The State Treasurer’s Office (STO) was created in the California Constitution in 1849. The STO processes more than $2 trillion in payments within a typical year and provides transparency and oversight for the government’s investment portfolio and accounts as well as for the state’s surplus funds.
The STO oversees an investment portfolio of more than $102 billion, approximately $20 billion of which are local government funds. We serve as the agent for the sale of all State bonds and are the trustee on over $100 billion of outstanding debt.
We believe it is vital to state clearly to the world the set of our beliefs about Inclusive Capitalism. As such, we start with our Statement of Guiding Principles for Inclusive Capitalism. Knowing that words alone are not enough, each of us is making a series of commitments about how we will operate our institutions so that they help achieve Inclusive Capitalism. These commitments are forward-looking statements based on current goals, expectations and assumptions, which are not guarantees of future performance. For more information, please refer to our Terms of Use
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Summary
We are committed to providing a retirement savings program for private sector workers whose employers do not offer a retirement plan by aiming to enroll hundreds of thousands of actively contributing participants into CalSavers by 2023.
Objectives
An inevitable consequence of capitalism that produces larger economies is the exclusion of those who are less advantaged than others. The California Treasurer commits to developing and promoting thrift programs and financial education that activates the power of capitalism for all Californians.
Metrics & Targets
CalSavers: Established in 2018, CalSavers is a retirement savings program for private sector workers whose employers do not offer a retirement plan. This program gives employers an easy way to help their employees save for retirement, with no employer fees, no fiduciary responsibility, and minimal ongoing responsibilities. Following the program rollout period, CalSavers aims to enroll hundreds of thousands of actively contributing participants by 2023. Nearly half of working Californians are on a trajectory to retire into economic hardship—if they can retire at all—driven largely by lack of access to a retirement plan at work. Too many businesses can’t afford the costs and liabilities of offering a private retirement plan and the industry has not found profit in serving this lower income market. Two-thirds of these uncovered workers are people of color and nearly 60 percent are women. Designed with the insights of behavioral economics, CalSavers offers a path to retirement security for millions of workers who have been under-served for decades. By establishing a broad employer mandate in addition to providing a public option for employers, we are not only expanding access through those who choose CalSavers but also spurring innovation, competition, and expanded participation in the private market.
Summary
We commit to helping people with disabilities realize the opportunity to save and grow their money in tax-advantaged accounts by increasing program enrollment in CalABLE by 250% by December 2030.
Objectives
An inevitable consequence of capitalism that produces larger economies is the exclusion of those who are less advantaged than others. The California Treasurer commits to developing and promoting thrift programs and financial education that activates the power of capitalism for all Californians.
Metrics & Targets
Established in 2018, CalABLE is a savings and investment plan offered by the State of California to individuals with disabilities that allows people with disabilities the opportunity to save and grow their money in tax-advantaged accounts without interfering with government benefit programs. It is estimated that families that include a person with a disability must earn up to 28 percent more income in order to obtain the same standard of living compared to a family without a person who has a disability. CalABLE creates an opportunity for people to save, invest, and grow their money, and use that money to pay for the additional costs of living a life with a disability. In the disability community approximately four in ten report significant difficulty in handling an emergency expense as small as $400. CalABLE aims to increase program enrollment by 250% by December 2030.
Summary
We commit to promoting a more just response to climate change by establishing a Green Bond Honor Roll and enlisting U.S. State Treasurers by 2023 who will make a public commitment to prioritizing the use of green bonds.
Objectives
The destructive effects of climate change will not be borne equally or fairly, between rich and poor, women and men, and older and younger generations. To equalize the effects and the efforts to combat climate change, the California Treasurer commits to promoting the use of a different decision making process for accessing capital markets for public projects, specifically green bonds.
Metrics & Targets
By adopting policies and practices for using green bonds to finance public projects, the California Treasurer and the Green Bond Honor Roll will become the driving force behind prioritizing environmentally friendly finance for publicly financed projects and investments in at least eleven states by 2023.
