Rhode Island Partners With Connecticut to Launch Auto-IRA Program

Rhode Island General Treasurer James Diossa announced Wednesday that the Rhode Island Treasury will launch the RISavers Program, an auto-IRA plan for Rhode Island private sector employees not currently offered a plan by their employer.

RISavers—created by the Secure Choice Retirement Savings Program Act passed by the Rhode Island General Assembly in June—will partner with an existing similar program in Connecticut to offer Rhode Islanders access to retirement savings. Vestwell, a third-party administrator, will run the program in coordination with the state’s treasury, adding to the firm’s list of state-facilitated automatic IRA programs that includes Connecticut, Colorado, New Jersey and Oregon.

Rhode Island’s treasury plans to launch a pilot program in early 2025, with a full program launch followed shortly thereafter. The interstate partnership with Connecticut is the second of its type in the U.S.; Colorado offers an interstate consortium of state-run plans, which includes partnerships with Delaware and Vermont.

Employees at eligible businesses will be automatically enrolled in the program but can opt out at any time. The individual retirement accounts opened under RISavers will follow the employees if they change jobs. In addition, employees will have the ability to choose their risk preference and contribution rate.

Contributions will be processed as automatic payroll deductions, with employers providing program information and processing their employees’ deductions. Matching contributions are not allowed in the program, as with other state-facilitated programs.

Connecticut launched its program, MyCTSavings, in March 2022. Nearly 30,000 Connecticut residents have saved more than $33 million with the program to date, according to Rhode Island’s announcement.

“Over 170,000 Rhode Islanders lack access to a retirement savings plan at work,” said Diossa in a statement. “With this strategic partnership, Rhode Island has taken the first step to closing the retirement savings gap. … Through this interstate agreement, we gain an experienced partner that will help Rhode Island implement RISavers quickly and administer the program efficiently.”

RISavers will be overseen by the state treasury in cooperation with Vestwell State Savings.

Rhode Island marks the 20th state to launch an auto-IRA program. State-facilitated plans have accumulated more than $1.78 billion in assets, according to the Center for Retirement Initiatives at Georgetown University.