HealthEquity Retirement is a full-scope 401(k) provider that specializes in offering a low-cost, high-service 401(k) solution for businesses of all sizes. With the help of our partners, our services include recordkeeping, TPA, custodial, advisory, and full fiduciary services. HealthEquity Retirement manages your 401(k) plan for you, so you can focus on running your business.
The 401(k) model is broken and we’re working to fix it. We work to reduce 401(k) cost and risk. HealthEquity Retirement appoints professional fiduciaries to sign and act in the primary fiduciary roles for you. This allows you to focus on running your business while we take on the fiduciary risk and administrative tasks of running your plan. Because we do this for thousands of clients across the country, we are able to negotiate amazing prices with the industry-best providers allowing us to save companies 30-60% of their total plan costs.
The law governing 401(k) plans (ERISA) defines a fiduciary as anyone who:
The primary fiduciary roles on a 401(k) plan include the 3(16) Plan Administrator, 3(21) Named Fiduciary, 3(38) Investment Manager, Plan Sponsor, Trustee, and Financial Advisor.
Our goal is always to keep total plan costs between .6% – 1.5% of plan assets, including recordkeeping, TPA, custodial, fiduciary, advisory, and investment costs. Many 401(k) companies will show you a “total” cost and fail to mention that most plan costs are buried in the retail priced, actively managed mutual funds they make available to you. The fees on our plan are made up of an annual base fee, per account fee, and asset-based fees depending on your plan size and services.
An HealthEquity Retirement plan can be set up so the employer pays $0 in ongoing plan costs. By keeping our plan costs low, we have a number of larger plan sponsors that are able to pass all cost to the participating employees. However, in most cases, the company elects to pay the annual base fee of $1,500-$2,500 per year. Almost every fee in the HealthEquity Retirement plan is flexible in terms of who can pay it. You will be able to elect which fees to cover for your employees and which they will need to cover. Some companies elect to pay more fees for employees while others elect to pay less. You choose!
No, HealthEquity Retirement has no termination fees. We think you should be able to come and leave as you please because we are confident that our service model will keep you around for a very long time. The only termination fee when moving from an HealthEquity Retirement plan is assessed by the recordkeeper to cover the cost of closing down a plan and processing the transfer of plan assets. Typically, that cost is $495 compared to other termination fees in the industry which can range from $1,000 - $3,000.
We don’t believe in the “bait and switch” approach that many providers use. We do a custom plan design call for every one of our clients so we can tailor plan features to specific goals and needs. This includes custom matching, Safe Harbor plans, profit sharing, vesting schedules, eligibility, Roth contributions, loan provisions, and more.
HealthEquity Retirement has no plan document charges when setting up a plan because we use a proprietary plan document in a custom model. So, essentially, we paid for the plan documents so that you don’t have to.
HealthEquity Retirement does not charge for the plan document associated with restatements. Our restatement fee for the work associated with re-drafting adoption and service agreements is only $100 (which occurs once every 5-6 years) compared to $500-$3,500 with a typical provider.
We don’t just prepare your 5500 for you, we also review it, sign it, and file it. This helps take work off your plate and more importantly, eliminates significant fiduciary risk in the case of a DOL, IRS, or EBSA audit.
Yes. You will have a dedicated plan contact at HealthEquity Retirement for any questions that you may have. Your plan contact will work with all of the service providers on the plan to find answers to your questions and solutions to any issues that may arise.
Each of our recordkeeping partners has a dedicated team to answer participant questions. They offer support in both English and Spanish.
Yes. If your plan doesn’t have a financial advisor to come run your enrollment meeting, we will do it for you. We typically do a pre-recorded webinar or a live webinar, but can also arrange for live enrollment meetings depending on plan size and company location, if needed.
Employees can enroll online, by phone, or by mail. Most employees elect to use our easy three step online enrollment which takes less than five minutes.
Yes. We have worked with our recordkeeping partners to build integrations with a variety of different payroll providers including Heartland, Paylocity, PayLogics, Paycor, Payroll Experts, Sage Payroll and others. Regardless of who your payroll provider is, we can typically build some level of integration and custom reporting to make sure that submitting your payroll information every couple of weeks only takes you a few minutes.
Our platform is open-architecture providing access to almost every possible investment option allowed within a 401(k) plan. Because we appoint registered investment advisory firms as the investment managers on your plan, your employees will have access to pre-built, pre-diversified model portfolios and target date options built with some of the best, low-cost funds on the market like Vanguard, and Dimensional Funds. This sophisticated, low-cost approach makes investment decisions easy for employees. The average expense ratio in our primary fund lineup, including the pre-built model portfolios, is just .18%. Should an employee want more flexibility, they also have the ability to open up a self-directed brokerage account within the plan at no initial cost.
Yes. Employees can change their investment allocations and rebalance their accounts as often as needed. By default, the investment manager sets an appropriate re-balancing frequency for their custom models. Most of our investment managers set the re-balancing frequency to annual or semi-annual.
If you have an existing plan, it typically takes a minimum of 45 days to change plans because of the required 30-day notice that has to be issued to employees. Employers only need to spend a small amount of time (usually just a few hours) during this period to manage the process.
We can setup a new plan in as quick as 30 days depending on how fast the client can get us the information we need. However, if that new plan is a Safe Harbor plan, there is a required 30-day notice that must go out to employees which extends the time frame to about 45 days.
HealthEquity Retirement works with employers of all sizes. We manage plans ranging from 1 employee to 5,000 employees, and from $0 to $50 million in plan assets. Our typical client has 50 plus employees and $1 million plus in plan assets, but our solution works great for just about anyone. We have no minimum or maximum size requirements to setup a plan.
Yes. Financial advisors love working with us and we are happy to keep them on the plan if that’s your preference. An HealthEquity Retirement plan can run with your current advisor, without an advisor, or we can even help you find a new advisor who will provide value for your plan and the participants.
Yes. As plan fiduciaries, we keep sufficient bonding for every plan we service. Additionally, our bond includes you as a plan sponsor so that you don’t have to go through the time, effort, and cost of securing a separately policy. HealthEquity Retirement also carries various other umbrella and fiduciary liability insurance policies to protect plan participants and assets.
While we have the capability to work with a number of different custodians, we custody almost all of our assets with TD Ameritrade because of their exceptional service and reputation in the industry.
Yes. We do this for a number of our clients that have multiple companies with common or separate ownership. In our setup process, we will help you determine the most efficient structure for pricing and operating plans for multiple companies depending on whether or not those plans constitute a controlled group or an affiliate services group.
No. Indirect compensation can create a conflict of interest which is why we have chosen to avoid it. All fees to financial advisors and other service providers on our plan are disclosed up front and paid directly from the plan or employer to the provider. If a fund is ever selected that has revenue sharing, it goes back to the plan.