Narrowing the Access Gap: Vestwell Modernizes State Savings Programs
As part of its mission of closing the savings gap, Vestwell proudly partners with state governments to offer personalized savings experiences that span all savings vehicle verticals. Our state-of-the-art platform, led by our innovative team, reduces the administrative burden for our state partners and modernizes the savings experience for savers across the country.
Recently, Vestwell won Maine’s NextGen 529 College Savings Program rebid, added an industry leader to the growing team, and modernized the ABLE savings experience.
NextGen 529 College Savings Program
Vestwell is proud to announce that it has won Maine’s NextGen 529 College Savings Program rebid, securing the state’s direct-sold plan and the industry’s second-largest advisor-sold 529 plan for another term.
“We’re proud to continue our relationship with FAME and help support their mission of expanding access to training and education savings programs for families of all income levels,” said Douglas Magnolia, President of Vestwell State Savings. “We look forward to partnering on additional ways to grow their Plans and increase participation of both Mainers and those outside the State.”
The board of directors of the Finance Authority of Maine (FAME) has approved the selection of Vestwell State Savings to serve as Program Manager of its NextGen 529 Plans for a second term. The Board directed FAME’s staff to work with Vestwell to enter into an agreement implementing new enhancements to NextGen 529. To learn more about FAME, visit www.famemaine.com.
OregonSaves Pioneer Joins Vestwell
Vestwell is excited to welcome Michael Parker to their State Savings team as Senior Vice President. Michael joins Vestwell after a distinguished career at the Oregon Treasury Savings Network, where he oversaw the launch of the 529 College Savings Program, the state, and national ABLE programs, and supported the launch of OregonSaves, the first state-auto IRA program in the country.
“I look forward to being part of a team that’s disrupting the state savings space and delivering a thoughtful and deliberate savings experience for individuals and families with diverse economic backgrounds,” said Michael Parker, Senior Vice President of Vestwell State Savings.
Vestwell Modernizes Disability Savings Programs
This week Vestwell released a new Social Security Benefit (SSA) Direct Deposit feature that streamlines and improves the ABLE savings experience for individuals with disabilities. Those who receive SSA benefits now have the ability to directly deposit their monthly federal benefits into their ABLE savings account. This feature also provides an enhancement to those who contribute from their paycheck directly to an ABLE or 529 College Savings account.
“Vestwell saw an opportunity to help people with disabilities by automatically saving more through their ABLE accounts,” said Mary Rubenis, VP of Client Relationships. “With nearly 3.5 million eligible participants in the SSA program that receive billions of dollars in disability savings each year, we are proud to offer people the opportunity to maximize these benefits for their future savings needs.”
The majority of SSA benefits are managed by Representative Payees who are already registered with the SSA. ABLE Entity representatives act as the Representative Payees of most of these accounts. These Representative Payees receive SSA payments for the beneficiaries and manage the expenses of the beneficiaries. Vestwell’s new feature eliminates additional steps for saving by directly contributing monthly federal benefits into ABLE accounts while still allowing the saver, an Authorized Legal Representative, or Representative Payee, to use those funds for their day-to-day activities by utilizing bill-pay and prepaid card functionality. Any extra funds would remain in the ABLE account, thus enabling the savers to invest for future needs.
Vestwell State Savings
This news is the latest in a series of recent wins for Vestwell, including California’s CalABLE program in February, as well as Colorado Secure Savings Program and RetirePath Virginia in 2022. Through state partnerships, Vestwell administers more than 30 programs across auto-IRA, 529 College Savings, and ABLE programs for those with disabilities.
To learn more about Vestwell State Savings, click here.
