If you’ve never looked closely at your 401k plan, you’re not alone. Endless streams of fine print and complicated fee schedules make it difficult for even the savviest of personal finance gurus to understand many of the plans offered by employers these days. Brightscope aims to fix that, though, by introducing transparency to the retirement plans that millions of Americans rely on each year.
By using Brightscope’s unique ratings system—the first of its kind for 401k plans—employees can find out what their plan really entails and compare it to others that are available. After registering for free, you can search for your own company to find information about the 401k plans that are currently offered. Most, but not all, company plans are rated by Brightscope based on a series of 200 data points. You can also find out about additional costs and fees, employee participation rates, salary deferrals, and average account balances for eligible partners in the plan. Brightscope is continually expanding, which is why the site encourages its users to contribute their own data and comments about any particular company they work for.
Because Brightscope is an independent ratings website, users can be confident that the site’s ratings aren’t biased. Whether you’re looking to find a new 401k plan to join, to compare the one you already invest in to others, or just to see which plans competing companies are offering—Brightscope is a website that nearly anyone could find a reason to use.
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Hi Stephanie, I was happy to see this review when I woke up this morning since I was not expecting it. We are launching a new free participant tool in January that we think will revolutionize a participant’s ability to understand their plan. I’d like to show it to you before launch date if you’re interested. Thanks again.
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