RETIREMENT SECURITY MATTERS

A forum for retirement savings innovation, together.

Vol 94 | August 14, 2025

Greetings! Greetings! welcome to Retirement Security Matters—where we talk about retirement readiness innovation across public and private spaces.

Friend, happy Thursday. It’s hot here. Sunny. The river is rippling. It’s campfire 🔥season, Oregon style. This pretty much means “no campfires” because the woods in August are beautiful, but BONE DRY. So, instead we enjoy the breeze in the tops of the giant firs and daydream about everlasting summer. And for your summer reading enjoyment, we have some terrific stuff ahead:

Teykaerts on CalSavers – all the best stuff
$2.3 billion and meteoric – check out these state stats
We Like Babies and We Cannot Lie
Did You Say Payroll Integration?
Hot Hot Hot Sauce – summer reading style
Goofing Around, and …
Pix of the Week! Beach style. Like … of course!

David Teykaerts: CalSavers at Scale—Building Access, Trust, and Momentum in 2025

In this latest leadership interview for our Campfire Series, we’re checking in with David Teykaerts, Executive Director of CalSavers—the nation’s largest state-facilitated auto-IRA program.

Six years in, CalSavers has topped $1 billion in assets, surpassed 550,000 funded saver accounts, and engaged 50,000 employers.

Teykaerts says: That’s proof of concept for a program designed to reach workers who would otherwise have little or no access to retirement savings at work. What do you think? Dive into the summer pool with us. Buoys ahead:

Key milestones and momentum—and why simplicity wins.
Employer experience—turning saver contributions into a habit.
Innovation in outreach—payroll integration and the first employer cash incentive in the Auto IRA space.
Opportunities ahead—making the Saver’s Match work for CalSavers participants.
Operational must-haves—why RFP season matters for program success.
Next-phase challenges—ensuring long-term compliance and closing participation gaps.

David, it’s a pleasure to catch up today. Let's start with a snapshot. What’s new at CalSavers in 2025?

Good news—we’ve got some big highlights. We eclipsed several psychologically significant milestones for the program (see above). Just over six years in to see over a billion dollars saved by people—that’s meaningful. Now these workers have got access to the retirement savings system. And then there’s the 50,000 businesses that are actively running this program. That’s 50,000 employers helping their people access the markets, start creating financial stability, and begin participating in something that was out of reach before. That’s one of my favorite things to talk about.

You’ve provided lots of simple, easy-to-use information that is employer-focused, including guides and humans as guides.

A major priority for us has been making the process as simple as possible—especially for employers. They really are the linchpin. Nothing moves unless the employer takes the right action at the right time and keeps remitting contributions for eligible employees.

To help, we’ve focused on dramatically expanding access to payroll integration. When I started, we had about three payroll providers offering integration. Now, through a new partnership with Payroll Integrations—yes, that’s actually the name—employers using any of the top 100 payroll services, like ADP or Paylocity, can set it and forget it. There’s a nominal monthly fee, but many employers find the ease-of-use worth it. (RSM sez – see our further note on payroll integration, below.)

David, you’re always innovating. Talk us through your new employer incentives.

To our knowledge, this is the first time a state Auto IRA program has offered a direct cash incentive to employers. We set aside $1 million to encourage early compliance from the smallest businesses—those with as few as one employee, not including the owner or spouse.

That’s our final wave of mandated participation, and it’s a big one: over half a million micro-businesses in California fall into that category. Their compliance deadline is New Year’s Eve 2025, and we’re doing everything we can to prevent a last-minute rush.

👉 Read the full conversation with David Teykaerts here.

Thank you, David—and good thoughts for a great fall season.

Want to connect? You can reach David T by email here and on LinkedIn here.

David Teykaerts is the Executive Director of the CalSavers Retirement Savings Board, appointed in July 2023 by California State Treasurer Fiona Ma. CalSavers is the nation’s largest state-facilitated retirement program, managing approximately $1.1 billion in assets for over 530,000 funded saver accounts. As Executive Director, David oversees daily operations, ensures professional management of program investments, leads employer outreach and enforcement, and serves as the program’s primary spokesperson to both media and the financial industry.

By the Numbers: State Auto IRAs Today

Where We Are – July 31, 2025.

Let’s start with Funded Accounts – we’re now at 1.06 million – up about 1% from last month, 5% from last quarter, and up 16% since this time last year. That’s nice growth.

Helped by markets and contributions, Total Assets have grown much faster. We’re up 2.3% since last month, 15% over the last quarter, and a whopping 43% since July 2024. Total assets across the Auto IRA programs are now right at $2.3 billion.

For more great stats, including average savings rates, employer participation, and state-specific data, check out this terrific page at the Georgetown Center for Retirement Initiatives.

Thank you to Angela Antonelli and the Georgetown Center for Retirement Initiatives for this data.

Baby CFPs and Future Retirements

Baby CFPs are not the same as CFP® babies🚼😂. You know, Certified Financial Planners. Financial Advisors. But we’re talking here about college seniors, newly minted college grads, and training for a future world where people and technology are going to work verrry closely to develop retirement readiness maps and action plans for other humans.

This summer, a college senior we know named Zane joined MassMutual as an intern—one of eight in his training cohort—immersing himself in onboarding that’s part structured, part connective. We like this example of training cohorts combining professional relationships, mentorship, and real-world experience alongside high-quality digital tools. Many other firms offer these programs in different ways, including folks like Northwestern Mutual and UBS.

