Key Takeaways

• Six additional true competitors of Guideline based on companies that provide 401(k) services to small businesses and startups are Employee Fiduciary, Human Interest, Simply Retirement (by Principal®), ForUsAll, 401GO, and Ubiquity.

• Guideline is a modern 401(k) built for startups and small businesses. Over 25,000 organizations trust Guideline to manage their 401(k).
• Vestwell is a cloud-based modern recordkeeping platform rendering the underlying infrastructure required to power workplace savings programs, leading with the 401(k), at scale.
• Ubiquity Retirement + Savings™ claims to be one of the best 401(k) companies in the U.S. and has aided over 9,000 businesses and 100,000+ employees to contribute more than $2.8 billion towards their retirement since 1999.

Introduction

• The research provides an analysis of Guideline and its identified competitors, including a brief overview of the companies, sizes, 401(k) services, and their competitive advantages.

Guideline

• A website address to Guideline is provided herein.
• Guideline is a modern 401(k) built for startups and small businesses.
• It claims to be an easy and affordable retirement platform for small businesses.
• The company's mission is to help everyone arrive at a safe, secure retirement, including small business owners, employees, or self-employed.
• The Guideline platform takes complexity and doubt out of retirement planning and replaces it with knowledge and clarity—so one can invest in their financial future with confidence.
• Over 25,000 organizations trust Guideline to manage their 401(k).

401(k) Plans

• Its 401(k) services include Traditional 401(k) & Roth 401(k), Safe Harbor, Profit sharing, and Matching options.
• Guideline offers three different 401k plans for small businesses and other businesses: Core, Flex, and Max.

Competitive Advantages

• With API payroll integration, Guideline is able to track 401(k) eligibility, securely sync employee data, and process deductions, thereby saving time and hassle each pay run.
• Guideline's investment portfolios rebalance automatically to aid businesses to remain on track for retirement.
• The company offers 40+ index funds from Vanguard and other low-cost providers. Its managed portfolios have blended average fund fees below 0.07%.
• It partners with Benefit Trust Company to provide custodial services. This includes executing trades, processing transactions, and safeguarding plan assets.
• It serves as the user's recordkeeper to track their 401(k) plan’s balances, transactions, deferrals and prepare annual reports for no extra fee, including Form 5500 and 1099-R.

Vestwell

• A website address to Vestwell is provided herein.
• Vestwell is a cloud-based modern recordkeeping platform rendering the underlying infrastructure required to power workplace savings programs, leading with the 401(k), at scale.
• The platform was built by industry experts and an army of technologists and developers and helped people more easily administer, offer, and access workplace investing programs.
• This is made manifest by "partnering with financial institutions - think wirehouses, RIAs, asset managers, insurance providers, and the like - TPAs, payroll providers, and even fellow recordkeepers, to give them the benefits of running their own modern-day recordkeeper without the investment of building and managing one."

• The company was established to be the de facto platform for all workplace savings and investing, starting with the 401(k).

401(k) Plans

• Its retirement plan offering includes Safe Harbor 401(k), Non-Safe Harbor 401(k), Profit-Sharing 401(k), Cash Balance, 403(b), and Payroll Deducted IRA.

Competitive Advantages

• Vestwell delivers an intuitive, modern experience through an API-based platform delivered on the Cloud.
• It claims to have no hidden fees and only charges straightforward pricing below industry benchmarks.
• Its optional 3(16) services include fast and easy onboarding, end-of-year-testing, ongoing servicing, and other benefits.
• Vestwell integrates with so many payroll providers to simplify eligibility and payroll processing while taking more work off the user's plate.
• It offers employees a more personalized investment experience based on their individual goals and circumstances, leveraging Franklin Templeton's proprietary methodology.
• The entire cloud-based platform includes extensive controls such as encryption at all stages, constant monitoring, commercial anti-virus tools, and strict internal protocols and training.

Human Interest

• A website address to Human Interest is provided herein.
• Human Interest is positioned as the 401(k) for small and medium-sized businesses.
• It helps small and medium-sized businesses offer low-cost, high-quality retirement plans to their employees.
• In the past, only large companies offered employee retirement plans, leaving more than half of all working Americans without a path to a secure financial future. Human Interest is changing that by offering affordable, accessible retirement plans to businesses of all sizes.

401(k) Plans

• The company offers Traditional and Roth 401(k)s, 403(b)s, Safe Harbor plans, and profit-sharing plans.
• It offers three different plans for businesses: Essentials, Complete, and Concierge.

Competitive Advantages

• Human Interest has a diverse team of smart, motivated, fun people who are committed to solving America’s retirement savings crisis.

• Human Interest takes the hassle out of managing a company’s 401(k): It synchronizes to a company's payroll, processes contributions, and handles all of the compliance testing and IRS paperwork.
• With Human Interest, businesses get affordable plans, low-cost funds, and absolutely zero transaction fees.
• Employees can easily check their balance, change contributions, and update portfolio preferences. It’s very easy to use the Human Interest platform, and the company sees 2x the industry average participation rate.
• It puts funds in a diversified, low-cost portfolio and rebalances quarterly. Employees in search of more flexibility can decide and manage their own funds.

