Leading fintech scales technology platform to five times greater efficiency than legacy platforms, transforming the experience for advisors, employers, and savers

NEW YORK, NY, December 6, 2022 - Vestwell, the leading small business retirement plan provider and individual savings platform, today announced significant upgrades to its proprietary recordkeeping platform designed for the small plan market.

Through a series of strategic enhancements, Vestwell’s leading technology solves some of the most complex challenges faced in the history of the 40-year retirement industry. The most common processes of a recordkeeping platform have been dramatically improved, giving users five times more efficiency than any traditional, legacy recordkeeping platform on the market today.

“Eighteen months ago, we set out to raise the bar, once again, creating a multi-custody, multi-savings program architecture, which could process traditional tasks at speed, scale, and efficiency levels never before attained in the industry. Today, we have delivered the infrastructure on which the workplace and individual savings programs will run over the next twenty-plus years,” said Aaron Schumm, Founder and CEO of Vestwell. “To continuously solve these multi-layered, highly-complex industry challenges, we combined the expertise of our industry leaders and software engineers, who have been working on recordkeeping technology since our inception.”

The enhancements establish a better user experience for all Vestwell partners and customers, including financial advisors, third-party administrators (TPAs), asset managers, employers, and savers. Vestwell can now connect to any custodian while providing TPAs and financial advisors greater flexibility to run and scale their practices. Through planned enhancements, the new architecture will also power each workplace and individual savings program Vestwell enables within a single, multi-custodial platform. Those utilizing the Vestwell recordkeeping platform for their businesses will benefit from an elevated experience at a fraction of the cost of legacy platforms.

Payroll is at the forefront of the workplace savings industry, and processing any corrections that arise places a heavy administrative burden on small businesses and their limited resources. Vestwell’s latest enhancements rapidly process payroll corrections in real-time, as compared to the typical week-long industry norm.

"Our experience building out proprietary recordkeeping technology taught us that in the small plan market space, how you handle the ‘unhappy path’ makes all the difference,” said Jonathan Ferrara, SVP of Platform Strategy and Architecture at Vestwell. “Small businesses do not typically have a dedicated payroll person, which can result in more mistakes compared to larger businesses. We found that legacy solutions could not efficiently handle the frequency of these scenarios so we decided to reshape our own accounting tech stack to be more operationally efficient, deliver more value, and provide a superior experience to our client base.”

Vestwell’s recent platform upgrades also improve the saver experience. Savers who request to withdraw funds from their savings programs for financial hardship, a job change, or other reasons are now able to access their withdrawn funds in two business days. The antiquated industry standard for withdrawals has been a week or more. Vestwell’s portal also provides savers with greater visibility into where their money is during each process step, so savers have a clear understanding of when they can expect their funds.

“We have all come to expect goods and services to be provided as close to real-time as possible,” said Jon Mark, SVP of Business Operations at Vestwell. “Vestwell leads the charge to offer savers access to their funds, with the speed and transparency expected.”

Just before these latest advanced platform enhancements, the firm announced two product launches: Vestwell Flex and a TPA portal. This year, Vestwell has also been recognized for its Managed Accounts Feature, in partnership with Franklin Templeton, by Barron’s/MMI and WealthManagement.com. For the last two years, Vestwell has achieved three times client growth each year, placing the rising firm as a top business in Inc.’s Fastest Growing Companies in America.

About Vestwell

Vestwell is the modern fintech engine powering savings and investment programs for small businesses and individual savers across the country. We’re helping to close the savings gap by offering a flexible, cost-effective, modern solution to save for the critical aspects of life - retirement, education, and healthcare. Vestwell currently powers nearly 25,000 small businesses, over a million savers, and $27 billion in assets in all 50 states. To learn more visit vestwell.com.

Media Contact

Nicole Wood
nicole.wood@vestwell.com