Why does this matter? The CFP® Board believes that internships help newcomers increase industry knowledge, understand varied roles, gain hands‑on experience, and establish meaningful professional connections within a firm. We also know that career entry positions aren’t solo endeavors—they involve supervision, mentoring, and often sponsorship for CFP® certification, from coursework to exam prep, and more. Zane needs folks like us sharing our vision, our expertise, and part of our staffing budgets to train him and bring him along in this critical space.

We also like that our intern friend Zane is the furthest thing from a Wall Street type. He was raised in the country, worked with his hands as a self-employed arborist (that’s dangerous, Zane), and is focused on listening more than most 20-somethings we know. He’s also highly motivated, and—like many in his age range—wants to work in a flexible way where his financial outcomes are closely tied to his own actions and efforts.

Why does this matter? The Zanes of today are going to be leading our financial system in the future. We love the way Gen Z thinks and it’s cool to see more of them getting to work—and bringing their ideals with them. Keep your eye out for a young person near you.

Retirement security matters! / Lisa

Did You Say Payroll Integration?

Interestingly, David Teykaerts was not the only person focused on payroll integration this week. We loved this piece by our friend Kara Woolley of Manifest—A Fundamental Building Block of 401(k)s—Payroll Integration. We’re going to quote her. Kara comments that,

Today, small and micro businesses are driving a boom in new 401(k)s
When millions more workers can access workplace savings and build long-term wealth, the financial freedom for our society becomes boundless, and
This isn't just about efficiency—it's about equity through innovation

Want more of Kara's perspective on payroll integration? Read here.

Hot Hot Sauce! Cool Stuff

We’re (really) focused on your reading list today. We’re only giving you three because we really want you to read them.

1 - Vanguard, How America Saves 2025 (June 2025). Fresh DC plan benchmarks: 61% of plans use auto-enrollment, those plans hit 94% participation; hardship withdrawals ticked up to 4.8% in 2024; average balance $148k. Ticking up but low? Our interpretation. More here.

2 - EBRI/Greenwald, 2025 Retirement Confidence Survey—A Closer Look at Black Americans (June 26). Among households ≥$75k income, 77% of Black Americans report saving for retirement vs. 87% of non-Black peers; report highlights higher incidence of problematic debt and lower assets. Important. More here.

3 - NBER Working Paper - How Do Tax Incentives Influence Employer Decisions to Offer Retirement Benefits? (July). An early look at small-employer plan-startup tax credit take-up and its effect on coverage under recent federal incentives. TLDR – “take-up remains low” – but DO read this for yourself. It matters. More here.

UPCOMING EVENTS

Here are three we’re looking at:

A - September 14+ - NAST Annual Conference 2025 – Denver, Colorado. State peeps – they are the best. There’s always an Auto IRA conclave somewhere in the building. Also, the home of Colorado Secure Choice.

B – September 18 – P&I’s Influential Women in Institutional Investing – Chicago, Illinois. Can we say Girls Just Wanna Have Fun? But also, they want to manage money and change the world. So they’re doing it. Also, the home of Illinois Secure Choice.

C – October 15 – DCIIA Academic Forum – Minneapolis, Minnesota. Stay in the know, stay sharp, with the industry’s top thinkers and innovators. The perfect size. The right people. Also, the home of Minnesota Secure Choice.

Goofing Around

This week we finished reading Ron Chernow’s Mark Twain. Like the events and reality of his times, Samuel Clemens/Mark Twain and his bestsellers evince mixed feelings. Clemens’ own views on race may be significantly different than a casual reading of Tom Sawyer or Huckleberry Finn would suggest. In any case, Chernow offers a pretty interesting view of this deeply American man. It was a good read.

And now that we’ve offended everyone, we didn’t know what to read next so we are working our way through SPQR: a History of Ancient Rome, by classicist Mary Beard. We once dated someone named Marty Beard. Probably no relation. In any case, this book runs for 18 hours and 30 minutes on Audible. We may or may not finish it before it gets revoked from our library on August 19. #summerreads

And Finally, ... we bring you Pix of the Week!

After all that heavy lifting, you need some beach time! We think this counts. David T was willing to share a family shot of his three lovely girls—girlfriend Jessica, and twin daughters Alice (left) and Audrey (right), age 7. Does David look cold here in the icy breeze of Bodega Bay? Yes, yes he does. As we often say to every other male in our universe: Dear, you need a sweater.

That’s it for this edition. ❤ Hug your people and change the world.

Massena Associates provides process, policy, and implementation consulting on retirement savings programs and products.

Our clientele includes public entities, policy organizations, and private sector providers. Our specialty – efficient, targeted results. We are an active speaker on retirement security topics, including state-facilitated programs, MEPs and more.

If you’d like to explore working together, we welcome the conversation. Connect with us here, and at 339-236-0684.

RESOURCES you can use:

Looking for a great retirement savings innovation resource? The Center for Retirement Research at Boston College develops and hosts terrific content and proprietary research related to states, financial security, social security, and more.

The Defined Contribution Institutional Investment Association (DCIIA) is dedicated to enhancing the retirement security of America’s workers. To do this, DCIIA fosters a dialogue among the leaders of the defined contribution community who are passionate about improving defined contribution outcomes. DCIIA's site provides a range of public and member-specific resources.

The Georgetown Center for Retirement Initiatives, Led by Angela Antonelli, GCRI provides excellent information on state-based and other retirement security innovation and policy.

Pew’s Retirement Savings Project studies the challenges and opportunities for increasing retirement savings and is another great resource - check out the work of John Scott and his terrific team.

If you want a great source of broad-based, consumer-focused retirement news, Jeffrey H. Snyder’s The Morning Pulse is your ticket. You can subscribe here.

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