Complaints

The complaint text that is displayed might not represent all complaints filed with BBB. Some consumers may elect to not publish the details of their complaints, some complaints may not meet BBB's standards for publication, or BBB may display a portion of complaints when a high volume is received for a particular business.

• Initial Complaint

  Date:05/28/2024

  Type:Service or Repair Issues
  Status:

  AnsweredMore info

  Complaint statuses

  Resolved:

  The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.

  Unresolved:

  The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.

  Answered:

  The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.

  Unanswered:

  The business failed to respond to the dispute.

  Unpursuable:

  BBB is unable to locate the business.

  I received a check for $8,398.77 for the rollover from my 401K account from my previous employer. Check number ********** was dated 10/02/2023 and was void after 180 days. I neglected to deposit the check due to the death of my father. ******* ****** informed me that I would need 401keasy to cancel and reissue the check. I have sent 5 messages and all have been un responded to. All atempts to call have been un responded to. I have emailed multiple emails including the CEO ***** ******* ****************** Can you reissue the check?

  Business Response

  Date: 12/04/2024

  Dear Small Business Owner
  
  You are reading this because odds are, you are a small business owner, and you are looking for a new or replacement 401(k) plan for your companys employees. Your web search has landed you on this Better Business Bureau (BBB) website, where you can read comments about 401(k) Easy.We will address the specific complaint recently filed by a client, but first,please take a moment to understand the context in which this former client,like all 401(k) Easy clients, came to us in the first place. This clients complaint is meritless, as explained in this BBB response.
  
  401(k) Easy has been in the business of providing complete 401(k) plans to small businesses for over 35 years. During this time, 401(k)Easy has maintained an A+ rating with the Better Business Bureau. There are three reasons for the long-term success and durability of 401(k) Easy, which will be listed in this letter as 1,2 and 3.
  
  To begin, if you own or manage a small business, you already know from experience that if you were to poll your entire population of customers, a certain percentage (hopefully a tiny percentage) would be dissatisfied with some aspect of your companys product or service. An occasional unhappy customer is a fact in business and should be expected. 401(k) Easy, an established and incorporated business in operation for over 35 years, proudly states that 99% of our customers are satisfied with our ****** service. One percent of our customer base is not happy no matter what we do for them, and a tiny subset of dissatisfied clients will take the time to write an online complaint rather than use their time to find a replacement 401(k). Successful business owners do not have time to waste looking backward; instead, they use their time and energy looking forward to meeting oncoming challenges head-on. Bottom lineone percent of our clients are backward-looking complainers and will always find something to complain about.
  
  Considering the 35+ years 401(k), Easy has been in business and the stable and substantial size of our client base, 401(k) Easy focuses attention and energy on providing low-cost, high-quality service to our client base and 99% of our clients find this arrangement acceptable.
  
  The three primary reasons small business owners retain 401(k) Easy for new or replacement 401(k) plans are:
  
  401(k) Easy is the least expensive 401(k) that can be found on the Internet. We have held this position for the past 35+ years. 401(k) Easy uses US-patented 401(k) software #XXXX, developed by 401(k) ***** founder in 1995 and has been in constant use from its inception to today. We are an innovative, highly organized, technology-driven 401(k) provider, and we use our knowledge and skills to keep the price of 401(k) Easy lower than all our 401(k)-provider competition, period. You can prove this by doing an extensive web search and comparing 401(k) Easys prices to all other providers on the web.
  
  
  401(k) Easy is the ONLY 401(k) provider on the Internet that has maintained an ironclad promise, guaranteeing THAT 401(K) EASY WILL NEVER DEDUCT OR SKIM ANY 401(K) FEES, EVER! This guarantee extends to all asset-based fees and applies to all 401(k) funds held by any asset custodian. 401(k) Easy has been using ******* ****** for our clients 401(k) assets, including all participants contributions, retirement savings and investments, and any funds the employer contributes to the companys plan.
  
  
  401(k) Easys websites actively promotes our no 401(k) fees policy and guarantee. The issue of 401(k) fees is becoming a point of friction for small businesses that offer 401(k) plans that are regularly skimmed for fees by 401(k) providers or financial advisors disguising themselves as 401(k) providers. Many new class action lawsuits are now forming to reclaim 401(k) fees (now frequently referred to as junk fees) taken from 401(k) assets. The prestigious, well-known nonprofit ****, with millions of members, mostly retired Americans, has published an extensive study of 401(k)fees and concluded that 401(k) fees cause permanent, irreversible harm.According to ***** study, a typical 401(k) participant will lose an astonishing $155,000 after participating in a 401(k) for 30 years. The average of $155,000 in skimmed fees per 401(k) participant goes into the pockets of 401(k)providers and financial advisors. 401(k) Easy wholeheartedly supports AARPs negative opinion of 401(k) fees and has an ironclad guarantee against them.
  
  
  401(k) Easy provides all your 401(k) participants with free, individual, self-directed 401(k) accounts for their investing of their 401(k)-retirement savings. With ****** 401(k) accounts, participants can monitor and manage their retirement savings over the state-of-the-art ****** website. Self-directed ****** accounts provide users access to thousands of qualified 401(k) investments, including the most popular no-load mutual funds, no-load index funds, and commission-free stock and bond trading.
  
  Our 35+ year history as an established 401(k) provider speaks for itself, and the three reasons listed above explain why small businesses come to 401(k) Easy, and the vast majority stay with 401(k) Easy. Regarding the complaint below, our response is as follows:
  
  401(k) Easy has a User Agreement with each of its small business clients. One term of the Agreement states that the client will designate someone within the company as the plan sponsor. It is this person,the plan sponsor, or someone who works directly with the plan sponsor, that 401(k) Easy is contractually obligated to respond to or take instructions from.The person who filed this complaint is not the client and under terms of our Agreement with the client cannot contact 401(k) Easy for assistance or service.This person must  coordinate with their companys plan sponsor, who will then contact us for assistance if needed. We have communicated this multiple times to the person filing the BBB complaint,to no avail. We would be in violation of the User Agreement if ****** Easy staff became involved in this financial matter. The plan sponsor (or their designate) is the only person we are authorized to communicate with. This issue between the person filing the complaint and this persons employer does not involve us unless the plan sponsor intercedes on this persons behalf, which has not happened to date.

• Initial Complaint

  Date:02/14/2023

  Type:Order Issues
  Status:

  AnsweredMore info

  Complaint statuses

  Resolved:

  The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.

  Unresolved:

  The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.

  Answered:

  The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.

  Unanswered:

  The business failed to respond to the dispute.

  Unpursuable:

  BBB is unable to locate the business.

  In 2022 we began a relationship with 401kEasy (parent company Pension Systems Corporation). They were definitely not easy to work with, but I put up with it for the year and multiple emails back and forth and redoing forms etc. (Also note that you cannot call them because they never answer the phone and you may get an email response here and there). At the close of the year they said that they would only accept fees by pushing them an ACH or pushing them a wire (no portal for payment so it's an insane hassle). When we decided to move our plan to a new provider the accounts were immediately frozen and they demanded $3,200 wired to them before unfreezing the accounts. Every TPA I've spoken with is blown out of the water with how much this fee is. The fee was paid and it's proving nearly impossible to get the funds out of the plan even though their termination fee is paid. A distribution was requested online as they asked, but never processed or acknowledged. Then they said to get a distribution packet from the portal. Once again this is not on the portal. So they are holding funds hostage and not providing the forms to get the money out. So then we tried to have the funds transferred to the new plan and their response was this "Please note that the Termination Fee you paid does not cover our work post-termination. Please be very specific about what you would like us to do, and we will evaluate your checklist of items and send back a quote, which, if accepted, must be paid by wire transfer before our work begins. There is nothing in our User Agreement about transferring plan assets. Also, we are specific that we will only interact with third parties such as financial advisors or TPAs if we are compensated in advance by bank wire transfer only."So if you ever want to access your 401(k) funds I would highly suggest avoiding using this third-party administrator.

  Business Response

  Date: 02/26/2023

  We have been in the 401k business for 35 years and have been a member of BBB for the past 25 years. We have provided thousands of small businesses with affordable, custom, IRS-approved 401k plans that contain all the features employers and participants want and need. Most importantly, unlike our 401k competitors, we NEVER skim or pocket fees from our clients 401k plan assets. We have an iron-clad guarantee to never charge or skim fees, including hidden fees, from 401k assets, thus allowing participants to save more for their retirement.
  This complaint is fiction, and the business owner filing this complaint is a deadbeat. We experience deadbeat behavior yearly from a minuscule percentage of our client base. The facts: we alerted this client that he was severely mismanaging his companys 401k and recommended immediate corrective action. His response was to abruptly terminate services and leave behind an unpaid invoice, which remains unpaid. As an approved Mass Submitter of an IRS-approved prototype 401k, we must report uncorrected violations of IRS and ERISA 401k rules.In this case, our notification stated the following:
  The employer named above is in severe potential breach of its fiduciary responsibility for failing to properly manage its company's 401k. The fiduciary failed to run the 401k according to IRS and ERISA rules or follow its IRS-approved prototype. The employer failed to deposit contributions on time. The employer asked us to add fictional transactions and back-date 401k contributions. It repeatedly failed its 401k compliance and top-heavy tests, failed to correct them, and probably reported fictitious information in its annual Form 5500-SF. Contact us for further information.

• Initial Complaint

  Date:01/14/2023

  Type:Customer Service Issues
  Status:

  AnsweredMore info

  Complaint statuses

  Resolved:

  The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.

  Unresolved:

  The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.

  Answered:

  The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.

  Unanswered:

  The business failed to respond to the dispute.

  Unpursuable:

  BBB is unable to locate the business.

  Customer since 2015 of Pension Systems Corp. (PSC)/401(k) Easy/Advise and Monitor Financial an SEC registered investment advisor in CA. We've paid them each year in advance as they require. We decided to switch vendors in 2021 for the 2022 plan year. Our signed agreement shows a termination fee of $300. After notifying we were changing vendors, they immediately froze our access and refused to allocate employee funds until we paid a huge fee, equal to 2X our annual billing plus a $500 Reconnection Fee, $2,810 total. They made a material change to their client agreement in 2018 adding a massive termination fee. They did not inform their customers of this change in advance or request we sign a new agreement. We were expected to discover the new fee on your own. Had we known, we would not have renewed. They snuck this fee increase into their 2018 User Agreement and then claim that you agreed to it because you paid that year's invoice. PSC did NOT do what we paid them for in advance. The President of the company, ************** then proceeded to threaten me that if I didn't pay their termination fee, he would write to each of our employees, telling them that I am the reason their funds are not getting invested and then encourage them to file a claim with the Department of Labor that we are not making their deposits on time. This is in writing, along with threats from their Manager that they will report us to the IRS for not paying plan expenses; Fees for services which they did not provide. They threaten to report you to a website of supposed 401(k) bad actors (check401k.com). It turns out they are personally involved with this website, and it's essentially their personal vendetta machine against disgruntled employers. They slander and libel these companies and their owners, calling them deadbeats. The list of companies could very well form a class action. My prediction is complaints will continue to rise as companies discover this 2018 agreement change.

  Business Response

  Date: 02/02/2023

  Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2023/01/20) */ This is our standard response in cases wherein a former client abruptly terminates services AFTER we alert the client of their severe mismanagement of their company's 401k, and putting their 401k participants at risk of losing the tax-deferred status of 401k retirement savings. We have been in business for over 35 years and have been a member of BBB for over 25 years. We consistently earn high rankings from clients, all small businesses. We have provided thousands of small companies with 401k plans over our 35 years in business. Unfortunately, every barrel of fresh apples contains a few rotten ones. The complainant is one such apple. Occasionally a client will abruptly terminate 401k services and leave behind an unpaid invoice. Suppose the client abruptly ends services AFTER we alert them of their internal mismanagement of their company's 401k. Depending upon the violation, we are obligated to report it. The obligation to report comes from being an approved Mass Submitter of IRS-registered 401k prototypes. Why does a "bad apple" take the time to file a BBB complaint rather than use the time to fix the problems they caused to begin with? We do not know the answer but feel obligated to present our side of the issue. This specific "bad apple" violated 401k rules and requirements, then left behind an unpaid invoice. New policies for Mass Submitters now require us to step-up reporting of violations, so we expect more "off-the-wall "complaints in the future. If you run a small company, the odds are you have had some "bad apple" customers like this, too. Consumer Response /* (3000, 7, 2023/01/27) */ (The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.) Sticking to the facts; We notified Pension Systems Corp (PSC)/401k Easy/ Advise and Monitor Financial, that we were terminating our services with them in November 2021, effective 12/31/2021. That is advance notice. Their statement that we abruptly terminated our service after they notified us of our severe mismanagement of our 401k, is an out-right lie. We were tired of their annual price increases and discovered we could do better with another TPA whose plan document also allowed for more advanced plan design. Additionally, we paid them in full for the full year in advance, for 2021 plan administration. They froze our web access and refused to allocate our employee funds at Schwab when we notified them of our intent to change vendors. We are seeking a refund given that they did not provide the services for which they were paid. Fortunately, after I explained to Schwab what PSC was doing, they were shocked and agreed to help us out and get the funds invested. It is our belief that the BBB should review the Accreditation Standards of PSC and either revoke them or require that they be corrected. Specifically, Standards 3, 4, 5 & 6 were violated. #3 "Tell the Truth: Be clear in all written and verbal representations and include all relevant facts in all transactions." PSC is lying about how we managed our 401k. #4. "Be Transparent. Prominently disclose all material facts that bear on a customer's decision to buy." They raised the fee to terminate their services over 835% without adequate disclosure of this material change in their agreement prior to it taking effect (from $300 to $2,810). We were not asked to sign a new agreement, which would have been the ethical thing to do. There was no mention of the fee increase with that year's invoice. Had we been made aware of this significant price increase; we would have NOT renewed their service. #5. "Honor Promises. Fulfill all contracts, commitments, and representations." They were paid for services which they did not perform. #6. "Be Responsive. Address disputes forwarded by BBB quickly and in good faith." PSC never had any intention of questioning the inappropriateness of their 2018 user agreement change. Instead, they issue a "standard response" and resort to gaslighting techniques and abusive collection practices. To my knowledge there is no track record of PSC ever resolving a dispute with a customer through BBB. Instead, they rely on clauses that they slipped into a new, unsigned user agreement and resort to calling customers "bad apples", "dead-beats", "off the wall" and other childish terms. Truth be known, it is the owner of PSC, *************, who filed bankruptcy, now calling others dead-beats and bad apples. The truth is that customers, AKA "bad apples", complain to the BBB as a last resort. They go this route because they are extremely frustrated at not being heard or treated unfairly. If a complaint gets that far, customer service skills are sorely lacking. My own firm has an A+ rating with BBB for 31 years. We've been in business over 36 years and I am proud to say, we have NEVER had a customer complaint through the BBB. We are far from a "bad apple". Conversely, PSC reduces customer complaints to a statistically insignificant percentage. If other small businesses did more research, they would find they can find many other 401k service providers that charge NO Service Termination fees, or a very small one, and they can still use the Schwab platform and many others. PSC's ridiculously high service termination fees are nothing more than old-fashioned price gouging. There is nothing of significance for them to do if you are not actually terminating your 401k. The new provider simply picks up were the prior one left off. If there is no resolution to this complaint, my next step is to complain to the Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) about their unethical change to a client user agreement without full and fair disclosure of a material change. Using a "Non-response" as implicit acceptance of an agreement's terms, when the customer is put at a significant disadvantage by doing so, is an unethical business practice. Would PSC opt to do the right thing, they would honor all user agreements signed prior to the 2018 agreement change and ask these customers to sign new agreements, highlighting the TERMINATION CHARGE INCREASE in a cover letter. Additionally, their User Agreement should be prominently displayed on their website, which to this day, is not. I will also complain to the SEC that they are taking custody of client funds a year in advance and then withholding these services when clients don't pay exorbitant termination fees in advance. Business Response /* (4000, 9, 2023/02/01) */ We have been in the 401k business for 35 years and have been a member of BBB for the past 25 years. We have provided thousands of small businesses with affordable, custom, IRS-approved 401k plans that contain all the features employers and participants want and need. Most importantly, unlike our 401k competitors, we NEVER skim or pocket fees from our clients' 401k plan assets. We have an iron-clad guarantee to never charge or skim fees, including hidden fees, from 401k assets, thus allowing participants to save more for their retirement. This complaint is fiction, and the business owner filing this complaint is a deadbeat. We experience deadbeat behavior yearly from a minuscule percentage of our client base. The facts: we alerted this client that he was severely mismanaging his company's 401k and recommended immediate corrective action. His response was to abruptly terminate services and leave behind an unpaid invoice, which remains unpaid. As an approved Mass Submitter of an IRS-approved prototype 401k, we must report uncorrected violations of IRS and ERISA 401k rules. In this case, our notification stated the following: The employer named above is in potential breach of its fiduciary responsibility for plan mismanagement and failing to pay pension plan expenses invoiced by the plan record-keeper, Pension Systems Corporation. A pension plan fiduciary's three primary responsibilities are to run the pension plan solely in the interest of participants, provide benefits, and pay plan expenses. If a fiduciary fails to pay plan expenses, the fiduciary is in potential breach of its obligations and liable for the negative consequences. Failure to pay plan expenses puts the participants' assets at risk because a court judgment or arbitration ruling against the fiduciary can result in a lien being attached to the pension plan. The lien can result in the IRS disqualifying the tax-deferred status of the company's pension plan and participants' assets. Business Response /* (-10, 10, 2023/02/01) */ ***Document Attached***