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Continued Strong Growth for CalSavers in August

Government Affairs

Summer heat held in August — not only for California, but also for its state-run retirement plan. The CalSavers Retirement Savings Board, which administers CalSavers, reports that by many measures strong growth remains consistent

Some of the growth reflects the June 30, 2022 deadline for employers with five or more employees in the Golden State to register with CalSavers, and the results for the first two months after that deadline. 

CalSavers, formally launched on July 1, 2019, has required employers to either begin offering a retirement plan if they had not done so or register with the program, in waves based on the size of their workforce. Employers with more than 100 employees were to do so by Sept. 30, 2020; those with 50 or more employees had until June 30, 2021. 

Registrations jumped sharply between May 31 and June 30. Subsequent rates in other areas continued to show robust increases throughout the summer, reflecting the new activity by the suddenly higher number of employers that registered in June—such as employers that started payroll deductions, payroll contributing accounts and total assets. Similarly, withdrawals and opt-out rates also have been growing at a stronger rate. 

The one outlier has been average account balance, which rose sharply from June to July but in August fell back to June levels. 

More specifically, CalSavers grew by the following measures: 
 

Measure As of Aug. 31, 2022 As of July 31, 2022 As of June 30, 2022 As of May 31, 2022
Employers registered 106,959 103,994  98,417 56,556
Payroll contributing accounts 362,331 325,422 301,124 285,275
Total assets $270,576,561 $256,256,844 $223,049,153 $221,629,703
Average funded account balance  $807 $854 $806 $845

 

Withdrawals

Participants may make withdrawals from their accounts as well. The amount withdrawn and the number of account holders who made withdrawals grew sharply.  
 
 

Measure As of Aug. 31, 2022 As of July 31, 2022 As of June 30, 2022 As of May 31, 2022
Withdrawals $49,314,057 $44,795,475 $40,893,704 $36,899,929
Accounts with a partial withdrawal 10,548 4,548 4,153 3,784
Accounts with a full withdrawal 63,004 47,256 44,540 42,066

 

Opt-Outs

Participants may opt out of CalSavers. The percentage of participants opting out in August was almost the same as that in July, but is more than 4 percentage points higher than that of May. 
 

As of Aug. 31, 2022 As of July 31, 2022 As of June 30, 2022 As of May 31, 2022
37.54% 37.56% 36.64% 33.34%