Products & Services May 1, 2025

Nevada Joins Interstate Auto-IRA Consortium

The consortium, led by Colorado Treasury and administered by Vestwell, now includes five states—Colorado, Delaware, Maine, Nevada and Vermont.

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Nevada has joined Colorado’s interstate alliance of state-facilitated auto-IRA programs designed to help private sector workers whose employers do not provide retirement plans save for retirement, according to a Wednesday announcement by the Colorado Department of the Treasury.

With the addition of Nevada, the partnership now includes five states—Colorado, Delaware, Maine, Nevada and Vermont—representing nearly $130 million in assets under management, according to the release.

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The collaboration enables states to share infrastructure and reduce costs, while expanding access to Roth individual retirement account plans for workers who lack employer-sponsored retirement options. Programs in the consortium are administered by Vestwell, in partnership with BNY Mellon.

“With the success of Colorado SecureSavings and similar programs across the country, the growth of the Partnership for a Dignified Retirement represents the next breakthrough in expanding low-cost, portable retirement savings opportunities for private sector workers,” said Colorado Treasurer Dave Young in a statement. “We are thrilled to welcome Nevada to the consortium and look forward to working with additional states in the coming months.”

According to Georgetown University’s Center for Retirement Initiatives, 20 states and two cities have auto-IRA programs, as of January 1, including 17 auto-IRA programs. Additionally, seven of the 17 auto-IRA programs were established under partnership agreements.

State auto-IRA programs totaled $1.93 billion in assets as of March, according to Georgetown.

“By working collaboratively, we can strengthen financial resilience within our respective programs to ensure that workers—especially those that have traditionally lacked access to retirement savings—have the tools they need to plan for their future,” said Nevada Treasurer Zach Conine, who chairs the board overseeing the state’s new retirement program, in the announcement.

Nevada passed legislation in 2023 to establish its auto-IRA program, the Nevada Employee Savings Trust. By joining the consortium, it will adopt Colorado SecureSavings’ operational framework, while benefiting from economies of scale and reduced plan fees.

The Colorado SecureSavings program, launched about two years ago, has grown to more than 76,000 savers and 17,000 participating employers across the state.

Douglas Magnolia, the president of Vestwell State Savings, said the partnership sets a new precedent for multistate collaboration.

“This launch is proof that when states come together, impact follows,” he said in the announcement.

Compliance April 30, 2025

Supreme Court Declines to Hear AT&T ERISA Case

The justices did not comment on the case, which centered on prohibited transactions under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act, and the 9th Circuit’s remand to a California district court will stand.

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The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday declined to hear AT&T’s challenge to an appellate court’s ruling of a prohibited transaction in a defined contribution plan, allowing the remand of Bugielski et al. v. AT&T Services Inc. et al. back to the district court level to proceed.

The justices did not comment on the case, which centered on prohibited transactions under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act. Several industry groups filed an amicus brief urging the Supreme Court to hear an appeal of the case, which has been in litigation since 2017.

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The initial 2017 complaint alleged that AT&T breached its fiduciary duty when it added brokerage and advisory services from Fidelity Investments in 2012 and 2014 without evaluating or disclosing the compensation paid to Fidelity after adding the services.

The case, filed in U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, was initially decided in favor of AT&T by the district judge, who granted summary judgment and wrote that Fidelity received third-party compensation and the plan itself was not a party, meaning AT&T was not required to evaluate and disclose it.

The U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals remanded the case back to the lower court in August 2023, ruling that the compensation was, in fact, a prohibited transaction because AT&T added optional services to the plan paid by participant fees.

“Because the district court did not correctly apply the relevant substantive law to Plaintiffs’ prohibited-transaction and duty-of-prudence claims, we reverse and remand for it to do so,” the 9th Circuit’s ruling stated.

ERISA bars transactions that involve improper contracts, high-risk dealings with plan assets, self-dealing by fiduciaries or agreements that improperly shift fiduciary duties to third parties.

However, ERISA allows certain exemptions, permitting defined contribution plans to engage in specific transactions with parties-in-interest—such as fiduciaries, plan executives or service providers.

Earlier this month, the Supreme Court unanimously ruled in favor of Cornell University employees’ claims that the university’s plan fiduciaries paid excessive recordkeeping fees in the school’s defined contribution plans. Some in the industry suggested the decision in Cunningham v. Cornell University could lead to a of prohibited transaction litigation.

Bugielski v. AT&T, meanwhile, will return to the Central District of California.

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