Hunter Railey, executive director of the plan, talked compliance and timelines
As it did with its highly informative Family and Medical Leave Insurance (FAMLI) webinar, NFIB Colorado hosted another one on the SecureSavings Program, which, like FAMLI, took effect at the beginning of the year.
Employers with five or more employees are now required to enroll in the SecureSavings Program if they do not currently offer their employees a retirement plan. There is no additional cost to the employer and contributions are the sole responsibility of the employee.
“This is not a pension, it’s a defined contribution plan,” said special guest Hunter Railey, executive director of the Colorado SecureSavings Program. “That means taxpayers don’t take on any additional liabilities or funding shortfalls. The money savers put in the account is the money that is saved and grows over time.”
According to Railey, what drove the SecureSavings policy into being was a “national retirement savings shortfall crisis. This creates an enormous financial burden on state and local governments, and eventually that’s going to have to be paid for in some way.”
After speaking on the cost of doing nothing, the feasibility of a marketplace similar to the Affordable Care Act for health care, or an auto-IRA program, Railey said SecureSavings took the auto-IRA program option “to make sure there’s at least a baseline option for folks should they be unable or unwilling to pursue a private-plan option.”
At the 23-minute mark, Railey took questions from attendees that answered or clarified:
- Ways to comply
- Employee counts
- What if no notice was delivered
- When does the enforcement of the law start (February 2024)
- How are notices delivered
- Employees who are already getting retirement benefits
- What about part-time, call-in, and seasonal workers
- How to adjust for high turnover of employees
- Why a similar program in Washington state isn’t working and why one in Oregon is
- How financial advisors can partner with the state.
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