Auto-Enrollment Called Key to Savings for Transient Workers

Reaching the millions of non-savers excluded from corporate benefit plans hinges on getting proposals aimed at auto-enrolling employees in work-sponsored retirement plans inked into law, benefits advisers say.

Analysts at the Georgetown University Center for Retirement Initiatives (CRI) estimated that by 2040 auto-enrollment programs like those proposed in the leading House and Senate bills could expand coverage to nearly 40 million workers devoid of tax-advantaged savings. The retirement bills—following up on the 2019 SECURE Act—are expected to be negotiated as part of a broader package of economic measures over the coming year.

In its December 2020 report, CRI calculated ...