As a small-business owner, if you’re thinking about sponsoring a 401(k) plan, you may wonder about a company match. Are small businesses required to offer a 401(k) match, or is it merely an option? The short answer is no, you don’t have to provide matching contributions to your employees’ 401(k) accounts, but there are good reasons to do it anyway. Below, we discuss the pros and cons of providing employer matching contributions as part of your 401(k) plan. Offering an Employer Match Makes Employees Happy The best — and arguably most motivating — reason to offer an employer match is because it ..read more

Led by Next Frontier Capital, the new capital allows the company to add new products, increase headcount, and further its mission to usher in the modern era for retirement planning and investing.  Sandy, UT, UNDER EMBARGO — 401GO, the next-generation retirement plan provider for employers, advisors and individuals, today announced the successful completion of its $12 million Series A funding round, led by Next Frontier Capital. Additional investors include Rally Ventures, who joined existing investors Impression Ventures, and Stout Street Capital that participated in the new investment ..read more

Many small-business owners have had high anxiety over 401(k) plans since 2017 when Oregon became the first state to mandate offering retirement accounts to employees. Small-business owners are worried they may be in violation of state laws about mandated retirement accounts, and that’s why it’s good — but not easy — to keep abreast of changes and how they affect you. Must You Offer Employees a 401(k)? The short answer is no, at this point, there are no federal laws requiring employers of any size to offer a 401(k) plan to employees. However, there are some states that require businesses to eit ..read more

Saving for retirement is a race, and you don’t want to fall behind into that group of slackers at the back of the pack. If you think it’s all about complicated investment strategies and other nebulous concepts out of your control that you don’t fully understand, it’s not. I mean, some of it is — but a lot of it isn’t. We’re here to tell you that there are things you can do to feather your retirement nest in a fluffier way.  Set Retirement Goals Before we get to how you should manage your retirement accounts, you must determine what you want or expect out of them. How much money will you n ..read more

You have a lot to consider when you’re thinking about starting a 401(k) at your small business. It’s a big step to take, and you want to make sure you’re ready. We have (predictably), put together a short list of things we think you should consider before sponsoring a 401(k) plan at your company, but we have also put together a list of things we think you should not consider.  That’s not because those things aren’t important; it’s because 401GO has built-in fintech solutions that make these considerations moot.  Let’s start with the considerations you will want to make. 1.   Fin ..read more

If you are just starting a 401(k) at your company, you may be wondering about vesting. How should you decide what type of vesting schedule to establish? Does it really matter? Although some people might not think so, we think it matters, and the schedule you settle on can affect many aspects of your business. In this post, we explain how your choices matter to your business today, and in the future. What Is Vesting? Even if you never heard of vesting as it relates to a 401(k), you likely heard of a vested interest. For example, if you are a worker at a company, you may have a vested interest i ..read more

Small-business owners have a lot to think about, and when states started passing laws forcing them to offer retirement plans to employees, it gave them more to think about. At first glance, having to stay in compliance with more laws may seem like a bad thing. But if you look at it slightly differently, you may realize that you can benefit from your state’s retirement plan mandate. Everyone’s Doing It A retirement plan is a benefit. You may think it’s not, because you’re being forced to offer it. But wages are beneficial too, and you are required to pay those as well. Regardless of whether you ..read more

If you haven’t had much of a financial education — and who has today? —  the idea of calculating compound interest may make your eyes glaze over. But don’t let it! It’s important to your future, and we promise we’re going to talk about it in a way that anyone can relate to — and appreciate! Compound Interest and You Compound interest can be your friend and your foe. If you have yet to begin saving seriously for retirement, you may be more familiar with compound interest in its more terrifying form — the extra money you pay to banks every month for the privilege of having a house or car (o ..read more

Each year, the government decides how much money you’re allowed to save in a 401(k) for retirement. Historically, this number goes up, partly due to inflation and partly due to other factors. And although the number is usually expected to go up, it doesn’t always go up by the same amount. For our purposes, we don’t need to get into why here. We will just talk about how the numbers are changing and what it will mean for you, your business and your employees. The New Limits Employees may not put more than the allowed amount into their 401(k) in any given year. In 2023, the elective deferral limi ..read more

OregonSaves, the country’s first state-mandated Secure Choice retirement plan, celebrated its sixth birthday in 2023. No need for a gift — it already has $200 million! This money is, of course, invested on behalf of the approximately 118,000 workers in the state who use the plan to save toward their retirement. These figures are proof that the new mandates — currently active or in the works in close to half of all U.S. states — are helpful in getting Americans to save for their retirement. But is there a plan that’s even more helpful? What’s Good About OregonSaves When OregonSaves was first im ..read more