(Bloomberg) -- The Obama administration will begin enrolling low-income workers in its new retirement-savings plans by the end of the year, Treasury Secretary Jacob J. Lew said.
The savings plans, which will invest only in government securities, will require a minimum initial contribution of $25 as well as $5 per pay period, Lew told reporters on Air Force One Wednesday.
Its going to be a very simple, very safe retirement account, Lew said.
The accounts, described by Obama Tuesday in a State of the Union address that concentrated on expanding economic opportunity, are aimed at workers who dont have access to a 401(k) plan and have difficulty saving for retirement.
Under the proposal, workers could have part of their pay deducted for deposit into an account invested in a group of U.S. government bonds with between four and 30 years maturity, the same investment available to federal workers.
The accounts, called MyRA, would be treated for tax purposes as a Roth individual retirement accounts, with future earnings tax-free and principal able to be withdrawn at any time.
The Treasury Department will be seeking a financial agent to manage the program, a senior administration official told reporters on a conference call today. The government, which will pay the fees and not charge account holders, is looking for a financial institution with experience handling a significant number of IRAs, the official said.
Annual income
The accounts would be open to people with annual household income up to $191,000 whose employers choose to participate, according to a White House fact sheet.
The plans would have a maximum balance of $15,000, after which money would have to be rolled over into a private-sector Roth IRA with a greater range of investment options. The plans would be portable so that Americans could keep them if they switch jobs.
Laurence D. Fink, chief executive officer of BlackRock Inc., the worlds largest asset manager, said in a statement yesterday that hes tremendously encouraged by a proposal he said he hoped would kick off a much-needed national conversation on retirement security.
Senior administration officials, who briefed reporters today on condition of anonymity, didnt make any projections for the number of individuals or employers who would sign up. Participation would be voluntary for employees and employers, and the amount in the account will never fall below the principal.
Pilot project
The officials described the 2014 start of the program as a pilot project.
Obama is promoting his State of the Union initiatives over the next two days with trips outside of Washington, including the retirement speech in Pittsburgh.
This isnt earth-shattering stuff, said Brian Graff, chief executive officer of the American Society of Pension Professionals & Actuaries. But it is a step in the right direction to get more people saving for retirement, which I would think is a bipartisan issue.
I dont expect this to get a lot of pushback, said Graff, who discussed the proposal in advance with Treasury officials. He said it draws on an existing program that permits workers to purchase U.S. savings bonds through payroll deductions and adds a retirement twist.
Automatic option
The proposal resembles an earlier Obama administration plan that would have required employers to offer an automatic IRA option to employees. That plan, which was included in Obamas 2014 budget and requires congressional approval, would have cost the government an estimated $17.6 billion in forgone revenue over 10 years.
About 68% of U.S. workers had access to pensions or retirement savings plans as of March 2013, with 54% participating, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Small businesses
Small-business groups in the past have opposed such proposals because they say that setting up the required payroll deduction would be a cost for them.
Molly Brogan Day, a spokeswoman for the National Small Business Association in Washington, said that while her group supports making retirement savings easier, the auto-IRA idea is one weve raised skepticism over in the past because it put the administrative and financial onus squarely on small firms.
U.S. savings bonds designed for retirement accounts have been proposed in the past and termed R-bonds, said Don Fuerst, an actuary and senior pension fellow at the American Academy of Actuaries.
The securities are seen as a way to allow low-income workers to save for retirement, Fuerst said. They usually cant contribute much at the start, making their balances expensive to administer and vulnerable to investment-management costs.
If youre only putting a small amount into the plan the fees could eat up your investment income, said Fuerst, whos based in Washington. This gets around that.
Keeping track
With savings bonds, he said, the U.S. government can issue the investments and cover the costs of keeping track of them.
The accounts arent as attractive as a typical employer-sponsored 401(k) because there is no employer match and only one investment option, Graff said.
Even so, it may significantly boost retirement savings for middle- and low-income workers who dont have access to a 401(k) account, Graff said.
Middle- and moderate-income workers in particular are much more likely to set aside money for retirement when they can have it directly deducted from their pay, Graff said.
Among workers earning between $30,000 and $50,000 a year, 72% of those covered by an employer-sponsored payroll deduction retirement plan, such as a 401(k), choose to participate. Only 5% of those without such a plan set aside money through an IRA, according to a 2010 analysis of 2008 data by the Employee Benefit Research Institute.
