From 70 Hours to Minutes: Vestwell CEO Aaron Schumm on Simplifying and Automating Savings

Aaron Schumm, CEO and Founder of Vestwell, knows firsthand how broken America's savings system is. When he tried to set up a 401k for his previous 30-person company back in 2010, the process was so difficult, expensive, and confusing that he decided to build a better solution. Today, Vestwell serves 2 million savers with $50 billion in assets, has reduced 401k setup times from 40-70 hours down to just minutes, and runs 14 state-sponsored auto IRA programs including New York's Secure Choice.

In this episode, Aaron explains why fintech has largely failed to move the needle on financial health, too many point solutions that put the onus back on individuals to figure out what to do and then implement it across multiple accounts. His solution? AI agents that will automatically route money from your paycheck to the optimal savings vehicle based on your income, location, tax rates, existing savings, and life circumstances. And he says we're less than a year away from making that a reality.

In this podcast you will learn:

• What is broken with the current savings system in America.
• The problem at his previous business that was the a-ha moment for Vestwell.
• Their initial use case and how they got going.
• How their product works exactly.
• The three channels they work with.
• How they are working with New York State and other government programs.
• The conversations they are having with the Federal government around savings programs.
• The percentage of employees who typically sign up for an auto-enroll program.
• The scale that Vestwell is at today.
• What their technology stack looks like.
• How much easier it is to set up a workplace savings plan through Vestwell than traditional companies.
• The different revenue lines for Vestwell.
• How they are working with Amazon.
• Why we are not further along in helping Americans with their financial health.
• How autonomous AI agents are going to optimize our financial lives in the future.

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