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2021: a few favorites from an unusual year 

It’s worth taking a moment to enjoy some of the highlights of the year and offer a round of applause for some excellence in action. Here are a few top-of-mind kudos to some of our favorite states.

Let’s start with Virginia! Well done to you VA for passing legislation this year that enabled a new retirement savings program targeted to launch by July 2023. Led by Mary Morris’ VA529 team, the program has retained a director, Peter Thompson, established an Advisory Committee, and begun its work in the direction of launch. No pressure from us but it seems like Virginia could launch ahead of schedule. You guys are very organized.

Another of our favorites, Maine, also passed Auto IRA legislation this year. Treasurer Henry Beck’s office will staff the new program, slated to roll out to Wave 1 (employers with 25+ employees and no retirement plan) by April 1, 2023. You’re on a fast track, Mainers, and in good hands.

Not to be left out, the great state of Colorado passed leg in June 2021, hired a director, Hunter Railey, appointed its program Board, and has been meeting and making progress over the course of the year. Colorado is announcing rulemaking and a program pilot launch in 2022. Recently they also announced a partnership with neighboring state New Mexico – a first-in-the-nation cooperative effort between two states related to state-facilitated private sector retirement savings programs.

It’s been about three years since we’ve seen a new program launch in the US (CalSavers, November 2018), so it’s exciting to report that Connecticut has taken in its first participant contributions this year. Well done and good progress, Connecticut Retirement Savings Authority! It’s anticipated that the MyCTSavings program will begin enrolling Wave 1 employees in the first half of 2022.

Close at hand, there’s a good chance that Maryland$aves will be the next program achieving funded accounts early in the 2022 year. Maryland’s program will have some new features and provides an opportunity for more innovation and proof-of-concept in the Auto IRA space.

And, we can’t skip three of our other favorite states whose retirement savings programs keep moving forward in important ways. OregonSaves showed us what it looks like to change providers; CalSavers is showing us the effectiveness of well-crafted outreach and engagement plans at driving early employer enrollments; and Illinois successfully legislated the expansion of coverage in the state to workers at employers with 5+ employees and no existing retirement plan, opening access for hundreds of thousands more workers to begin saving in 2022.

It would be LOVELY to report that federal legislation had passed this year, enabling universal access to payroll-based retirement savings in the US. Despite some excellent work at the federal level and the persistent commitment of legislators like Representative Richard Neal, we are not quite there.

States, keep up the GREAT WORK. As of the end of 2021, nearly 20 million workers are or will be covered by the ten states authorized to offer Auto IRA programs. That’s 35% of the uncovered workforce in the US. Caveat: we’re scooping into this figure the employees of the smallest employers (under 5’s), who are not always included. So the number is a little overstated if you are considering auto-enrollees only.

States we haven’t mentioned, you’re our favorites too and we know you are up to great things, both over the longer term and in the upcoming legislative session. Hats off to you – and here’s to a productive, family-wealth-enabling year in 2022.

Year over year: We are awaiting fresh metrics from Oregon as they process their provider transition. In the meantime, we’ve created a hybrid view that shows you the most current consolidated figures for 2021 compared to equivalent data from 2020.

What we see, very simply – assets over the last twelve months are up $240 million and 2.8x, from $134M to $375M. The number we love the most – funded accounts – is up by nearly 200,000 people to 418,620, almost double where we were a year ago. Average account size is up by about 50%, to nearly $900.

Connecticut (workforce 1.6 million) – The Connecticut Retirement Security Authority met on December 17, 2021. The meeting agenda and minutes are available here. The board thanked outgoing Comptroller Kevin Lembo for his service and his advocacy and support for the program. Staff provided the board with an update on a data sharing agreement that has been reached between the State Comptroller’s Office and the state’s Department of Labor. BNY Mellon provided an update on participation in the pilot program, which currently includes four employers. Separately the board reviewed and approved its line of credit request of $205,000 for the upcoming fiscal year.

New Mexico (workforce 1 million) – The New Mexico Work & $ave program has just issued an RFI for information on Retirement Plan Marketplace, Financial Service Providers. "The New Mexico State Treasurer’s Office, on behalf of the New Mexico Work and $ave Board, is developing protocols by which financial service providers will be approved to offer retirement savings plans to individuals, small businesses, and employees through the Work and $ave Retirement Plan Marketplace." You can find more information on the program here and download the full RFP here. Responses due January 18.

Imagine you have a friend living in Hilo and that she would really like to see you (and vice versa!) During that little window between Christmas and New Year’s when you are cleansing your palate, you may hop on a plane to see if there’s anything interesting afoot on the Big Island.

Hilo gets 142 inches of rain a year. Yes. 142. But perhaps one Wednesday morning you wake up and it’s unaccountably beautiful. You may sit on the front steps drinking coffee, watching the neighbors pitter-putter while a kolea bird struts across the grass. 

If it’s your lucky day, you may spend a little time contemplating the old growth Hapu`u ferns in your friend’s back yard. If you notice the banana plants in front of them are sporting a few dead fronds you may be tempted to get out your friend’s garden snips and cut them off.

If you do that, be careful. You may run across some fire ants and get bitten on the neck. 

A surefire distraction from that might be a walk around Coconut Island. You might find some sea glass. After that you might go to Paul’s Place for a late breakfast. Yes, you need a reservation. It will be worth it. When you ask, “what is a Breakfast Caprese?” Paul may start his answer by saying, “that, my friend, is a love story.” And as he begins to describe how it’s made, you know you’ll be ordering it.

Don’t worry. They’re just chillaxing, recovering from 2021 and getting ready to swim gently ❤ into 2022 with you.

That’s it for this edition. 🥂Have a Happy and Safe New Year!

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

Our clientele includes states, governments, 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.

Looking for a great retirement savings innovation resource? Led by Dr. Alicia Munnell, 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 Georgetown Center for Retirement Initiatives, Exec Angela Antonelli, 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.