California’s Auto-Retirement Program Upheld From ERISA Challenge

A federal judge in California on Tuesday upheld the state’s new auto-retirement program from a legal challenge claiming the program interferes with the federal Employee Retirement Income Security Act.

The CalSavers Retirement Savings Program doesn’t create an “employee benefit plan” under ERISA and therefore isn’t preempted by the federal statute, Judge Morrison C. England Jr. of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California concluded.

That’s because CalSavers isn’t established or maintained by an “employer” and doesn’t “relate to” any ERISA plan, he said.

“Actual employers have no discretion in the administration of CalSavers and do not make ...