Best Practices in National Savings Training Programs

We had a chance to catch up with our friend Kari Arfstrom of NAST this week. They’ve got a cool new initiative afoot we thought you’d like to know about. Kari shares the latest, here.

The National Association of State Treasurers (NAST) is the professional association for the equivalent of the chief financial officer in all 50 states, D.C., and the territories. Not only are they the state treasurers, but they also could be the directors of 529 savings plans, ABLE savings plans, state debt management, investments, and sometimes pension and retirement programs, as well as the fun one – unclaimed property. (If you haven't visited https://www.missingmoney.com/ - go!)

As the Deputy Executive Director for Learning I help run our foundation, which received a grant from the Wells Fargo Foundation to focus on financial wellness and savings programs.

NAST now runs a financial wellness program where states and other entities can sign up for a free financial wellness learning platform. The platform includes articles, videos, and other interactive assets on dozens of topics. Along with NAST subject matter experts, we also released four courses on May 29, ABLE and retirement savings programs, and unclaimed property. Check out these courses!

RSM readers will want to know: we recently released a short primer where people can learn about state-facilitated retirement savings programs, and how they work if you’re self-employed, a gig worker, or work for a small business that doesn't offer a retirement program. After the user completes the primer, there is a hot map where users can check to see if their state participates. You can view the primer here.

With about 3 million users on the Enrich Financial Wellness platform, it's important that it has accurate information when it comes to these savings plans. Our focus is to get public-sector employees signed up to use this free online program.

In addition to offering continuous learning projects, and to our annual and legislative conferences, NAST is also interested in making sure our members’ issues are addressed in Congress. A key issue we're currently working on in connection with ABLE savings plans is to extend the age of onset of a disability from prior to 26 to 46.  Not only would this change increase the number of eligible individuals who can open ABLE accounts from 8 million to 14 million, but it would allow veterans older than age 26 who may acquire a disability while serving our country be able to open ABLE savings plans.

Kari Arfstrom is Deputy Executive Director for Learning at the National Association of State Treasurers (NAST), where she leads the continuous professional learning strategic programming. For more information and to connect directly, you can reach Kari by email here.

This piece was featured in the November 3, 2022, edition of Retirement Security Matters. For more fresh thinking on retirement savings innovation, check out the newsletter here.