CalSavers, the nation's largest state-sponsored retirement savings program, is taking to social media, community organization outreach and webinars for employers as a new, extended deadline approaches.
Due to the coronavirus pandemic, the $8.8 million CalSavers Retirement Savings Program, Sacramento, Calif., extended the registration deadline to Sept. 30 for some 8,000 employers with 100 or more employees that do not currently offer an employer-sponsored retirement plan. The original deadline was June 30. CalSavers officials are trying to raise awareness by investing in digital advertising and marketing on almost every social media platform. They are also reaching out to chambers of commerce and other business associations across California to get the word out. And they are sending registration notifications directly to every employer by email and traditional postal service mail.
To reduce the risk of meeting during the pandemic, CalSavers officials have replaced its in-person employer seminars with webinars three or four times a week to provide overviews for employers and how-to instruction on getting started.
Employers that do not sign up for the state plan or create one for employees will start facing penalties as of October 2021.
"We used to do a lot of this work in person, but now it's all transitioned to webinar format, which allows us to do more," said Katie Selenski, CalSavers executive director.
CalSavers has so far signed up 2,283 employers, Ms. Selenski said. Right now, plan assets are growing a rate of $100,000 per day, she added.
"I'm proud that we're able to do a lot with a little," Ms. Selenski said. "One of the requirements of the law establishing CalSavers is that we not incur any taxpayer cost, that we must be self-sufficient based on saver fees."
