Once you've completed the sales process and signed your service agreement, you’ll move into the onboarding phase to set up your plan with Betterment. Here’s what to expect:
Access Your Plan Sponsor Dashboard
You'll get an email with a personalized link to your Betterment at Work plan sponsor dashboard. This platform serves as your hub for ongoing plan management. Upon logging in, you'll find two tasks ready for you to complete: Tell us about your company and Add a bank account. The first two steps must be completed before Betterment can prepare the plan document.
Review the Investment Policy Statement (IPS)
Within your onboarding hub, you'll find the IPS, which outlines our general investing guidelines. Reviewing and acknowledging this document is a crucial step in the onboarding process.
Review and Sign Your Plan Document
Once prepared, you'll receive your plan document via DocuSign for review and signature. This will be the “source of truth” for anything related to your 401(k) plan, which is a different document than the sales agreement that’s already been signed at this point in the process. After signing, we'll proceed to build out your plan on our platform.
Add employees to the Betterment platform and initiate communications
This step will vary based on your payroll provider. If your payroll provider automatically syncs with Betterment, you’ll be asked to connect the platforms and then review the data that Betterment pulled in. If your payroll provider does not sync with Betterment, you’ll be asked to upload a file with all of your employees. Once their email addresses are in our system, we’ll ask you to send a suggested announcement to your team and trigger an email from Betterment, inviting employees to activate their account.
Tell us about beneficial owners or a control person
Federal regulation requires us to collect information about key people in your company.
Send legal documents to select employees
At this point we’ll be able to see if anyone has opted out of electronic communications; you’ll be asked to mail them required legal documents.
Purchase a Fidelity Bond
Before processing your first payroll with Betterment at Work, it's necessary to obtain a fidelity bond. This insurance protects against acts of fraud or dishonesty and must be sourced from an insurance company certified by the Department of Treasury.
Below are some providers our clients have used:
This is not a recommendation or endorsement. Plan Sponsors should independently assess the bond provider that works best for their plan.
Launch your first payroll
This step will also vary based on your payroll provider. If your payroll provider is synced with Betterment, you’ll be asked to review and approve the data. If your payroll provider is not synced with Betterment, you’ll be asked to upload your payroll information.
By following these steps, you can efficiently set up your 401(k) plan with Betterment at Work, providing your employees with a robust retirement savings option.
Related Articles