dave Young, Treasurer, State of Colorado, and Chair, Colorado Secure Savings Program Board