New Retirement Account Available to Your Employees

The U.S. Department of the Treasury has developed the myRA program, short for My Retirement Account. This new Roth IRA retirement savings account is for individuals looking for a simple, safe, and affordable way to start saving. Employees can open an account with as little as $25 and contribute $5 or more every payday. Balances in myRA will never go down, and there are no fees involved.

Simple retirement accountInitially, myRA is available through employers and the investment held in the account will be backed by the U.S. Treasury. Accounts are available to anyone who has an annual income of less than $129,000 a year for individuals and $191,000 for couples. This program is designed for savers who do not have access to an employer-sponsored retirement savings plan.

The myRA investments will earn interest at the same variable rate as the Government Securities Investment Fund in the Thrift Savings Plan for federal employees. Savers may voluntarily roll over myRA to private-sector retirement accounts at any time. Once a saver’s myRA reaches $15,000, or after 30 years, the balance will be transferred to a private-sector retirement account.

Offering this program to your employees is simple. There’s no employer contribution, match or account administration. All you need to do is:

  • Share information about myRA with your employees using materials and resources made available online.
  • Process employees’ myRA payroll direct deposit requests.

In order to begin, have employees sign up for a myRA online account. Then set up initial payroll direct deposit and ongoing direct deposit to your employees’ myRAs. Visit treasurydirect.gov/readysavegrow for more information.