Program Administrator, Multi-State Partnerships Sought by Washington Saves
The governing board of Washington Saves, Washington’s state-facilitated individual retirement account program, issued this week a request for proposals seeking a program administration provider, as well as a request for information about multi-state partnerships.
Washington Saves, set to debut in 2027, will provide access to a payroll-deducted retirement account for private sector employees whose employers do not already offer retirement plans. Qualifying employers will enroll eligible workers in the program at a default contribution rate between 3% and 7% of wages and will manage the deduction from their paychecks.
According to the RFP, the board seeks qualified bidders to provide program administration, investment management or “both as an integrated solution.” The program administrator’s services may include “program operations; IRA administration and recordkeeping; custodial and customer service; online platforms, reporting, compliance and communications support; and the design, management, monitoring and reporting of program investment options.”
Interested vendors can bid through Washington’s Electronic Business Solution portal until October 9.
The program administrator is not the first WA Saves position for which the board has sought bids: In August last year, the board announced its search for a consultant to support the program.
In addition, the RFI for partnerships is intended to explore “what a potential partnership with other state-facilitated retirement savings programs and their service providers could look like,” according to a Washington Saves’ release. Governance, program administration, technology investment management, customer service, reporting and other program operations are among the potential areas in which the board suggested it could partner with other states.
In 2024, Washington became the 19th state to enact legislation expanding retirement coverage. As of June 1, 22 states have enacted state-facilitated retirement savings programs. Of those 22, 17 are auto-IRA states, according to data from the Center for Retirement Initiatives at Georgetown University’s McCourt School of Public Policy.
To date, eight of the 17 state auto-IRA programs have entered into partnership agreements, according to the Center for Retirement Initiatives. Colorado established the first partnership, the Colorado Partnership for a Dignified Retirement, in 2023. As of January 1, the partnership’s member states, in order of entrance, are Maine, Delaware, Vermont, Nevada and Minnesota.
The Hawaii Retirement Savings Board voted on February 10 to join the Multistate Alliance for Retirement Security, established in 2024 when Rhode Island’s RISavers program partnered with Connecticut’s MyCTSavings program. Hawaii’s program, enacted in 2022 and amended in 2025 to automatically enroll employees, is projected to launch later this year.
State-facilitated retirement savings programs have accumulated more than $3.35 billion in assets as of July 31, according to the Center for Retirement Initiatives.
