Affordability, great investment flexibility and ease of use draw people to Small 401k. Of these three attractions, affordability often plays the most influential role.

We keep our pricing very simple - not to mention, reasonable - and do not charge extra when clients choose to include or exclude any of our plan design features (see our Plan Design & Order sections). There are only three components to our fee schedule:

As you can see above, the Small 401k annual fee is based solely upon plan size, not the plan design options you select for your plan. To repeat, we do not charge extra for including or excluding any of our plan design options (see our Plan Design & Order sections). This flexibility is not industry-standard - particularly regarding investment flexibility. Though we do charge a modest per-incident fee per 401k loan disbursement, distribution, QDRO, compliance test correction or hardship withdrawal taken to cover fees we incur regarding these transactions, we neither charge an industry-standard (ace, annual) fee per outstanding loan, nor do we charge our clients anything in the first place to offer 401k loans (or any other feature) within their Small 401k plan.

Apologies for the repetition. We simply want to be clear that the above annual fees really are all-inclusive.

One of the great things about Small 401k is its adaptability. Our IRS-approved prototype 401k plan includes a host of plan design options, which we detail below, and our online administration and participation systems - your Plan Sponsor Gateway and Plan Participant Gateway - contain further customization flexibility.


Small 401k plan design options include:


Visit our Order & Customization page to view the exact choices currently available under each of these plan design options.

Under federal regulations, the $995 one-time Small 401k set-up fee may be refundable in the form of a federal tax credit. New Small 401k plans qualify to receive this federally-mandated dollar-for-dollar refund, but there are some restrictions, so please consult your tax advisor before signing up for Small 401k to make sure you qualify.

Small 401k plans are IRS-approved as employer-trusted, which means you never have to hire - and thus never have to pay - any 401k trustees.

Small 401k has no hidden fees. As explained above, the only fees we charge are (1) the one-time plan and system setup fee ($995 for all plans) and (2) the annual fee (the one based upon plan size). The only other fees that we would charge and then of course only as applicable are (1) a per incident charge for 401k loan disbursements, distributions, QDRO's, compliance testing corrections and hardship withdrawals, (2) a plan amendments fee (for changes to your chosen plan design options), and (3) a plan termination fee (for plans exiting Small 401k).

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 comes in the form of "hidden fees" that are routinely deducted from each participant's 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.

We keep our 401k 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 unless those fees can be returned to the plan or used to offset plan expenses. Entities that provide and support 401k 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.

Small 401k is the exception to the norm. We do not earn any compensation, either directly or indirectly, from our clients' 401k plan assets. If rebates are offered, we have the rebates returned to the client or directly applied to reducing our clients' costs. Our published prices are the only net compensation we collect.

Asset-based fees are an unavoidable fact of life if your company is using mutual funds (including institutional mutual funds) or self-directed brokerage accounts. The cost of these asset-based fees must be included when determining the true, overall cost of a 401k plan.

For more information about asset-based fees, we recommend reading "Revenue Sharing in the 401K) Marketplace-Whose Money Is It?" by The McHenry Consulting Group and "Study of 401k Plan Fees and Expenses" by the US Department of Pension Welfare and Benefits.

Plan conversions involve administrative work on our part before we can get to the normal Small 401k plan and system customization work. In most cases, plan conversion fees amount to less than $500. This one-time conversion fee is in addition to the normal Small 401k setup fee (and it is likely far less than you would otherwise spend having your current provider run your plan for even another six months).

Your current 401k provider may charge plan termination fees, as it likely has some administrative expenses involved with closing down your existing plan. Contact your current plan provider to learn about any plan termination fees.

You can view all the plan design options available with Small 401k by scanning through our Conversion Plans Order Form. If you have specific questions, contact us or submit a Conversion Plan Order Form and mark "Unsure. Please contact..." as applicable. Submitting an order form is the most expedient way for us to serve you, even if all you want at the moment is answers to conversion-related questions, because the order form collects pertinent information we likely need to answer your questions. Submitting an order form IN NO WAY obligates you to actually placing an order - no money changes hands - but the form does gather the data we need to accurately answer your 401k-related questions. Oh, and of course we do NOT share your data with any party.

Small 401k includes EVERYTHING you need to provide your company with a great 401k plan using any computer with Internet access and about 20 minutes a month (for most Small 401k plans).

Small 401k includes:

Small 401k comes with a 60-day money-back guarantee on everything but the $995 one-time plan and software customization fee (and plan conversion fee, if any). Because the setup fee is non-refundable, we created a fully functioning demo version of our 401k system for people to try out before they order their actual Small 401k plan.


Our goal at Small 401k is to ensure that all our clients and their employees have 401k plans they feel good about. If your company purchases Small 401k and then down the road decides the self-service administrative approach is not the right approach for you, give us a call: We can convert your Small 401k plan into a traditional, full-service plan that will still allow for 24/7 online access for plan participation but with professionals handing the plan administration for you. Visit the Our Products page to learn more about the full-service online 401ks that utilize a system similar to Small 401k.

Small 401k includes an easy-to-read yet comprehensive 401k Management Guide that tells you how to run your company plan via Small 401k.

Small 401k includes free help with your 401k-related federal reporting.

According to a recent study, fees are the #1 reason retirement plan sponsors switch plan providers. They are also a key factor in choosing a 401k plan provider in the first place.

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.")


We compared the cost of a complete, fully-customized Small 401k system with the cost of bundled 401k plans offered by a broad cross-section of major national vendors that allow for no-load mutual fund families (including no-load institutional mutual fund families) and/or self-directed discount brokerage accounts as 401k investments.


The charts below maps out some price comparisons for 20 - person plans. We did not even bother mapping Small 401k's smallest plans - those serving fewer than 20 employees - because in the very small plan arena Small 401k is so, so far more cost-effective than the competition, that we didn't feel the comparisons worth bothering.

The US Department of Labor created a worksheet to assist consumers in comparing 401k providers. We have filled in information regarding both Small 401k and our sister product, 401(k) Easy for the PC (see the Our Products page for information about 401(k) Easy for the PC). If you would like to fill-in information regarding additional 401k products, print the PDF version.

	Small 401k	401K EASY FOR THE PC	(competitor)
SETUP FEES (ONE-TIME CHARGES AT THE PLAN'S OUTSET)
New Plan Fee - Baseline Component	$995	$795	$
New Plan Fee - Per-Participant Component	$0	$0	$
Conversion Plan Fee (in addition to the above New Plan Fee)	$500 or less (depends on plan size + conversion complexity)	$500 or less (depends on plan size + conversion complexity)	$
Federal Document Filing Fee	$0	$0	$
ANNUAL FEE - BASED ON PLAN ASSETS
Asset-Based Fees	$0	$0	$
ANNUAL FEE - BASED ON PLAN SIZE
1 Eligible Employee (plus spouse)	$1,195	$695	$
2-4 Eligible Employees	$695	$495	$
5-10 Eligible Employees	$1,295	$895	$
11-15 Eligible Employees	$1,495	$995	$
16-20 Eligible Employees	$1,6695	$1,195	$
21-25 Eligible Employees	$1,895	$1,395	$
26-30 Eligible Employees	$2,095	$1,595	$
31-35 Eligible Employees	$2,395	$1,795	$
36-40 Eligible Employees	$2,695	$2,095	$
41-45 Eligible Employees	$2,995	$2,295	$
46-50 Eligible Employees	$3,295	$2,495	$
annual "per participant" fee	$0	$0	$
ADMINISTRATION/RECORDKEEPING FEE
Annuity Contract Administration Fee	0$	0$	$
Daily Valuing and Updating of Account Balances	0$	0$	$
Distribution Processing Fee	$30	$30	$
Loan Origination Fee	$30	$30	$
Loan Tracking Fee	0$	0$	$
Participant Statement and/or Balance Inquiry Fee	0$	0$	0$
Payroll Processing Fee	$0	$0	$
Trust-To-Trust Investment Transfer Fees	0$	0$	$
PLAN COMPLIANCE & TESTING SERVICES
Nondiscrimination Testing	0$	0$	$
ANNUAL TAX REPORTING
IRS Form 5500 Information	0$	0$	$
Annual Audit Report	0$	0$	$
PLAN DOCUMENT AMENDMENT FEE
Mandatory Plan Amendment Fees	0$	0$	$
Plan Document Determination Letter Fee	0$	0$	$
Plan Transfer Fees	0$	0$	$
INVESTMENT OPTION FEES
Access to Brokerage Window	0$	0$	$
Back-End Load Mutual Funds Commissions	0$	0$	$
Front-End Load Mutual Fund Commissions	0$	0$	$
No-Load (Commission-Free) Mutual Funds	0$	0$	$
INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT EXPENSE RATIO
Equity Funds (No-Load)	20 BPS per year	20 BPS per year	$
Bond Funds (No-Load)	15 BPS per year	15 BPS per year	$
Specialty Funds (No-Load)	40 BPS per year	40 BPS per year	$
Average Expense Ratios of No-Load Funds	25 BPS per year	25 BPS per year	$
"HIDDEN" EMBEDDED INVESTMENT EXPENSES
12-B1 Fees	0$	0$	$
Fund Turnover Charges	0$	0$	$
Rebalancing Fees	0$	0$	$
Sales Loads and Commissions	0$	0$	$
Soft Dollars	0$	0$	$
Sub-Transfer Agent (Sub-TA) Fee	0$	0$	$
Transaction Fees	0$	0$	$
Wrap Fees	0$	0$	$
ADDITIONAL EXPENSES
Annuity Termination Charges	0$	0$	$