To Bridge the Retirement Divide, ForUsAll Introduces a Radically Simplified, Next-Generation 401(k)
SAN FRANCISCO (PRWEB) June 22, 2015 -- ForUsAll, Inc. today announced the launch of its radically simplified, next-generation 401(k) specifically designed for small businesses and their employees. ForUsAll was founded to bridge the retirement divide created by an outdated 401(k) that is too complicated, time-consuming, and expensive for small businesses. As a result, 5 out of 6 small businesses do not offer a retirement plan(1), which contributes to the $6 trillion retirement savings deficit facing the United States. Using technology and innovative plan design, ForUsAll rebuilt the 401(k) from the ground up so that it’s radically simple and affordable for small employers to administer, and for their employees to save for retirement.
“We have one simple goal at ForUsAll: to make sure that every American has a fair shot at retirement success no matter how small the company they work for or own,” says Shin Inoue, co-founder and CEO of ForUsAll. “To accomplish that we challenged ourselves to radically simplify the 401(k) so that it works for any small company and its employees.”
The 401(k) has become the de facto retirement vehicle in the United States because it allows for the greatest amount of tax-advantaged savings for workers and provides meaningful tax-incentives for employers. Unfortunately more than half of Americans aren’t participating in an employer sponsored retirement plan. (2)
The lack of access is due to the fact that traditional 401(k)s are extremely complicated, time-consuming and expensive for employers to provide — making them mainly the privilege of large companies served by traditional financial firms. These traditional 401(k) providers overlook small employers because they can’t profitably serve them.
Those financial firms who do serve the small plan market, charge high prices – resulting in a loss of $15 billion in retirement savings each year to unnecessary fees for small businesses and their employees. For example, the average 401(k) fees paid by employees at a Fortune 500 company are 0.50% while the average for employees at small companies are 1.3% — a material difference that impacts Americans’ retirement outcomes. (3)
“I’ve provided 401(k)s at previous companies and know the burdens they put on small businesses. I also know I was paying at least twice as much as large companies with a traditional 401(k) but I didn’t want my employees to miss out on saving for retirement,” says Jeff Freund, CEO and Founder of Akoonu. “Fortunately we found a 401(k) that works for my new startup. At Akoonu we needed a 401(k) that was affordable, plugged into our ecosystem of tools and eliminated the usual administrative burdens of having a 401(k) from the company.”
Due to the lack of access and high fees, only 14% of small companies provide a 401(k) versus 89% of large companies, which means that about 77 million Americans don’t have an employer sponsored retirement plan. (4)
Finally, a 401(k) for Everyone
For employers, ForUsAll has radically simplified the process of providing a 401(k) by removing the conventional burdens associated with old-school 401(k)s. Using technology to handle the administrative heavy-lifting, ForUsAll has automated the 401(k) so that it works right out of the box and reduces the workload for businesses. Key features include:
- Payroll integration - ForUsAll links with each employer’s cloud-based payroll system so that 401(k) contributions are deducted automatically and new employees are added when eligible.
- Full-service plan administration - ForUsAll’s automated system handles plan administration, including signing and submitting all retirement-related government forms. Employers have online access to a Plan Dashboard that provides plan status at-a-glance and the Fiduciary Vault, which organizes and secures all critical plan documents.
ForUsAll has also radically simplified the 401(k) for employees by automating each key decision point - enrollment, savings and investing. The employee experience is also enhanced by DAVE, ForUsAll’s award-winning virtual advisor, who translates the 401(k) into plain English and makes the traditionally intimidating 401(k) experience user-friendly. (5) This simplified and automatic approach to the 401(k) is yielding strong results that far exceed the industry average for all key measures of success. (6) The results include:
- More than a 90% participation rates (vs. 74%)
- An average savings rate of 10% (vs. 5.6%)
- More than 90% staying in low-cost, diversified default investment option
“A radically simplified 401(k) doesn’t require an army of experts and high fees to do what it’s supposed to do – so it’s also significantly less expensive, which means more money for employees,” says David Ramirez, Chief Investment Officer for ForUsAll. “ForUsAll’s 401(k) is yielding promising early results, which have been consistent in companies ranging from high-tech start-ups, to manufacturing companies, to hair salons. It’s heartening to see the impact of our automatic plan design in getting people enrolled, saving at a healthy rate and investing prudently.”
Because of technology-enabled automation and innovative plan design, ForUsAll keeps plan costs low -- less than half of the typical cost:
- No set-up fees
- $94 a month for up to 10 employees for the employer
- All-in cost of 0.54% of the 401(k) balance for the employees
Funding:
To deliver on its mission, ForUsAll has raised $3.3 million in its seed round of funding and is backed by some of the most influential investors in the areas of financial technology, retirement and SaaS software including:
- Foundation Capital
- Blake Grossman, former CEO of Barclays Global Investors
- John Hall, CEO of IntApp
- Christopher Jones, author of “The Intelligent Portfolio”
- Paul Koontz, General Partner Emeritus of Foundation Capital
- Joshua S. Levine, former CTO of E*TRADE
About ForUsAll
ForUsAll is a next-generation provider of 401(k)s for small businesses. ForUsAll was founded to help bridge the current retirement gap facing the United States by radically simplifying the 401(k) so that it’s easy, hassle-free, and inexpensive for any small company and its employees. ForUsAll has a very simple goal: to make sure that every American has a fair shot at retirement success, no matter how small the company they work for or own. To learn more please go to http://www.ForUsAll.com.
(1) "Helping Small Business Workers Improve Retirement Readiness Through Multiple-Employer Plans," State Street Global Advisors, 2014.
(2) "Retirement Plan Participation: Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP) Data, 2012," Employee Benefit Research Institute, August 2013.
(3) "Deloitte Defined Contribution and ICI 401(k) Fee Study: Inside the Structure of Defined Contribution / 401(k) Plan Fees: A Study Assessing the Mechanics of What Drives the 'All In' Fee," June 2009.
(4) Employee Benefit Research Institute, "Employment-Based Retirement Plan Participation: Geographic Differences and Trends, 2013." Employee Benefit Research Institute, Figure 2.
(5) Plan Sponsor Council of America Signature Award for Digital Innovations, with Highest Distinction, 2014.
(6) "Helping Small Business Workers Improve Retirement Readiness Through Multiple-Employer Plans," State Street Global Advisors, 2014. For the smallest plan segment (<$5 million in plan assets) the usual participation rates are 74.2% and savings are 5.6%.
Asma Stewart, ForUsAll, https://www.forusall.com/, +1 650 517 3130, [email protected]
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