A Look at CalSavers’ Service Operations

CalSavers was formally launched three years ago. But that doesn’t take place in a vacuum — it necessarily entails interactions with employers as well as individual participants. So how is that going?

Registrations were phased in based on employer size. 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; those with five or more employees had until June 30, 2022, to register. That process, no doubt, raised plenty of questions with each wave. And after that, employers will continue to have questions and need support services to answer them and assist with their participation. Individual employees, too, require services. 

The minutes of the May 2022 meeting of the CalSavers Retirement Savings Board, as well as supplementary materials for the upcoming Aug. 22 meeting, offer a look at aspects of CalSavers’ interactions with employers as well as employees. 

Call Center Activity 

In 2021, Troy Montigney, Vice President, Relationship Management and Martha Nemecek, Director, Institutional Relationship Management, reported that individual participants contacted the CalSavers call center three times as often as did employers. 

In the first quarter of 2022, inquiries from individuals were still higher than those from employers, but not at the same pace. And that shift continued and accelerated — to such an extent that in the second quarter of 2022, the number of inquiries from employers was sharply higher than that from individual participants. Note that it was in the second quarter that the most recent deadline for employer registrations took place —  June 30, by which five or more employees had to register.

Source of Inquiries	2021	First Quarter, 2022	Second Quarter,  2022
Employers	46,843	30,746	101,117
Individual Participants	126,201	39,621	62,299

In the first half of 2022, the highest number of inquiries from individuals and employers concerned participation and registration, respectively. 

Inquiries from Individual Participants

Reason for Inquiry	Number of Inquiries	% of Inquiries
Participation	32,627	67
Distribution	6,995	14
Maintenance	4,224	9
Password Reset	3,514	7
Account Balance	736	2

Inquiries from Employers

Reason for Inquiry	Number of Inquiries	% of Inquiries
Registration	18,579	41
Portal Assistance	8,686	19
Payroll Submission	7,084	16
Exemptions	4,825	11
Plan Facilitation	4,250	9

 

Identity Verification

According to the May 22 minutes, Board member Stephen Prough raised a question at the Feb. 28 meeting about the number of employees who have unresolved or failed identity verification. 

CalSavers Retirement Savings Board Executive Director Katie Selenski responded that data is not available that breaks down the causes of identity verification failures. She did say, however, that some such failures are simple issues with address information that does not match, and some may be due to mismatched Social Security or taxpayer identification numbers.  

Employer Portal Redesign 

On Aug. 16, 2018, the California Secure Choice Retirement Savings Investment Board chose Ascensus to serve as administrator of CalSavers and State Street Global Advisors to provide investment management services. 

In May, Montigney reported that Ascensus retained a top digital experience firm to assist in a complete redesign of the CalSavers employer portal. This involved extensive employer research, followed by examination of design and delivery processes. In addition, outreach to facilitating employers and other readiness activities was underway.

Goals of the redesign included: 

• increasing employer registrations and exemptions; 
• getting more employers from registration to full compliance (submitting payroll) more quickly and via in-portal self-service; 
• highlighting ongoing tasks and responsibilities of employer facilitation; and 
• educating employers on the retirement savings mandate and its applicability to their business.

Board member William Sokol asked if employers are notified when identity verification failures occur. Selenski indicated in her remarks that they are notified by noting that the redesigned employer portal will show if an employee is ineligible for contributions and that notification are not intended to describe the reason the employee is ineligible. 

In the information provided ahead of the Aug. 22 meeting, Montigney and Nemecek report that Ascensus launched the refreshed employer portal in three phases from May to July, with concurrent performance monitoring. It is the product, they say, of partnership with a digital experience firm, employer research, and design and delivery processes.

The goals of the refresh include: 

• speeding full employer compliance (registration to payroll remittance) via an in-portal self-service process; 
• highlighting phased tasks of employer facilitation; and 
• educating employers on the retirement savings mandate and its applicability to their business. 

They add that the portal now more prominently features payroll provider linkage.

Payroll Integration

The payroll industry is increasingly interested in partnering with state-run retirement plans, Montigney and Nemecek said in May. Accordingly, they reported that Ascensus had been working on full payroll integration that connects to Intuit, whose payroll services they said many small employers prefer. The integration, they said, would expand the roster of payroll providers fully integrated with CalSavers. In the materials for the Aug. 22 meeting, Montigney and Nemecek note that Ascensus launched full 360-degree payroll integration with Intuit. 

Lack of Access to Coverage

California State Treasurer Fiona Ma in an earlier meeting asked about the total number of Californians without access to a workplace retirement savings plan, and about the accuracy of the often-cited number of 7.5 million Californians lacking such access. 

Selenski responded that figure is relatively outdated and that the data may differ. She also noted that it was difficult to find accurate data to measure access to workplace retirement plans. 

Board members William Sokol and Karen Greene Ross asked about legislative solutions to determine the correct number. Selenski suggested it would be difficult for state legislation to address the issue and offered to provide a report to the Board on exempt employers at a future meeting.

Outreach

Montigney and Nemecek in the August report say that the Ascensus field team conducted a variety of outreach activities concerning CalSavers during the period May-July: 

 

Month	Community Meetings	Employer Meetings	Employee Meetings
May	30	303	19
June	29	385	19
July	29	485	29

 

The results, they report, include: 

• 72% of employers made progress in onboarding in response to local outreach efforts;
• 23,785 activities focused on outreach to employers; and
• 9,905 employers started contributing to the program since the May board meeting.

And the results of the webinars conducted include:

• 6,957 individuals signed up for 88 webinars conducted by the field team and co-hosted with CalSavers’ staff;
• 96% of employers said the webinars were very or somewhat helpful;
• 92% of attendees made progress in onboarding; and
• 42% of attending employers have begun contributions.