Welcome to Guideline! We’re excited to be your retirement plan provider. Our team will help transition your current retirement plan to our platform, and your dedicated Onboarding Specialist will guide you through the onboarding and conversion process.
Transferring a retirement plan can take approximately 75 to 90 days to complete, depending on your current provider. It’s our goal to ensure the transition is seamless for you and your team. Key milestones include:
Complete your plan setup at Guideline
Invite participants to onboard
Confirm transfer dates with your current provider within 30 days
Complete the asset transfer and start your plan within 90 days
We know transitioning to a new retirement provider can be a challenging process. To help, we’ve outlined each phase so you know what to expect from start to finish, and can keep your participants up to date.
Onboarding phase 1: Plan setup and timeline
The first part of the onboarding process is to get your plan setup and ready for employees to enroll. The plan setup will not be finalized until all action items have been completed. You will see a list of tasks on your plan sponsor dashboard along with prompts to guide you through the process.
Step 1: Complete plan setup
You’ll need to access your plan sponsor dashboard to complete outstanding tasks. As you go through the setup phase, you will be assigned a dedicated Onboarding Specialist that will help you every step of the way until the plan asset transfer is completed.
The items below are examples of the required documentation we’ll need:
Participant report: A census report that provides information on all participants (both active and dismissed) that have a balance with your prior 401(k) provider.
Loan report: A report that lists participants who have an active loan with the prior provider or who have repaid a loan within the last 12 months. Guideline will request their loan information to ensure we’re able to continue servicing the loan without interruption.
Payroll roster: If your company does not use one of our integrated payroll partners, you will need to submit a payroll roster census through the task on your dashboard. A template is provided and can be downloaded in the task. Please note, this is a separate file from the participant report above.
Transfer initiation: Using the instructions in the task on your dashboard, you’ll notify your current provider that you are transferring your plan to Guideline.
Plan timeline and important dates
Your plan sponsor dashboard is where you can track your onboarding timeline and important dates that detail each milestone for your plan:
Enrollment invitations: Invitations will be automatically emailed to eligible employees 30 days prior to the plan start date. They can use the unique link in the email to manually enroll or opt out of the plan, if desired. Learn more about employee enrollment.
Plan start date: The start date of your plan is also the auto-enrollment date for employees who have not manually opted in or out of the plan through the invite. Depending on the payroll platform you use, your responsibility regarding processing the first payroll contributions may be different.
360˚ fully integrated payroll: If your plan uses one of our full integration payroll partners, the integration will activate on the start date. There is no additional action required on your end.
180˚ sync payroll: If you use a sync provider, we can service your 401(k) and take care of most administrative tasks through third-party administrator permissions.
Self-serve: Self-service plans require you to be more hands-on to ensure your payroll platform is set up and ready to deduct employee deferrals when the plan starts.
Learn more about how your payroll provider may impact your plan management here.
First contributions: The day first contributions are pulled into the Guideline system will be your official plan start date. This date will coincide with your company’s payroll schedule.
If you want to stay up-to-date with your plan’s onboarding process, visit the dashboard to view your plan’s timeline and important dates until first payroll contributions are collected. See a sample timeline here.
Onboarding phase 2: Finalize transfer and blackout notices
Notify your current provider of your intent to terminate their services and request your plan be transferred to Guideline. Your Onboarding Specialist can provide a deconversion template that can be used to communicate this request and kick off the plan transfer with the prior provider.
Step 1: Finalize transfer
Once your prior provider has been notified of the transfer, they will provide transfer paperwork that needs to be completed and returned to them. All information needed to complete the transfer documents can be found in the “Start your plan asset transfer to Guideline” task in your Guideline dashboard.
After the transfer paperwork has been completed, the transfer timeline will be provided. You’ll need to enter your blackout and liquidation dates into the corresponding task on your dashboard in order for Guideline to send the required blackout notices to your employees. See a sample blackout notice below.
Make any final payments to your existing provider before the start of the blackout period or the date provided by your previous retirement provider.
After all assets have been transferred, the prior provider will provide you with a deconversion packet. Please forward this to your Onboarding Specialist so that assets can be allocated to participant accounts. For more information on this topic, see phase 3 below.
Step 2: Blackout notices
Participants are required to receive at least a 30 day notice when changes may impact their ability to direct investments in their accounts or otherwise limit their ability to request distributions.
During the blackout period, participants will temporarily be unable to direct or diversify their existing investments, obtain a loan, or take a distribution from their accounts held by the current provider.
Thirty days prior to the blackout start date, Guideline will send a blackout notice to all affected participants with a valid email address in our system. For participants without an email address, as the plan sponsor you will be responsible for sending the required notices to these participants by certified mail
Onboarding phase 3: Transfer reports and deposit participant funds
The final phase of the transfer process is to collect important data from the prior provider. Specific deadlines must be met to ensure the conversion stays on track and assets are allocated to participant accounts before the blackout period ends. Your Onboarding Specialist may require your assistance with obtaining reports and any additional items to finalize the transfer.
Step 1: Deconversion reports
The Deconversion Reports are the final reports provided by the prior provider that gives a detailed breakdown of participant assets by source. Timing of these reports vary from provider, but generally they are a week after assets have been liquidated and transferred to Guideline. Please be on the lookout for these reports to ensure Guideline receives them timely.
Step 2: Upload reports
Upload your reports to the corresponding task on your dashboard. We may request additional information in order to finalize the conversion process, so please monitor your dashboard for any additional requests that might come through.
