Today, we are proud to announce three major milestones for the Vestwell State Savings program: the OregonSaves program has been successfully converted onto the BNY Mellon platform in partnership with Vestwell State Savings (Sumday) platform, the MyCTSavings pilot program launched this fall, and the jointly won competitive bid to power the MarylandSaves Secure Choice IRA program.

State Auto-IRA programs have recently been growing in popularity across the country. According to a report by the National Institute for Retirement Security (NIRS), “there has been a high degree of action to address the retirement challenges facing Americans by providing increased access to retirement programs” at the state level. To date, 46 states have considered or enacted legislation on retirement savings programs.

In a move to support these public-sponsored savings programs, Vestwell announced its strategic acquisition of Sumday, a subsidiary of BNY Mellon, and the launch of Vestwell State Savings. The Vestwell State Savings platform is designed to be simple and intuitive, where we partner with states to help the small businesses in their state onboard and process payroll with ease, while also giving employees and individuals a modern and user-friendly experience that makes it effortless for them to start saving.

“There’s an incredible opportunity right now for states to actively support small businesses and increase access to a range of essential savings programs including 529 college savings, 529A ABLE, and Auto-IRAs for individual savers in their communities,” Aaron Schumm, Founder and CEO of Vestwell. “We are thrilled to partner with Oregon, Connecticut, and Maryland, bringing us one step closer to closing the retirement savings gap in the United States.”

OregonSaves

The OregonSaves program has been a leading pioneer in state-run retirement programs, where 17,000 registered employers and 115,000 employees now have an easy and automatic way to save for their future. OregonSaves is available to Oregon workers whose employers do not offer a workplace savings plan, self-employed individuals, and others who want an easy way to save.

The thoughtful collaboration between the Vestwell, OregonSaves, and BNY Mellon teams has delivered a successful conversion of the OregonSaves program onto the Vestwell platform in early November. Through this conversion, Vestwell has made significant improvements to its onboarding process. The average onboarding of a new business now takes less than four mins. A quick and efficient onboarding process showcases Vestwell’s leading technology and capacity to quickly scale and bring on more state partners.

Since the conversion, Vestwell has already onboarded over 6,200 businesses and processed over 9,600 contributions. To date, there are $142M total funds saved through the OregonSaves program.

"We couldn’t be happier about our new partnership with Vestwell,” said Michael Parker, Executive Director at the Oregon Treasury Savings Network. “The attention to detail from this team and its efficient onboarding process were critical to a successful conversion. OregonSaves provides retirement savings to a number of critical sectors, including Homecare Workers and Personal Support Workers. The Vestwell team was instrumental in providing the support needed to ensure these workers maintained access to their retirement accounts. We look forward to continuing to serve small businesses and supporting their employees’ financial futures through this partnership.”

MyCTSavings

In parallel, Connecticut began its initial pilot launch of MyCTSavings, a new retirement program established by the State of Connecticut’s Retirement Security Authority.  The full program rollout is anticipated to begin in early 2022. MyCTSavings will help the more than 600,000 private-sector employees in Connecticut that do not currently have access to a retirement plan at work.

MarylandSaves

Maryland will be the third state to launch on the Vestwell State Savings platform. BNY Mellon and Vestwell recently won a competitive bid to power the new MarylandSaves program, which will launch automatic workplace retirement and emergency savings in mid-2022.

Through the launch of this program, 1.2 million Marylanders will now have the opportunity to save through their workplace. Maryland businesses will be able to offer a voluntary, automatic, cost-effective retirement and emergency savings plan to their employees.

“We are delighted to announce the launch of the new MarylandSaves program in partnership with Vestwell State Savings/Sumday and BNY Mellon,” said MarylandSaves’ acting Executive Director, Glenn Simmons. “We chose to partner with Vestwell due to its leading user-friendly technology platform, simplified onboarding process, and seamless payroll integration. Through this great partnership, we’ll be able to provide savings solutions, critical for a more sustainable financial future for Marylanders.”

As the States continue to help address the savings gap, Vestwell and BNY Mellon are proud to work alongside to incorporate a solution that has otherwise been unavailable to businesses and individuals in such a capacity.  Vestwell remains committed and excited in continuing to deliver upon its mission of closing the American savings gap by partnering directly with States across the country. To learn more, visit Vestwell State Savings.