Bad Retirement Plan Will Cost Good Jobs

Lawmakers are pushing a new state-sponsored retirement plan that not only is a shaky financial deal for Connecticut residents but also could cost good jobs in one of the state’s most important economic sectors.
HB 5591 applies to any business with five or more employees, requiring the business to incur the time and expense of automatically enrolling any full- or part-time employee not eligible for an employer-sponsored plan into the state’s plan.
In other words, it will become employers’ job to “sell” the state plan to their employees. And what a bait-and-switch it is:

• Employees enrolled into the plan will get no tax benefit for their retirement savings.
• The state also will “relieve” employees of a portion of their hard-earned retirement dollars to fund a new quasi-government bureaucracy.

What’s worse, this new plan will directly and unfairly compete against Connecticut’s private sector businesses selling retirement plans.

The state's financial services sector provides good paying jobs for tens of thousands of people in Connecticut.
In becoming the new default retirement plan, HB 5591 will effectively muscle the state into the financial services industry and help push private-sector businesses and their proven—and better—retirement products out of the market.
Despite their superior expertise and retirement savings products, it's not hard to figure out what will happen to the people making their living selling retirement plans once the market is taken from them by the state.
Connecticut can't afford to lose any more businesses--especially when it is completely avoidable.
CBIA urges Connecticut state lawmakers to reject HB 5591 as too costly for Connecticut’s workers and economy.

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For more information, contact CBIA’s Eric Gjede (860.480.1784) | @egjede