State retirement program VT Saves underway with new hire

Avery Delisle reported this story on assignment from the Barre-Montpelier Times Argus. The Community News Service is a program in which University of Vermont students work with professional editors to provide content for local news outlets at no cost.

Nearly half of Vermont workers aren’t offered retirement benefits from their employers, according to 2019 state data, a number that rises to 55% for those working for businesses with 20 or fewer employees. 

To change that, Vermont legislators in June unanimously passed S.135, to create VT Saves, a program administered by the state treasurer’s office that will automatically enroll employees of eligible companies in a Roth IRA account.

In the months since the bill was signed into law by Gov. Phil Scott, the treasurer’s office has been working to launch the program’s first services by July 1, 2025. The most recent step was the appointment of Rebecca Wasserman as executive director on Oct. 16.

Through a series of phases, VT Saves will require companies that lack retirement plans to enroll their employees in the program, starting with businesses with 25 or more employees. 

The goal is to help workers start saving for the future by contributing a chosen percentage of their paycheck each month. Through the program, employees will be able to adjust their contribution rate, choose their investments and opt out of the initiative. 

For State Treasurer Mike Pieciak, the hope is that by creating a system that makes it easy for employees to join, it will push people to participate and encourage them to save.

“Anybody can go and set up a Roth IRA — they don’t need a VT Saves program — but it turns out that we have tens of thousands of Vermonters that are working who have not done that and then also don’t have access to retirement,” Pieciak said. 

He hopes the program will also help people learn more about their needs in retirement, their investments and their ability to save — and as a result become more financially stable, more financially aware and better positioned looking toward retirement. 

“I think it’s big for that individual person to be able to have that kind of flexibility and dignity in retirement,” said Pieciak. 

Few employees take on a retirement plan individually if their job does not offer one, according to research collected by AARP. 

Statistically, it is marginalized communities who are less likely to have access to financial programs such as this and who are less likely to save for retirement, said Wasserman, the recently appointed executive director of the program.

“It’s helping to address that wealth gap for those communities and the people who haven’t had that access before,” Wasserman said of the program and its potential impacts.

After becoming familiar with the program through her help in drafting the bill that created it, Wasserman was brought in to help lead VT Saves. Several weeks in, Pieciak said the transition has been great. 

“I couldn’t be more pleased with that hire, and I couldn’t be more confident about the success of setting up this program with her in charge of it,” Pieciak said. 

Wasserman is a former attorney for Vermont’s Office of the Legislative Counsel. Before her 11-year tenure there, she worked as a financial regulatory attorney in New York.

“I’m really excited about taking on this position,” said Wasserman. “I think it’s a program that is going to impact a lot of Vermonters, so I’m excited to see it make that statewide impact and make sure people are more financially secure in the state.”

The plan is to roll out VT Saves in three phrases. First, on July 1, 2025, companies with more than 25 employees that don’t offer retirement benefits must enroll workers in the program. On Jan. 1, 2026, that scope will narrow to eligible employers that have between 15 and 24 employees. Then, by the start of July that year, it will narrow again to eligible companies with 5 to 14 employees.

The moves by Vermont’s leaders are part of a growing national effort to help people save for retirement. A dozen states had already passed similar automatic programs when Vermont legislators were considering the bill this year.