Ten Years In: What It Took and What We’ve Learned
The idea for Vestwell first came to me in 2010, when we rolled out a 401(k) at my previous company. I experienced firsthand how outdated, fragmented, expensive, and unnecessarily difficult the process was. I vividly remember thinking: There has to be a better way. That stayed with me.
The company itself took shape years later. I had spent my career across wealth management and retirement, building enterprise fintech platforms. I decided to apply what I had learned and the challenges I had experienced firsthand to an industry that had operated the same way for decades. Too many people were still being left behind. Vestwell was born on September 9, 2016, with a simple question in mind: How can we help Americans save more effectively?
Ten years later, that question is even more urgent. America has spent decades expanding the ways people save, yet millions of Americans still struggle to build financial security. Historically, the industry had built a savings system that places too much responsibility on individuals to navigate the complexity on their own, while almost every other part of modern life has evolved to let technology absorb friction. How we save for the most important aspects of our lives should be no different.
The future I see is one where saving starts earlier, happens more automatically, and fits into the institutions people already trust. The complexity should sit with the system. We should not put the onus on the person trying to build a future.
For generations, the savings journey has largely started with a first job and a first workplace retirement plan. But time is the most powerful financial advantage we can give someone. Starting earlier means more years of compounding, more opportunity to participate in markets, and the ability to establish savings habits. The expansion of child savings accounts programs is a perfect example of how the action can be so consequential.
A worker deciding what to do with extra paycheck dollars may have to weigh retirement, an emergency fund, student debt, education savings, and other competing priorities. Each lives in a different account, often with a different provider and set of rules. Our 2026 Saver Survey found that only 26% of workers say they are very confident they are allocating those extra dollars in the best possible way. At the same time, 68% say a tool that automatically directs each paycheck dollar to the financial goal where it would have the most impact would be “very” or “extremely” valuable.
People tell us they want help. And the problem is solvable.
I didn’t fully appreciate the size of the challenge when I started Vestwell. I do now, with a clear path ahead and a much deeper understanding of the long-term positive impact we can have on every person using Vestwell. Today, Vestwell enables more than 750,000 businesses and over 2.65 million active savers, with over $58 billion saved across all 50 states. What began as a modern retirement platform now supports retirement, education, emergency savings, child savings, savings for loved ones with disabilities, student loan management, and more. We have challenged ourselves to rethink the infrastructure, revamp the data architecture to become AI-native, expand the savings programs through policy and technology capability enhancements, while delivering solutions at a pace this industry has rarely (if ever) experienced.
Vestwell’s growth has shown what’s possible when the public and private sectors work together to make saving easier. Government programs expand access. Employers bring savings into the workplace faster than ever before. Payroll providers embed Vestwell's solutions directly into savers' paychecks. Financial services providers deliver guidance at scale.
It hasn’t been perfect. We haven’t been perfect. But I’m so proud of our team and our partners for working harder than anyone to execute and deliver with intention. It takes all of us working together to build the best opportunity for a resilient financial future. We have a long way to go, but we can already feel the impact we’re making. Here's to the next ten years of closing the savings gap.
Vestwell. For the future.
With gratitude,
Aaron Schumm
Founder & CEO, Vestwell
