Delaware enters a partnership with the state of Colorado as it builds its publicly offered retirement fund.
The Delaware EARNS retirement fund that’s set to start in January 2025 seeks to provide both workers and small businesses in Delaware access to low-cost retirement savings plans.
The Delaware EARNS Program Board voted last week to join the Partnership for a Dignified Retirement with Colorado’s SecureSavings Program to help reach that goal.
The Partnership for a Dignified Retirement gives smaller states like Delaware an avenue to offer the best possible plan by allowing them to save on start-up time and costs.
And Delaware EARNS Program Director Ted Griffith says that’s only part of the upside.
"We expect to greatly accelerate the launch of our program and also achieve some very important economies of scale both in the near term and in the long term that will ultimately really benefit the future savers of Delaware EARNS. So we're very excited about joining this interstate alliance with Colorado," said Griffith.
The partnership also includes the state of Maine.
State officials estimate nearly 150,000 Delaware workers, many of them low- and middle-income, currently lack access to a workplace retirement savings plan.
"What this alliance allows is Delaware to plug right into that existing program and further it's going to save tremendously on start-up costs for here and really a big benefit to Delaware taxpayers," said Griffith.
The program aims to eventually be self-sufficient after receiving nearly 1.1 million dollars in the last 3 state budgets to get started.