Employee Fiduciary

• A website address to Employee Fiduciary is provided herein.

• The company claims to be the most cost-efficient 401(k) for small and medium-sized businesses.
• Its mission is to provide small businesses and their employees access to retirement plans that offer the same low prices, investment choices, and quality service as plans sponsored by our country’s largest corporations.
• The company was founded in 2004 and administered over 4,000 small business 401(k) plans in all 50 states with nearly $5 billion in assets.

401(k) Plans

• The company offers 401(k) Plan Setup and 401(k) Administration.
• Under the 401(k) Plan Setup, Employee Fiduciary consultants enable businesses to determine the best 401(k) plan for them.
• A 401(k) recordkeeper is essentially the bookkeeper of 401(k) plans. A recordkeeper’s responsibilities include allocating the assets of your plan to participant accounts and executing participant trades.
• Employee Fiduciary offers safe harbor, profit sharing, new comparability, and other defined contribution plans.
• The company services several retirement plans such as 401(k) / Profit Sharing Plans, Money Purchase / Target Benefit Plans, ERISA 403(b) Plans, ESOPs (recordkeeping-only), and Defined Benefit and Cash Balance Plans (recordkeeping-only).

Competitive Advantages

• In addition to its senior leadership, each member of the Employee Fiduciary family works on a team designed to make your 401(k) plan as simple and cost-effective as possible.

• Users are able to determine the investments suitable to them, including cost-efficient index funds and ETFs - without markup.
• The company claims to be charging the lowest fee for a custom retirement plan in the United States.
• When our clients select funds that pay revenue sharing, it uses the compensation to reduce its invoices or reallocate the revenue to participant accounts.

ForUsAll

• A website address to ForUsAll is provided herein.
• It is a cloud-based 401(k) administration platform for small and medium-sized businesses.
• ForUsAll is an independent 401(k) advisor leveraging its deep retirement planning expertise and technology to solve real problems for small and mid-sized businesses.

• ForUsAll was founded in 2012 by the same team that helped build the largest RIA (Edelman Financial Engines), the largest registered investment advisor in the country.
• Prior to founding ForUsAll, the team managed $50+ billion in 401(k) assets for Fortune 500 companies and understands what is required to drive participant success, lower fiduciary risk, and reduce fees.

401(k) Plans

• The company offers prudent 401(k) investments options. It also offers safe harbor plans.
• It introduced the Alt 401(k), "its retirement investment platform that allows employers to provide alternative investment options within 401(k) plans, a first of its kind."
• ForUsAll acts as both 3(38) and 3(16) fiduciary, ensuring that businesses remain compliant while automating manual tasks such as contributions, 401(k) loans, eligibility tracking, hardships, and notifications.

Competitive Advantages

• The company has been in the 401(k) industry for over 30 years with a track record of creating solutions to engage employees, increase savings rates, and streamline administration and compliance. Some of its work has even been patented.

• It has aided 70,000+ employees to contribute more than $1.7+ billion towards their retirement.
• ForUsAll has an award-winning virtual advisor known as Dave, who provides interactive guidance in English or Spanish.
• It ensures that the 401(k) plans by businesses are well monitored by automating most day-to-day administration and providing users with high-touch support.

Simply Retirement by Principal®

• A website address to Simply Retirement is provided herein.
• Simply Retirement by Principal® was exclusively created to simplify the method of researching and setting up a retirement plan for small businesses with fewer than 100 employees.
• It is said to be an online 401(k) plan designed to be the most straightforward, budget-friendly approach.

401(k) Plans

• Simply Retirement offers six (6) different 401(k) plans: Simply Retirement by Principal® 401(k) plan, 401(k) plan, 403(b) plan, SEP IRA, SIMPLE IRA, Defined benefit (pension) plan.
• A SIMPLE IRA (Savings Incentive Match Plan for Employees) is a simpler version of a 401(k) plan that works like a traditional IRA (Individual Retirement Account).
• The 403(b) plan 403(b) plans are used by tax-exempt businesses, religious organizations, school districts, and governmental organizations. The law allows these organizations to be exempt from certain administrative processes that apply to 401(k) plans.
• A Simplified Employee Pension (SEP) Individual Retirement Account (IRA) allows small business owners to save toward retirement.

Competitive Advantages

• The small business retirement plan proposals can be created in minutes without investing a lot of time and effort.
• The company has "paired decades of experience in retirement solutions and investments from Principal with the simplicity and cost-effectiveness of the Ubiquity Retirement + Savings® online recordkeeping platform, breaking down barriers like cost and complexity so you can help more small businesses offer their employees a way to save for retirement."
• It is a true 100% digital process that lets businesses complete every step of the process online, when and where it’s convenient for them. Beginning with the plan design and e-signing documents to census and onboarding, all required steps occur in the Simply Retirement by Principal® digital platform.

