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Facilitate CalSavers

California employers are required by state law to facilitate CalSavers if they don’t offer an employer-sponsored retirement plan and have five or more employees. The program opens on July 1, 2019, with staggered deadlines for registration based on employer size. All eligible employers can join at any time prior to their registration deadline.

More than 100 employees

June 30, 2020

More than 50 employees

June 30, 2021

5 or more employees

June 30, 2022

Registration information

Register beginning July 1, 2019.  You’ll need three pieces of information before you begin:

  • Federal Employer Identification or Tax Identification Number (EIN/TIN)
  • CA Employer Payroll Tax Account Number
  • CalSavers access code from your notification

Do you already offer a plan?

We’re glad you’re already taking steps to help your employees save for retirement. CalSavers does not apply to employers who already offer an employer-sponsored retirement plan. If you believe that your company is exempt from this requirement, please let us know.

If you're not sure, visit Frequently Asked Questions for more details or contact Client Services. 

CalSavers: Account set-up in four easy steps

We understand that running a business is hard work. So, we’ve made facilitating CalSavers as easy as possible. Setting up your account is a simple four-step process, followed by some light account maintenance.

Add delegates or payroll representatives

Setup payroll

Add employees

Send contributions

Add delegates or payroll representatives

If you have someone at your business, such as an HR manager or an external payroll vendor to help you facilitate CalSavers, they can be added as a delegate or payroll representative. You can assign your associates to various roles that give them different levels of responsibility and authorization within the program.

Setup payroll

You must add at least one payroll list to your account and set a payroll date that is at least 30 days from the date you create the payroll list. Please see the handbook or checklist for more detailed information.

Add employees

You’ll need to add all employees so that we can contact them to either customize their account and make saving elections, or notify them of what actions to take if they choose to opt out of the program. You can either add employees manually (if you only have a few employees) or you can use our Employee Information Template to upload the information (if you have many employees).

Send contributions

During your usual payroll process, you will deduct a percentage of each participating employee’s pay and send it to CalSavers. The percentage for each employee will be shown on your employer account page. Information can be entered either manually by using an online form or in bulk using the Employee Contribution Information Template.

GO TO Account

Ongoing responsibilities

Once your CalSavers employer account is set up and ready to go, you’ll be responsible for ongoing responsibilities: submitting employees’ contributions and adding new employees or removing employees who have left your company.

Activities that you are NOT responsible for:

CalSavers does not include any employer fees or employer match contributions. You are also NOT responsible for:

  • Enrolling employees, disseminating information, or answering questions about the program.
  • Managing investment options, including choice of investment funds and processing employee investment change requests.
  • Processing distributions.
  • Answering questions about investment options and you should not give investment or tax advice.
  • Managing employee changes or account maintenance, which include but are not limited to Contact information and Beneficiary information.

Your employees will be responsible for maintaining their account information once it is established.