401k Easy Pricing and Price Comparisons

401(k) Easy fee schedule.

401(k) Easy pricing:

401(k) Easy for plans using participant-directed discount brokerage accounts only, OR participant-directed discount brokerage accounts AND no-load mutual funds, OR no-load mutual funds only*
1 eligible employee (plus spouse)	=	$395 per year
2-4 eligible employee	=	$495 per year
5-10 eligible employees	=	$595 per year
11-15 eligible employees	=	$695 per year
16-20 eligible employees	=	$895 per year
21-25 eligible employees	=	$1045 per year
26-30 eligible employees	=	$1195 per year
31-35 eligible employees	=	$1345 per year
36-40 eligible employees	=	$1575 per year
41-45 eligible employees	=	$1725 per year
46-50 eligible employees	=	$1875 per year
50+ eligible employees	=	($1875 plus $200 for each additional 5 eligible employees)
*All 401(k) Easy clients incur a $495 plan and software setup fee upon ordering their plan. This fee is charged the first year ONLY.
Note: See this website's Investments pages if you are unfamiliar with any of the above investment categorizations.

Whatever investment approach you select, the fee you pay for 401(k) Easy covers your COMPLETE 401(k) Easy package, including your choice of any or all of our plan customization options, our exclusive EZ-FedForms CD-ROM, and more! We've even included taxes, shipping and handling costs!

With 401(k) Easy, there are...

No trustee fees.

No fees for including (or excluding) 401k loans, employer matching contributions, automatic enrollment, or any of the other 401(k) Easy plan customization options in your 401k plan.

401k Comparisons and the True Impact of Hidden 401k Fees

Many 401k plans contain significant hidden fees. This is especially true of 401k plans offered to small companies, where it is easier to hide fees from small business owners, who are busy running their businesses and do not have the time or staff to review all the legal mumbo-jumbo of setting up a new plan or reviewing plan documents.

These hidden fees are being lifted from the back pockets of 401k plan participants. The US Department of Labor is trying to force 401k plan providers (banks, mutual fund companies, insurance companies, brokerages, etc.) to come clean about these hidden fees. But there is significant lobbying power at play to stymie the government's effort to force comprehensive 401k fee disclosure.

Here are the facts:

ICI (Investment Company Institute)
and Deloitte

According to a recent study by the ICI (Investment Company Institute) and Deloitte titled, "Defined Contribution / 401(k) Fee Study". the average 401k plan has hidden fees of 0.72% per year. That may not seem like much, but it costs the average participant about $11,000 in hidden fees for the lifetime of his or her 401k. These fees are extracted directly from the 401k participant's account. In their study, ICI and Deloitte call these hidden fees "all-in" fees. The average hidden "all-in" fee of 0.72% equates to $350 per year, extracted from participants' accounts.

For small 401k plans that cover less than 20 employees and less than $1 million in total assets, the hidden "all-in" fee situation is much worse. For small 401k plan participants, hidden "all-in" fees can jump from 0.79% to a whopping 1.89%, or up to $920 per plan participant per year! For small plan participants, this can mean paying an astounding $28,000 in hidden fees for the lifetime of his or her 401k. See pages 6, 16, 19 and 20 of ICI/ Deloitte report by clicking the report cover. If you are selecting a 401k for your employees, did you know they could be unknowingly losing $350 to $920 a year in hidden fees?

In most 401k plans, large and small, the employer pays the 401k plan's annual record keeping fees. These fees vary; below is a representative sample of annual record keeping fees:

401k fees for a company with 15 employees & $1 million in assets...
401k Easy	(www.401keasy.com)	=	$695
401k Easy Online	(www.401k-easy-online.com)	=	$995
The Online 401k	(www.theonline401k.com)	=	$1,100
Wellington 401k	(www.wellington401k.com)	=	$1,350
Employee Fiduciary	(www.employeefiduciary.com)	=	$1,500
Sharebuilder 401k	(www.sharebuilder401k.com)	=	$1,800

...and how prices skyrocket when the "all-in" and hidden fees are disclosed...
401k Easy	:	$695 + [No hidden "all-in" fees]	=	$695 per year complete!
401k Easy Online	:	$995 + [No hidden "all-in" fees]	=	$995 per year complete!
The Online 401k	:	$1,100 + ["all-in" fee of 0.72% to 1.89% of $1 million]	=	$8,300 to $20,000 per year
Wellington 401k	:	$1,350 + ["all-in" fee of 0.72% to 1.89% of $1 million]	=	$8,550 to $20,250 per year
Employee Fiduciary	:	$1,500 + ["all-in" fee of 0.72% to 1.89% of $1 million]	=	$8,700 to $20,400 per year
Sharebuilder 401k	:	$1,800 + ["all-in" fee of 0.72% to 1.89% of $1 million]	=	$9,000 to $20,700 per year

So it's not rocket science to understand why many plan providers in the 401k industry are blowing smoke to make any discussion about hidden or "all in" 401k fees confusing and bewildering. There is a great deal of money at stake, and all this smoke clouds the fact that many small employers are unknowingly offering their employees 401k plans laden with hidden fees.

Hidden and "all-in" 401k fees are getting noticed by the news media and the legal profession via class-action law suits, and some 401k plan providers that made fortunes mining hidden fees are now scrambling to cover their tracks. They are generating the kind of PR confusion many of us remember from years past, when major tobacco companies tried to explain to Americans that smoking was not hazardous their health. Many in the 401k industry are launching the same kind of PR assault, confusing and clouding the issue, but what is really at stake is the end of their 401k hidden fee gravy train, pure and simple.

You save $$$ by doing your 401k plan administration in-house with 401(k) Easy:
Some 401k price comparisons

We compared the cost of a complete, fully-customized 401(k) Easy system with the cost of bundled plans offered by a broad cross-section of major national vendors. It's not a perfect comparison, of course: their plans include off-site administration, ours include superior investment choice, superior plan flexibility, superior asset security, MONTHLY employee statements, MONTHLY compliance testing, and so on.

With
401(k) Easy you save 60% or more
off the lowest-priced national vendor plan!

According to HR Investment Consultants in Towson, MD, publisher of the "401k Provider Directory, "the cost of running a 401k plan with 25 participants and $750,000 in assets can range from as little as $6,750 per year to as much as $20,000, depending on which 401k vendor you select.
(Sources: Nation's Business, September 1998, Myers, Randy "Your 401k Plan May Cost You Too Much." Business Week Online, July 2000, Brenner, Lynn "A Wealth of Choices.")

So...

401(k) Easy 25-participant plan costs only $1045/yr
(plus the first-year-only, one-time setup fee of $495)

National average for 25-participant plan costs a whopping $6,750/yr to $20,000/yr (plus their plan setup fee) the flexible options standard to 401(k) Easy plans!

Since the exact price you pay for 401(k) Easy depends on the investment approach you choose for your plan, how much you save varies with the investment approach you choose -- and remember while you look at these price comparisons that with 401(k) Easy there are no trustee fees, no fees for including or excluding any of our plan customization options, monthly (not quarterly) employee account statements, monthly (not semi-annual or annual) compliance testing, and more -- things other 401k providers charge extra for, if they even offer at all!

VIEW price comparisons of 401k plans that use participant-directed brokerage accounts.

VIEW price comparisons of 401k plans that use no-load mutual funds.

VIEW price comparisons of 401k plans that use participant-directed brokerage accounts AND no-load mutual funds.

401(k) Easy's 60-day money-back guarantee

Your 401(k) Easy system comes with a 60-day money-back guarantee on everything but the $495 first-year-only plan and 401k software fee. Because this setup fee is non-refundable, we recommend people considering 401(k) Easy try out the 401k plan administration software, the core of our 401(k) Easy system.

Try out our 401k software for FREE by download it from this website, or...

Order a CD-ROM of our 401k software demo for delivery by mail. If you order the CD-ROM and later purchase a 401(k) Easy 401k, the $35 CD-ROM fee will be applied to your 401(k) Easy purchase.

Whether downloaded or accessed off a CD-ROM, our 401k plan administration software demo gives you a fully-functioning version of our 401k software. We customized the demo with fictitious data regarding a fictitious company's 401k plan. You can try out the software's many features and time-saving capabilities. Included is an interactive tour to help get you started.

Our goal at 401(k) Easy is to ensure that all our clients and their employees have 401k plans they feel good about. If your company purchases 401(k) Easy and then down the road decides the run-it-yourself approach is not the approach for you, give us a call: We can convert your 401(k) Easy plan into a traditional, full-service plan at any time. With 401(k) Easy, you're never locked in!

Uncle Sam Wants to Help Launch Your 401(k) Easy.

Under federal regulations, the $495 one-time set-up fee your company pays for a 401(k) Easy may be refunded in the form of a federal tax credit. Most new 401(k) Easy plans qualify to receive this dollar-for-dollar refund, but there are some restrictions. If you are interested in receiving this tax credit, please consult your tax advisor.

401(k) Easy's customization fee is a first-year-only, one-time charge.

One of the great things about 401(k) Easy plans is that we work with you to shape our IRS-approved prototype 401k plan into one that optimally suits your company's 401k needs. Because we don't charge extra for including or excluding any plan customization items, you can make your decisions based solely on what is best for your company plan. We then hardwire your plan customization choices (investments, matching contribution designation, loan availability, etc.) into your 401(k) Easy software, empowering the software to take care of most of your plan's 401k administration work for you.

The 401k plan and software customization fee is the same for ALL
401(k) Easy systems.
The plan and software customization fee for ALL 401(k) Easy systems, regardless of the type of investments used, is $495.

This customization fee is a one-time, first-year-only fee.

After your company's plan is operational, if it becomes necessary to re-customize the 401(k) Easy software or modify the documents because of changes initiated by you, there is a maximum charge of $300 to cover additional production costs, handling, and delivery associated with software and/or document changes.

Click the US Department of Labor 401(k) Cost Comparison Worksheet below for a printable PDF version.

401(k) Easy means NO trustee fees.

Because 401(k) Easy plans are designed and IRS-approved as employer-trusted, your company does not need to hire (and thus pay) and outside trustee.

Since 1962 -- well before the 401k plan was even created -- the IRS has allowed retirement plans to be employer-trusted.

With 401(k) Easy, you NEVER have to hire a 401k plan trustee nor face seemingly endless trustee fees!

The impact of "hidden" 401k fees on your savings.

The US Labor Department is currently auditing 401k plans of all sizes because of a trend that may violate current pension laws. Many companies, especially smaller businesses, are shifting plan administrative expenses to plan participants, knowingly or unknowingly. This shift of plan expenses come in the form of "hidden fees" that are routinely deducted from each participants' retirement savings by some plan providers and mutual funds. Because of lax reporting requirements, no one really knows how much money changes hands behind the scenes, but it is estimated that excessive fees may be as much as $1.5 billion per year, and growing.
In the 401k arena, expense fee disclosure, whether to plan participants or plan sponsors, has been notoriously confusing and unclear. The impact of these confusing hidden fees on plan participants' retirement accounts can be very significant over time. As example, consider a hypothetical 401k investment such as a mutual fund, with deducted expense fees of 1.3 percent versus one with fees of just .3 percent. Applied to an initial 401k investment of $5,000, with regular annual investments of $5,000 returning 10 percent, and compounded over 15 years, the difference between the "low-fee" investment and the "high-fee" investment adds up to $15,398. That's a significant sum deducted from a participant's retirement savings.
Policymakers and plan sponsors seeking to structure well-managed 401ks for their aging workforces are beginning to acknowledge the negative impact hidden fees has on eroding pension accumulations for retirement. What might appear to be a small difference in deducted investment fees can result in substantial differences in eventual retirement benefits.

Our Policy Regarding All Asset-Based Fees.

We at 401(k) Pro, distributor of 401k Easy and 401k Easy Online, has always worked hard to keep 401(k) plans as affordable as possible for our clients, many being small and very small companies.
We do not accept any rebates or revenue sharing of fees deducted from our clients' plan assets. Entities that provide and support 401(k) plan investments, include mutual funds managers, fund distributors, asset custodians, asset trustees, investment brokers and advisors, and plan administrators and record-keepers. These entities typically earn at least a portion of their compensation from asset-based fees deducted from plan assets.
401k Easy is an exception to the norm in that we do not earn any compensation, either directly or indirectly, from our clients 401(k) plan assets. If rebates are offered, we instead have the rebates applied to reducing our clients' asset costs. Our published prices, available online for all to see, are the only compensation we collect.
Asset-based fees are an unavoidable fact of life if your company is using mutual funds or self-directed brokerage accounts for the 401(k). The cost of these asset-based fees must be included when determining the true, overall cost of a company's 401(k), By not collecting a portion of asset-based fees, and instead requiring that the fund companies and/or custodians apply these fees to keep overall costs down, 401k Easy is doing its part to keep 401(k) plans as affordable as possible.
For more information on asset-based fees we recommend reading "Revenue Sharing in the 401K) Marketplace--Whose Money Is It?" by The McHenry Consulting Group http://www.mchenryconsulting.com/ and Study of 401(k) Plan Fees and Expenses by the US Department of Pension Welfare and Benefits.

401(k) Easy includes EVERYTHING you need.

401(k) Easy comes with EVERYTHING you need to run your company 401k plan in-house:

An IRS-approved prototype 401k plan
We work with you to customize our IRS-approved prototype 401k plan to your company's 401k needs.

Plan-specific forms and materials
401(k) Easy's enrollment, participation and employee education forms and materials explain 401k concepts to your employees while gathering the data needed from them to run your company plan.

401k software
We customize your 401(k) Easy plan administration software with information about your company and its 401k plan. This customized information works in conjunction with the up-to-date IRS and other governing regulations we also hardwire into the program to streamline your 401k's operation while keeping you apprised of your plan's health and growing wealth.

Investments
You choose both the investment approach (participant-directed brokerage accounts, no-load mutual funds) and then the specific investments you want for you plan.

EZ-FedForms CD-ROM
Our EZ-FedForms CD-ROM includes blank as well as annotated versions of the 401k-related federal reporting forms (Summary Annual Report, 5500 series, 1099-Rs, and more). With EZ-FedForms, even first-time filings are easy!

401k slide presentation
The convenient video format of our slide presentation makes introducing 401k plans and their tremendous savings potential to your employees easy!

Technical support
You receive FREE technical support in case you need any help getting your plan up and running or doing anything else at any time during the year.

User's Guide
The 401(k) Easy User's Guide explains what you have to do and how to use the 401(k) Easy system to do it. The easy-to-read language and format makes 401k plan administration simple even for the 401k novice.

You're never locked into run-it-yourself 401k plan administration.

If, for any reason, your company decides it no longer wants to run its own 401k plan, we can quickly convert your 401(k) Easy plan into a 401k plan serviced by an outside administration company. Just give us a call. Full-service 401k plans CAN be affordable (although not as affordable as 401(k) Easy!); Pension Service Associates, for instance, has a reputation for quality full-service 401k plans priced for small business budgets.

You receive an upgraded 401k system every year.

Lawmakers fiddle with 401k-related regulations every year, at minimum adjusting cost-of-living-related contribution ceilings. We update the 401(k) Easy system every year to reflect such regulatory changes.

Each copy of the 401(k) Easy software works only for the calendar year for which it was written as insurance against you ever operating your run-it-yourself 401k under less-than-current regulations.

All you do is pay your annual plan fee for the upcoming year (as you would with any 401k plan) and we'll send you your up-to-date customized 401(k) Easy package. Data from your previous year's software is automatically transferred into your new year's version at a mouse click during the installation process! Then you're ready to go with up-to-date forms, educational materials, and 401k administration and federal reporting guidance.

Taxes, shipping and handling are included in all prices.

All 401(k) Easy prices, whether for the complete 401k system, an add-on, or the software demo, include taxes, shipping and handling costs. What we quote is all you pay.