Houses passes bill expanding retirement saving opportunities for private employees

RICHMOND, Va. (WRIC) — The Virginia House of Delegates passed a bill that would establish a state-facilitated individual retirement account program for private sector employees who can not establish a savings plan through their workplace.

House Bill 2174, introduced by Del. Luke Torian (D-Prince William) would establish the VirginiaSaves retirement program. The program would be an automatic enrollment IRA through Virginia 529.

Delegates voted 56 to 44 to pass the bill.

This would allow employees of private businesses to save for retirement even if their employers don’t offer retirement plans. Employees would have the ability to opt into the program.

Any employers with more than five workers who don’t offer retirement savings plan would be required to offer VirginiaSaves to employees.

“VirginiaSaves will afford workers a retirement savings vehicle at no cost and no liability to private employers,” Torian said. “This is an opportunity for all Virginia workers to build long-term savings not tied to a single employer.”