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Benefits September 26, 2025
Connecticut, Rhode Island Finalize Partnership for State Auto-IRAs
The two will jointly offer retirement savings accounts to private sector workers who lack access to an employer-sponsored plan.
Reported by Emily Boyle
Connecticut and Rhode Island are one step closer to offering public retirement accounts to private sector workers without an employer-sponsored plan.
The two states announced their partnership in November 2024, allowing Rhode Island’s RISavers auto-IRA program to join Connecticut’s MyCTSavings program. The partnership is expected to grow the pool of participants and assets and help lower the fees paid by participants in the program.
Vestwell, a third-party administrator, will run the program in coordination with Connecticut’s treasury, adding to the firm’s list of state-facilitated auto- IRA programs that includes Connecticut, Colorado, New Jersey and Oregon. Connecticut’s current contract with Vestwell states that fees will automatically decrease when certain asset thresholds are met.
Rhode Island is set to launch a website and its retirement plan in October, according to Connecticut Comptroller Sean Scanlon, who spearheaded the deal. In June 2024, Rhode Island Governor Daniel McKee signed into law the Rhode Island Secure Choice Retirement Savings Program Act, making RISaves the 17th state auto-IRA program in the nation and the 20th state retirement program for private sector employees.
Connecticut launched MyCTSavings in March 2022. The program had $47.5 million in assets for 33,164 workers from more than 3,000 participating employers, as of July 31, according to Boston College’s Center for Retirement Research.
According to the State of Rhode Island Office of the General Treasurer’s website, RISavers is “currently in the process of being implemented” and not yet active.
“We have made great progress on our partnership with the state of Rhode Island. Rhode Island has executed the final agreements associated with this, as have we, and they plan to launch their program in October,” Scanlon said during a meeting of the Connecticut Retirement Security Program board of directors on September 19. “This has been almost a year in the making publicly, but longer behind the scenes before that.”
There are 20 states that have enacted new programs for private sector workers as of June 30. Seventeen states are auto-IRA program states, eight of which have entered partnership agreements.