Envestnet Acquires a 401(k) Marketplace, Pushing Deeper Into Retirement Space

Financial technology solutions provider Envestnet announced Wednesday that it purchased 401kplans.com, a digital 401(k) retirement marketplace that provides online pricing of retirement plans and walks advisors through a documented due diligence process when considering plan providers.

This continues Envestnet’s push into the retirement plan industry, and follows the appointment of Sean Murray as head of retirement in November 2021, the company said in a statement.

“401(k) plans remain the primary savings vehicle for 60 million American workers, yet advisors are often reluctant to incorporate them as part of their practices and holistic planning processes,” Envestnet chief relationship officer Andrew Stavaridis said in a statement.

“By bringing 401kplans.com into our retirement offering, we can create a more seamless experience for advisors to shop, benchmark and screen investments for their retirement plan clients,” he added.

For Envestnet’s 200,000 retirement plan clients, the acquisition marks a “core component” of its strategy to provide innovative solutions, as well as become a “major distribution channel for recordkeepers and investment managers.”

Further, with the firm’s retirement solutions marketplace, “advisors can employ Envestnet’s outsourced 3(38) or 3(21) fiduciary services for investment selection and monitoring in retirement plan portfolios and can access essential information to make investment recommendations and understand the impact of fund changes to the total cost of their plans,” the company stated.

Available online and via mobile app, 401kplans.com also allows advisors to eliminate manual proposal requests as well as allows them to compare recordkeepers and evaluate investment options, according to Envestnet.

401kplans.com has 28,000 advisors with accounts on the platform. Founder Scott Buffington will join Envestnet as head of retirement sales.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed.