The Wall Street Journal recommends Pension Systems Corporation’s unique "self-service" 401k design as an easy-to-use, inexpensive solution for small businesses who want to offer employees a 401k plan. The WSJ article compared this 401k for small businesses to
Pension Systems Corporation holds the US Patent 6041313 for its highly regarded self-service 401k technology. The invention specialized in 401k plans for small businesses. PSC's patent re-configured the traditional 401k administration process. In the conventional 401k plan administration model, a company's 401k assets are all comingled and pooled together, and the traditional 401k administrator tracks each participant's holdings within the commingled asset pool. Pension System’s unique design does not combine or co-mingle participants' 401k assets. Instead, it uses separate self-directed brokerage accounts to maintain and track participants' investments.
(Summary) In conjunction with Union Bank of California, Pension Systems Corporation developed 401(k) Easy Online, a web-based 401(k) plan administration service based upon the success of the 'run-it-yourself' pc-based 401(k) Easy.
Reprinted from THE WALL STREET JOURNAL.
YOUR MONEY MATTERS
By JEFF D. OPDYKE
Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
Tom Hendricks's employer recently adopted a 401(k)-retirement plan for him and his colleagues. Big deal, you say? Well, actually, it is. Mr. Hendricks and the 13 managers who oversee trust-fund operations for a California union have never had access to the hugely popular retirement accounts because of the expense and complexity of running them.
Now, though, cheap and efficient technology is changing those notions. Easy-to-use software and low-cost, back-office support - much of it available online - are opening retirement-savings benefits to an estimated 27 million small-business workers who don't have retirement plans. It's also allowing companies with inflexible and meager plans to upgrade to more appealing, full-blown 401 (k) s by pushing down administrative costs and challenging the idea that small-business owners can't manage the rule-bound accounts. "There's been a whole lot of mumbo jumbo used in this industry to create a Tower of Babel that running a 401(k) is tough," says Jim Gilbert, who has spent 15 years in the industry designing and overseeing retirement plans. Mr. Gilbert, president of 401(K) Pro Inc., Los Angeles, recently introduced a software program called 401(k) Easy - which allows small businesses to manage 401(k) plans as easily as a consumer navigates family finances with programs such as Quicken. "This is not brain surgery," he says.
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Reprinted from THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
Union Bank of California, N.A., Pension Systems Corporation, Launch Web-based 401(k) Administration Service for Small Businesses
LOS ANGELES Union Bank of California (UBOC), N.A., and Pension Systems Corporation have jointly developed a web-based 401(k) plan administration service based upon their existing desktop product. The service allows clients to set up and manage low-cost, option-rich "run-it-yourself" 401(k) plans from any location connected to the Internet — be it via computer terminal, web-enabled mobile phone or PDA device; access via a toll-free automated voice response system is also available. Like the desktop product, the system is geared particularly toward serving small businesses of one to 100 employees.
"The small business market has been grossly underserved and we are pleased with Union Bank's decision to develop this unique web-based 401(k) service to deliver full featured, self-service 401(k) plans to small business and potentially save clients 60% to 80% a year relative to traditional plan administration costs," says Jim Gilbert, President of Pension Systems Corporation
The new online service called 401(k) Enginuity (www.401kenginuity.com) affords employers plan-specific, convenient access and rapid processing of data and information requests relating to all areas of 401(k) administration activity, including point-and-click plan compliance testing with results potentially in seconds. Other features include participant account access, investment education materials and enrollment seminars via web casting.
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(Summary) Pension Systems Corporation created the patented run-it-yourself 401(k) Easy, heralded by The Wall Street Journal "...allows small businesses to manage 401(k) plans as easily as a consumer navigates family finances with programs such as Quicken."