I was under the impression that they worked mainly with smaller plans.
Vanguard didn't sell their RK
Ascensus has been offering a white label RK platform for Vanguard for years now...Vanguard discharges a lot of small IRA accounts, by my estimation
about a year or so ago. PAI, I believe. They were entirely small plans.
Yeah, I can see why VG or Fidelity would off load the smaller plans; if it isn't your sweet spot, it's a waste of money and resources.
if you can get it profitable, it's important for training your future ee's (you might train the industry and competitors but that's a natural cost of doing business)
Principal (where I worked) made the pricing work by using their proprietary TDF's and investments...if you wanted open arch, you paid. The proprietary money managers with a RK system collect fees with both hands (think of it this way...they collect RK fees with their left hand and asset management business with their right hand)
Ascensus, however, doesn't have proprietary asset management. I really don't see how they make money and given my example above, asset management is really scalable and a WAY better biz than the RK side. If you can get both, it makes business sense.
They hold the 401k I have through my former law firm. I've never tried to do anything you can't easily do through the online portal with it. In that respect they beat the pants off Paychex (damning with faint praise there, I know). But I can't speak to the rest of their operation.
It took them three weeks to get my credentials to work on their site. Yay.
At least their HELP desk rep was pleasant.
I miss Principal™.
on what people call the small plan markt (under $25mm). this is for Sep-Ira and individual 401k's so it won't affect much.
Dirty little secret...people don't want Vanguard so much as they want low cost index funds...Fidelity/Blackrock/state Street are often lower in cost and we use them more than Vanguard...but Vanguard has a brand.
On larger plans, Vanguard's Recordkeeping isn't known for being all that great. When we use their funds, we often do it on other Recordkeeper platforms.
Back in 2020, when I retired, Vanguard was using them as their backroom processor for my firm's Vanguard 401K accounts. Getting the proceeds moved to my IRA was somewhat of a pain. Good luck. Bill
were horrible. I guess I am not sure if it was them or Vanguard’s antiquated rules but it was really difficult compared to moving mine from Fidelity.
They seemed to be stuck in the 80’s asking for forms filled out by printing out, typing and faxing to them. They would not accept scanning and emailing. I finally sent forms registered mail but no one could find them. I guess all their people work remotely.
The process took over a month to complete and required lots of phone calls and holding on line.
In comparison my Fidelity exercise took about an hour.