The Minnesota Secure Choice Retirement Program Launches January 2026
The Minnesota Secure Choice Retirement Program was established by the Minnesota State Legislature to promote retirement coverage to employees working for employers that do not currently offer a retirement plan. To achieve that goal, Minnesota Statutes 2024, section 187 was passed mandating that employers with five or more employees that do not offer a retirement plan participate in the Minnesota Secure Choice Retirement Program. The Minnesota Secure Choice Retirement Program will give employees a simple option to save for retirement and provides an added employment benefit that may assist employers in retaining employees.
Starting in January 2026, the program will be available for voluntary early enrollment for all employers. Beginning in April 2026, mandatory coverage will begin for employers with 100 or more employees. The mandatory coverage will be phased in over two years according to the number of employees working for the covered employer. This timeline is shown in the table below. "Covered employer" is defined in Minnesota Statutes 2024, section 187.03.
Number of employees at covered employer
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Phase duration
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Soft launch for any size covered employer
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Jan. 1, 2026 to March 30, 2026
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100 or more
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April 1, 2026 to June 30, 2026
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50 to 99
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July 1, 2026 to Dec. 31, 2026
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25 to 49
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Jan. 1, 2027 to June 30, 2027
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10 to 24
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July 1, 2027 to Dec. 31, 2027
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5 to 9
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Jan. 1, 2028 to June 30, 2028
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The program will offer a Roth IRA (Individual Retirement Account) as default. The contributions will be made with after-tax dollars and will not be taxed when withdrawn. The earnings on contributions will also not be taxed upon withdrawal if the account has been established for at least five years and the employee takes a distribution after age 59 ½ years old. If withdrawn before meeting these requirements, the earnings will likely be taxable and subject to 10 percent penalty - however, the contributions will not be taxed again. An employee will be able to choose a Traditional IRA, which reduces current taxable income, but contributions and earnings will be taxed when withdrawn.
Responsibilities of Employers
Employers will be required to withhold contributions from employees’ paychecks and remit those contributions to Vestwell, the service provider chosen by the Minnesota Secure Choice Retirement Program Board of Directors to support employer and employee accounts. Vestwell was chosen because they have years of experience providing this service in other states with similar programs. Vestwell provides several options to interface with current payroll software and payroll firms to make the process as simple as possible.
There will be no other cost to the employer and there are no employer contributions made to the program.
Employees are automatically enrolled in the program by their employers but may opt out at any time. The default employee contribution rate is five percent of wages but can be changed by the employee at any time through their own Vestwell portal log-in.
Next Steps
If you would like to enroll your organization during the voluntary enrollment phase in early 2026 and/or participate in our pilot program in early 2026, send an email to secure.choice@state.mn.us.
If you prefer to wait until your mandated enrollment period, you should receive an email or letter from Vestwell around the time of your assigned phase. If you do not receive an email or letter during your assigned phase, please reach out to secure.choice@state.mn.us for assistance at that time.
For more information about the program, please go to our website at securechoice.mn.gov/scrb/ and view our frequently asked questions guide or email us at secure.choice@state.mn.us.
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