Summary
Expand thrift programs such as saving for higher education, retirement and caring for those Californians with disabilities by providing accessibility of our capitalistic system’s forces for vulnerable persons.
Objectives
An inevitable consequence of capitalism that produces larger economies is the exclusion of those who are less advantaged than others. The California Treasurer commits to developing and promoting thrift programs and financial education that activates the power of capitalism for all Californians.
Metrics & Targets
Expand the availability of thrift programs such as saving for higher education, retirement and caring for those Californians with disabilities. Expansion of the availability of these capitalistic programs will provide stronger emphasis on people before profits, greater economic security for aging persons, and a more dignified way of life for those with less ability to participate in conventional ways in California’s economy. The California Treasurer chairs and oversees the following programs and outline its target outcomes:
ScholarShare529: Established in 1999, ScholarShare 529 serves as California’s official state-sponsored 529 college savings plan. Named after Section 529 of the Internal Revenue Code, savings plans such as ScholarShare 529 provide families with a valuable tool that offers families of all income levels a diverse set of low-cost investment options, tax-deferred growth and withdrawals free from state and federal taxes when used for qualified higher education expenses, such as tuition and fees, books, certain room and board costs, computer equipment and other required supplies.
Even though educational attainment has long been viewed as the “great equalizer,” rapidly rising tuition rates and an increasing reliance on student loan debt have discouraged or prohibited many families from pursuing this endeavor. It is for the reason that in 2018, ScholarShare 529 launched the Matching Grant Program aimed at increasing the number of low- to moderate-income (LMI) families saving for future higher education expenses through the use of a ScholarShare 529 college savings plan by providing eligible families with a grant of up to $225 per beneficiary.
Recent research reflects that children with $500 or less designated for college savings are 3 times more likely to enroll in college and nearly 4 times more likely to graduate than children with no savings.
ScholarShare 529 plans to extend the Matching Grant Program again in 2021 and aims to increase participation levels by 10 percent year over year.
CalSavers: Established in 2018, CalSavers is a retirement savings program for private sector workers whose employers do not offer a retirement plan. This program gives employers an easy way to help their employees save for retirement, with no employer fees, no fiduciary responsibility, and minimal ongoing responsibilities.
Nearly half of working Californians are on a trajectory to retire into economic hardship—if they can retire at all—driven largely by lack of access to a retirement plan at work. Too many businesses can’t afford the costs and liabilities of offering a private retirement plan and the industry has not found profit in serving this lower income market. Two-thirds of these uncovered workers are people of color and nearly 60 percent are women.
Designed with the insights of behavioral economics, CalSavers offers a path to retirement security for millions of workers who have been under-served for decades. By establishing a broad employer mandate in addition to providing a public option for employers, we are not only expanding access through those who choose CalSavers but also spurring innovation, competition, and expanded participation in the private market.
Following the program rollout period, CalSavers aims to enroll hundreds of thousands of actively contributing participants by 2023.
CalABLE: Established in 2018, CalABLE is a savings and investment plan offered by the State of California to individuals with disabilities that allows people with disabilities the opportunity to save and grow their money in tax-advantaged accounts without interfering with government benefit programs.
It is estimated that families that include a person with a disability must earn up to 28 percent more income in order to obtain the same standard of living compared to a family without a person who has a disability. CalABLE creates an opportunity for people to save, invest, and grow their money, and use that money to pay for the additional costs of living a life with a disability. In the disability community approximately four in ten report significant difficulty in handling an emergency expense as small as $400.
CalABLE aims to increase program enrollment by 250% by December 2030.
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Recognizing it will take alignment of all our organizations to scale impact globally, we invite you to join the movement as a Steward of Inclusive Capitalism. Together, the collective action of Council members will contribute to a fairer, more inclusive and sustainable future for all people and our planet.
