Table of Contents
About PAi Retirement
Imagine you’ve spent your whole life preparing for your retirement. You’ve done everything right—kept friendships alive, eaten your vitamins and bone broths, never worked too hard, and avoided any heinous injuries to your lower back…but in the midst of all that you forgot to invest in a retirement fund.
Whoops. Thankfully, that’s what your children are for.
Jokes aside, putting away some morsels of money a bit at a time can go a long way to giving you a comfy retirement. Doing so with the proper plan can make your retirement even cushier.
That’s equally important if you’re a business owner who wants to ensure that their employees can put away money for their retirement.
That’s where PAi Retirement comes in. The American company offers a line of 401k and retirement plans wherein they shoulder most of the annoying burdens like reminders, administrative duties, and general housekeeping.
As it stands, the company currently helps more than 17k employers and 183k employees. Nobody can deny that those are enticing numbers. However, they don’t represent everything that the brand has to offer.
That’s what my PAi Retirement review will do for you. In this article, you’ll learn about the vital information you need before you decide to open an account with PAi Retirement.
You’ll find out about the company’s history, their prices, what services they offer, and what users have to say about them.
PAi Retirement began back in 1983 when Michael Kiley wanted to improve the retirement fund industry. He recognized that average folks weren’t being taken care of during retirement, partially because they didn’t have the best frameworks to help them save for it.
As such, he established PAi Retirement as a customer and small-business-oriented retirement fund agency. The company soon added their Copilot options, which offered customers even more flexibility with their retirement plans. They could personalize the plans in accordance with the factors that affected their small business.
Earlier this year, Ascensus purchased PAi Retirement, which is a huge boon to that latter. The former is the largest independent American record-keeping company.
They’re also involved in government and health savings. This makes them a perfect fit for a retirement company as it allowed PAi Retirement to improve their already well-designed plans.
During their 40 year history, PAi Retirement have earned a number of awards and recognitions, including the When Work Works Award in 2017 for their work-life balance, the Greater Green Bay Chamber’s 2016 Family Friendly Workplace Award in 2016, the Green Bay’s 2013 Next Generation Best Place to Work, the Stevie Award for Financial Services Call Center of the Year in 2020, and have won the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Dream Big Blue Ribbon seven times
As if those weren’t enough highlights for you, I’ve got some more coming up in the next section of this PAi Retirement review.
Highlights
- Multiple retirement plans
- Services adapted to your needs and budget
- