-- Overview --<p>In addition to health, vision, retirement, etc. benefits we aim to establish financial planning as a benefit that every company offers their employees.<p>Money is the main source of stress for Americans and it impacts an employer through missed days, increased illness, and distractions. And many people without a solid financial foundation put their retirement at risk by not making enough contributions to their retirement plans, by taking loans from their 401(k) when they have an emergency, and by carrying too much debt into retirement.<p>Our goal is to help Americans break the paycheck-to-paycheck cycle and start making progress towards their financial goals.<p>-- Business model --<p>In order to reach the most people our financial wellness platform will be an add-on service that 401(k) advisors offer to their plans. We believe it will help them distinguish themselves from their competitors as well as open up a new revenue stream for them.<p>They will pay us a monthly per employee fee which they can either pay themselves or pass on to the 401(k) plan.<p>For a business model comparison think Concur for the 401(k) industry.<p>-- Software --<p>Our web-based platform will ask each user a series of questions after which they will receive a simple financial plan that contains a budget, debt payment plan, retirement plan, insurance needs, and plans for their goals whether that be establish an emergency fund, buy a house, save for college, etc.<p>--<p>WorkPlay401(k)<p>http://www.workplay401k.com
Seems like a good idea on the surface.<p>How well do you know the compliance requirements for this industry?<p>Will you make money from the companies giving this as a benefit, or by taking a cut from users, or some other way?<p>How will software serve me better here than talking to someone in person?
Sounds like something I would use!<p>Few questions that came to mind for me:
- What's the incentive on the advisor to offer the add-on service? Is it to eventually increase AUM and encourage more 401k savings from the users? Would be curious to learn if there are any numbers around this or users taking loans out, etc<p>- What does the platform look like? White-labeled self-hosted? What does an integration look like for the advisor<p>- What would be the general distribution plan and target market for getting advisors on board?
Hmmmmm, many questions! Also, I like the alliteration of your company name.<p>Sorry, I'm confused about one point: Is the Software simply acting as a conduit between the client (employee of Company X) and another human (the financial planner), or would the software actually be generating advice? In the latter case, would that advice be relayed to the client via the human financial planner, or would it be delivered directly to the client?<p>In the latter case (where software delivers advice directly to a client), how do you plan on convincing the SEC that the software (and, indeed, your company) is a qualified investment adviser?<p>I'm also curious, how much "client activity" is being assumed for each client? What I mean is, you might have clients (again, individual employees of Company X) coming back for financial planning again and again over a (relatively) short time, either because they are having lots of life events happening, or because they're unsure, or because they want to explore different paths, or whatever. Have you thought of a way to prevent clients like that from making the service too expensive to run?
Thanks for posting this up. Really enjoying Apply HN.<p>Few questions,more out of curiosity:<p>How is this different to something like mint.com?<p>Why are companies (sponsors) asking advisers to offer these services for less?<p>Why are fees shrinking in the industry?<p>Other companies are focused on 'employers' while yours is focused on the employee, which is great, how do you plan to sign up employers
Sounds intriguing. Some questions:<p>- Who is the team behind this, and are you working on this full-time right now?<p>- How much work have you done on the software? (Planning, research, building?)<p>- Why this specific product? Why do you think this is a better idea than many other possible ideas? How did you come up with it?