Step 3: Deposit participant funds
A blackout period usually lasts 30 days but could be longer depending on the provider.
By the end of the blackout period, the plan transfer has been completed and all assets have been allocated to participant accounts. Assets are mapped to the participants’ investment elections we have on file and allocated by the end of the blackout period.
Once your plan has been successfully onboarded with Guideline, your dedicated Client Relationship Manager will be your main point of contact as we continue to service your plan.
Post-transfer
After the plan assets have been allocated to participant accounts, there may be two tasks that populate on your dashboard. The information will help Guideline accurately file the plan’s Form 5500 by the due date, which is the last day of the seventh month from the plan year end.
Upload the year-to-date participant report: If the year-to-date participant report is not provided with the final reports, this task will populate in your sponsor dashboard. You will need to contact your previous provider for this information. The report provides a breakdown of the participant year-to-date contributions by source.
Provide additional pre-Guideline plan activity required for annual report filings: The pre-Guideline activity pertains to the time the plan assets were held with your previous provider from January 1 up to the date the assets were transferred to your Guideline plan. Your prior provider should be able to help you obtain this information. This information is used to help file the Form 5500 for the year of the transfer.
The pre-Guideline activity task asks for the following details:
Prior provider information
Total plan assets used to pay plan service providers
Total plan assets used to pay insurance service providers
Plan assets used to pay other expenses (audit, brokers, advisors, etc)
The number of participants who were terminated before reaching 100% vesting
Whether you filed Form 8955-SSA reports in the past
Prior plan assets
Were all invested assets considered eligible assets?
Was your plan involved in a merger/spinoff, and were there asset transfers that occurred from that?
Prior plan errors
The amount of participant contributions or loan payments that failed to transmit within 7 business days after being withheld from the participants’ paychecks
The amount of benefits, such as a required minimum distributions (RMDs), that the plan failed to pay when due
Any loss to the plan caused by fraud or dishonesty
Any non-exempt transactions that occurred
Other things to keep in mind
Prior-provider deconversion fees
Guideline does not charge a standalone fee for 401(k) plan transfers, but other providers may charge a deconversion fee upon transferring to another provider. You should check with your previous provider for any transfer fees that could be charged.
Contributions to your prior provider
You should continue making contributions to the previous plan until your Guideline plan begins to help avoid missed contributions that can result in additional taxes or penalties.
Once your plan officially starts at Guideline, you will then switch to making contributions only to your 401(k) plan with us. If you have contributions that still need to be sent to your prior provider, please work directly with them. They will be the best point of contact to resolve any issues.
Email addresses for participants
Email addresses are required for all participants with a balance with the prior provider so Guideline can send blackout notices and other required communications.
A personal email is also required for dismissed participants. If you cannot provide an email address, you, as the plan sponsor, will be responsible for sending out a copy by certified mail. Here's why we need contact details for dismissed employees.
True-up
Your previous plan design may have included a true-up provision. A true-up may require additional employer contributions to be allocated to employees who have not received the full employer contribution for the year upon transfer to Guideline.
Please note that an annual true-up is not a service that Guideline offers other than when it is required for conversion plans. You will not be able to add a true-up provision to your Guideline plan in the future.
Where to find additional support
Please take some time to review helpful FAQs about conversion plan transfers. If you would like to contact your dedicated Onboarding Specialist, please refer to your dashboard, which will be available after the appropriate documents have been signed.
For general inquiries, you can contact the Onboarding Team at onboarding@guideline.com.
Sample Blackout Letter
Dear [Participant Name],
You are receiving this notice regarding the [XYZ company] retirement benefits because our records show that you are a current or former employee of [XYZ] and may be currently or previously participated in the retirement savings plan. If you did not participate in [XYZ’s] 401(k) plan, please disregard this notice.
Plan transfer & blackout period
Please be informed that [XYZ] is switching to Guideline 401(k) for its retirement plan services. During this transition, your retirement account will be temporarily frozen for a blackout period so that funds can be transferred to Guideline 401(k). The blackout period will begin [blackout start date] and end on approximately [blackout end date].
During the blackout period, you will temporarily be unable to direct or diversify your existing investments or obtain a loan, withdrawal, or distribution from your account held by [current provider].
If you are currently an employee of [XYZ] and are eligible to participate in the Guideline 401(k) plan, new 401(k) contributions will be applied to your Guideline 401(k) as of [date].
If you're no longer employed by [XYZ]
If you currently have assets in the plan, but are no longer employed by [XYZ], Guideline will automatically deduct a small administrative fee of $4 per month from your account after a 90-day grace period following the end of the blackout period.
Upon receipt of your assets, you will have the ability to make changes to your portfolio and manage your account with Guideline, however, you will not be able to contribute any new funds to the plan. If you do not create an account and choose a portfolio, your funds will be invested in a default portfolio based on your age and estimated time until retirement.
If you prefer not to have your funds transferred to Guideline, you should immediately contact [current provider] to request an account distribution before the blackout period starts
Accessing your Guideline 401(k)
You will receive an invitation email with a link where you can setup your new account. Learn more about the Guideline account setup process here.
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The information provided herein is general in nature and is for informational purposes only. It should not be used as a substitute for specific tax, legal and/or financial advice that considers all relevant facts and circumstances. You are advised to consult a qualified financial adviser or tax professional before relying on the information provided herein.