Your first plan
You've hired past the point where "we'll do it later" is comfortable, and you want the thing set up correctly the first time rather than fixed later.
Live — plans running today
A 401(k) for your team that doesn't become your job.
Full-service recordkeeping and administration for your plan. Enrollment, payroll-driven contributions, vesting schedules, compliance testing, and the annual Form 5500 — carried on our side, on an engine that has administered real plans.
- Running today, not a waitlist
- Employees enroll themselves
- Annual filing handled
Who this is for
Businesses where the plan can't be someone's full-time job.
Most small employers don't skip a 401(k) because they don't want one. They skip it because the administration lands on the owner, the office manager, or nobody.
A state mandate deadline
Your state requires you to offer a retirement plan or enroll in its program. A qualified 401(k) satisfies the requirement and keeps the plan — and its higher limits — yours.
Leaving your current provider
You already have a plan and it costs too much, asks too much of you, or both. We handle the conversion, including the records the outgoing provider hands over.
No employees yet?
If it's just you — or you and a spouse — a Solo 401(k) has a higher ceiling and far less administration. That's a different product, and we'd rather point you at it.
What you get
Five things that decide whether a small plan is bearable.
01 Live
Vesting that runs itself
Cliff or graded schedules, tracked per participant against real service dates — not a spreadsheet someone updates at year end.
- Cliff and graded schedules
- Service computed from payroll data
- Forfeitures applied automatically
02
Seamless signup
Answer questions about your business; we produce the plan document and adoption agreement behind it. No packet to print, sign in three places, and mail back.
- Plan document prepared for you
- Safe harbor and profit sharing configured up front
- E-signature end to end
03
No-touch onboarding
Employees enroll themselves and set their own deferrals. Contributions come off payroll on their own. Your ongoing involvement is approving what you actually need to approve.
- Self-service employee enrollment
- Payroll-driven contributions
- Eligibility tracked as people join
04
Easy audits
We prepare and file the annual return, which for most small plans is where it ends. And your records stay in the shape an independent auditor expects, so growing past the large-plan threshold isn't a scramble.
- Form 5500 prepared and filed
- Non-discrimination testing each year
- Audit-ready records as you grow
05
Low cost, legibly
Pricing you can read in one sitting, quoted before you commit. We'd rather tell you what the plan costs than have you discover it inside a participant's statement.
- Quoted up front, in writing
- Fees disclosed to participants
Cost of starting
Congress would prefer you did this.
Federal law provides tax credits that can offset much of what it costs a small employer to start a plan — and, separately, part of what you contribute for employees. Credits reduce tax owed dollar for dollar, which is not the same as a deduction.
Startup cost credit
A credit against qualified costs of establishing and administering a new plan, available for the first three years, at its most generous for the smallest employers.
Employer contribution credit
A separate credit for contributions you make on behalf of employees, phasing down over the plan's first five years and by headcount.
Auto-enrollment credit
An additional credit for each of the first three years if the plan enrolls employees automatically — which also satisfies the automatic-enrollment requirement that applies to most newly established plans.
Amounts, eligibility, and phase-outs depend on your headcount, your costs, and the plan year, and are set by federal law rather than by us. We'll walk through what your business would actually qualify for — and you should confirm it with your tax advisor.
Getting started
Three steps, then it runs.
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01
Tell us about the business
Headcount, payroll provider, whether you want safe harbor, and what you intend to contribute. We turn that into a plan document and price it before you commit.
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02
We connect payroll
Contributions come off payroll rather than being keyed in. If you're leaving another provider, this is also where the conversion and prior records land.
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03
Your team enrolls themselves
Employees set deferrals and choose investments on their own. Eligibility, vesting, testing, and the annual filing carry on in the background.
Common questions
What owners actually ask.
How small is too small?
A 401(k) makes sense well below the headcount people assume. If it's only you or you and a spouse, a Solo 401(k) is the better instrument — higher ceiling, much less administration. Once you have employees who are not owners, this is the product.
Is there a size you're too big for?
No. We concentrate on smaller plans because that is where administration most often lands on someone who already has a job — not because of a participant ceiling. The engine came out of a production recordkeeper that has administered real plans. What changes as you grow is the obligations rather than the platform: past the large-plan threshold you file a full Form 5500 with an independent audit attached, and we keep records in that shape from the start.
Do I have to match?
Not necessarily. An employer contribution is required under a safe harbor design, which in exchange removes certain annual testing. Without it you can offer a plan with no employer contribution and test normally. We'll lay out the trade-off before you choose.
Will my plan need an audit?
Most small plans don't. The independent audit requirement attaches to large plans, counted by participants with an account balance at the start of the plan year. Below that line you file without one. We handle the filing either way, and keep records in the shape an auditor would want so crossing the line later is not a fire drill.
What do I still have to do?
Fund what you've agreed to fund, tell us when someone joins or leaves if payroll doesn't, and make the decisions only a plan sponsor can make. You remain the sponsor and a fiduciary of your plan; what we take on is the administration.
Can the plan hold alternative investments?
Not today. Alternatives inside a workplace 401(k) wait on a fiduciary safe harbor that is still in comment, so we don't offer them here — see the roadmap for how we're sequencing it. We'd rather be the provider that says this plainly than one that implies otherwise.
Can I move an existing plan to you?
Yes. Conversions are ordinary work — we take the plan document, participant records, and balances from the outgoing provider. The awkward part is usually their timeline rather than ours, and we'll tell you what it looks like before you give notice.
Tell us about your business.
We'll tell you what the plan costs.
A real quote and a real answer about what your business qualifies for — before you commit to anything.
- Quoted before you commit
- Conversions welcome
- No obligation