• Its investment options offer strong performance with a competitive return, helping make the most of employees’ contributions and any matching contributions your client provides as a business owner.
• The company combines 75+ years of expertise in retirement solutions and investments from Principal4 with the simplicity and cost-effectiveness of the Ubiquity Retirement + Savings® recordkeeping platform and services.

401GO

• A website address to 401GO is provided herein.
• 401GO claims to be the most innovative 401k platform worldwide.
• The company created the 401GO platform to solve the problems associated with the expensive, slow, and very inefficient nature of the 401(k) industry, thereby allowing the users to focus on their future, not fiduciary responsibilities.
• It also has an artificially intelligent system to aid businesses with designing the right (and compliant) 401k plan for their company.
• Its aim is to help people save for the future with affordable and accessible retirement plans.
• The company's mission is to make retirement available to all.

401(k) Plans

• 401GO offers two major 401(k) plans: The GO-Basic plan and the GO-Plus plan.
• According to the company, the GO-Basic plan is designed for startups and for companies with fewer than 50 employees or new startup plans.
• The GO-Plus plan is designed for larger businesses (50+ employees), existing 401(k) plans, or those with more complex needs.
• It also offers all the Safe Harbor plan designs (Basic, Enhanced, Auto-Enrollment (QACA), and Non-Elective).

Competitive Advantages

• 401GO claims to be a one-stop-shop for all aspects of 401(k) designed for effectiveness to make it affordable for small businesses. It also has the power and flexibility needed by larger organizations for more complex needs.
• It only takes 8 minutes to set up. Most plan providers take an average of 8 weeks to set up.
• Every 401GO plan comes with the company's Guided Portfolio Design. 401GO designs and suggests a customized portfolio based on each participant’s needs, investing goals, and several other factors like the time until retirement and risk tolerance.
• 401GO integrates with many major payroll providers to reduce the amount of work that goes into handling and reporting employee deferrals with each pay run.

• The 401GO is designed for small businesses in mind and combines its new approach with automation to build a fully integrated and intuitive system that does the work of what is typically done by 3-4 providers.
• Through the company's efficiency and automation, it saves employers and employees money, time, and hassle, giving them the chance to save for retirement.
• 401GO charges no startup fees, no base fee, no filing fee, no compliance fee, no BS! Absolutely, positively, no hidden fees in your 401(k) plan.

Ubiquity

• A website address to Ubiquity is provided herein.
• Ubiquity Retirement + Savings™ claims to be one of the best 401(k) companies in the U.S. and has aided over 9,000 businesses and 100,000+ employees to contribute more than $2.8 billion towards their retirement since 1999.
• The company is headquartered in San Francisco with satellite offices from coast to coast.
• The company's mission is to enable small businesses and their employees to create a more reliable financial future and peace of mind by taking advantage of technology with affordable and efficient retirement solutions and state-of-the-art customer support.
• It empowers small business clients to benefit from programs such as 401(k) match, Roth, pretax contributions, Safe Harbor, and automatic enrollment for their employees.

401(k) Plans

• Ubiquity offers three (3) major 401(k) plans: Solo 401(k), Small Business 401(k), and Small Business Retirement plan.
• A solo 401(k) is a retirement savings plan for a self-employed or sole proprietor business owner (and spouse, if applicable) and is also referred to as Single(k)®, self-employed 401(k), Individual 401(k), or one-participant 401(k).
• A small business 401(k) is a 401(k) plan for organizations with one to 100 employees. The Ubiquity small business 401(k) plans offer unparalleled benefits to both business owners and employees who partake in the plan.
• A retirement plan also provides tax benefits to those who participate in the plan. Contributions and investment earnings are not taxed until taken out of the plan.
• The small business retirement plan is further divided into SEP Plan, SIMPLE IRA Plan, and Small Business 401(k) Plan.
• Other 401(k) resources offered by the company include Safe Harbor 401(k) Plans, Roth 401(k), 401(k) Calculator, among other resources.

Competitive Advantages

• Ubiquity retirement sales consultants each have over 10 years of experience in small business retirement planning. They’ll walk you through finding and setting up the right plan for your needs. And they’ll explain things simply and without any jargon.
• The company consultants only require 15 to 30 minutes to evaluate the best plan for a small business based on its goals.
• Ubiquity charges low, flat fees and doesn’t ever charge fees based on the size of your retirement plan.
• The company provides recommendations to reduce business tax liability and minimize the fixed costs of administering your plan.
• As one of the first flat-fee-for-service small business plan providers across the 50 US states, Ubiquity delivers peace-of-mind with zero hidden fees.
• With Ubiquity, small businesses can qualify to gain about $16,500 in tax credits over 3 years by starting a qualified retirement plan with auto-enrollment.

Research Strategy