Real estate agents are almost always independent contractors — federal tax law treats licensed agents paid on commission under written contract as statutory nonemployees — so your agents are not covered by the CalSavers mandate and don't belong on any roster you register. The mandate reaches your W-2 payroll: transaction coordinators, office administrators, property managers, leasing and maintenance staff. If you employ even one such person, you're a covered employer and every deadline has passed. That makes the honest scope of this page narrower than the industry's headcount suggests — and it means a brokerage plan should be sized, priced and designed for the small W-2 team it will actually cover, not the agent roster it won't.
Why this industry is different
The mandate treats every employer alike. The payroll realities underneath don't cooperate:
- The roster and the payroll are different documents. Fifty agents hang their licenses at the brokerage; four people are on W-2. Every mandate obligation, and every plan you might sponsor, is about the four.
- Agents are on their own — and mostly know it, but haven't acted. A 1099 agent's retirement is a solo 401(k), SEP or IRA question in their own name; the brokerage can host the education session but can't sponsor the account.
- Commission income is lumpy on both sides of the house. The brokerage's own revenue swings with closings, which argues for employer contributions that are discretionary rather than promised.
- Property management spreads small W-2 teams across sites. A management company may have two people at each of six buildings — one employer, one mandate obligation, and an enrollment process that has to work without gathering anyone in a room.
- Nobody has told the broker any of this plainly. Providers pitching "plans for your fifty-person office" are selling to a headcount that doesn't legally exist.
What actually works
The design conversation here starts with an honest scope statement: the plan covers the W-2 staff, period. For a brokerage with a handful of coordinators and admins, that means small-plan economics — CalSavers satisfies the mandate at no employer cost, while a small 401(k), with startup costs frequently offset by the SECURE 2.0 credits, adds real retention value for the staff who actually run the office and far higher contribution room for the broker-owner, who is often above the Roth income limits and can't use CalSavers personally. Property management companies with staff across sites should weight administration heavily: payroll-integrated enrollment, no meetings required.
What we won't do is oversell the agent side. Agents, as independent contractors, can't be covered by the brokerage's plan — their options are their own solo 401(k)s, SEPs and IRAs, and the useful thing a broker can offer is an education session, not an account. We'll run that session; we just won't pretend it's a company plan.
The SECURE 2.0 credits frequently cover most of the first three years' administration for employers under 50 staff — the formula, worked honestly — and if after the arithmetic CalSavers is still the right answer for your shop, we'll say so: the full comparison · run your own numbers.
By county
This guide is statewide. The county pages go local — where the industry physically clusters, which cities it sits in, and the municipal rules that stack on top of the state mandate.
- Real Estate Brokerages & Property Management in Los Angeles County
- Real Estate Brokerages & Property Management in Orange County
Where this industry clusters near us
Real Estate Brokerages & Property Management questions
Do my 1099 agents count toward CalSavers?
Can I put my agents in the brokerage's 401(k) anyway?
I run a property management company with staff at six buildings. One obligation or six?
As the broker-owner, what about my own retirement?
A plan designed around real estate brokerages & property management — not around the average employer
We design around the census you actually have — turnover, seasonality, pay structure and all. Fifteen minutes, no charge, and a straight answer.