401K Plans Overview
401K plans have replaced pensions as the main retirement tool offered to employees by employers, as part of their compensation plan. Many employees pick a contribution amount, choose a few investment options, and then all but forget about it. But there are some important things to understand.
The Basics
There are some simple guidelines to keep in mind to maximize your 401K account, and these are common to all plans, not just those administered by Insperity. The most basic and significant tip is to take the maximum deduction allowable so that you can obtain the largest match from your employer. Start early and do not miss a chance to contribute more, if you can, such as when you reach the age of 50 and can increase contributions.
Insperity 401K Review
This article will examine an Insperity 401K account from the perspective of an account holder and will include a review of essential features, customer service, the online portal, performance of assets, miscellaneous fees, and the availability of planning and forecasting tools.
Insperity 401K Plan
Insperity offers employers a 401k plan for their employees, consisting of a defined contribution plan with a profit-sharing component. The company offers other services as well including HR, Payroll, training programs and expense management. Insperity has a Bright Scope Rating of 73 making it in the top 15% of plans for Salary Deferral. Insperity currently has over 163,800 active participants and over $4.9B in plan assets.
A typical employer’s offering to employees consists of the option of combining a ROTH IRA with a traditional IRA. Funds come from three places: an employee’s pre-tax funds, the safe harbor employer matching funds, and a Roth IRA. By now, most people know the difference between a traditional 401K which is taxed at the time of distribution and a Roth 401K which is taxed at the time of acquisition.
Insperity 401K Investment Options
Having a large and diverse group of investment options is an attractive feature of any 401K, as this enables participants the greatest amount of choice and autonomy in growing their assets. Employers are required to provide at least 3 types of investments, usually in mutual funds, consisting of bond, cash, and stock funds. Typically, most 401K plans will contain options for “Target Date” funds that allow a participant to pick a date by which the funds are targeted for use, with the portfolio of investments made using this barometer. On the last page of a quarterly statement is the full list of investment options.
There are typically around 6 options in each of the categories of small cap, medium cap, and target funds. This amounts to around 21 options, and in this regard that is fewer options than one might like to see. Further, since most people only need and select one target fund, there are, practically speaking, even fewer investment options than 21, as the other 5 or 6 in that category are inapplicable.
Ease and Customer Service
Insperity operates a robust online portal to address most customer needs, as well as a phone number to reach a live customer care associate. Wait times for calls are usually less than 5 minutes. You can also message customer support and typically receive a reply within 24 hours.
The Insperity Portal
The main page consists of a short text box indicating our investment balances and 7 tabs for Contributions, Investments, Loans, Distributions, Communications and Planning Tools. One major downfall of the home page is that it contains information that is more than one quarter old, as statements are not updated to the present date. So, to get an accurate understanding of your investment totals, you need to go deeper into the site, and it’s not always an intuitive process to find the information you require.
Further, on the home page you cannot tell what amounts or percentages of your holdings are from 401K, Roth, and Match. You must go to your statements to find that information, again a more time-consuming process.
The “View Statements” tab, arguably the section of the site that most account holders seek first, is somewhat difficult to find as it is the very last tab on the bottom right of the home screen. Worse, to view your statement, you must download it first. And finally, the statement itself is a quarter or more out of date. To be sure, you can, instead, find the tab that reads “Statement on Demand” to find up-to-the-day information, but it lacks a breakdown by fund.
On both the online version and the downloadable pdf statement, the breakdown lists contributions by “pre-tax” “safe harbor match” and ”employee Roth”. But some participants may find a more logical breakdown to be by Pre-Tax contributions and Roth.
Logging in Post-Employment
An odd feature of the portal is the fact that once you are no longer employed by the same employer, you can use the portal for two years, but after that time you must use a different portal. No one at Insperity tells you this, you are just booted off and when you call Customer Service you will learn about the new portal.
Top Alternatives
Insperity 401K Fees
Insperity charges around 2% of the portfolio, per year, for basic administration. Taking a distribution results in a $50 fee, which goes up each year as you approach retirement, like most 401Ks. A loan also carries additional origination fees.
Planning Tools
Insperity excels at providing robust planning tools to members. These include a paycheck comparison tool, a distribution planner, a contribution maximizer and more. For users who explore these tools, Insperity provides good value.
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Insperity 401K Review Conclusion
In conclusion, Insperity 401K offers employers a decent value and employees good customer service and a fair amount of investment options. A few tweaks would improve the online portal experience, and the planning tools are exceptional.
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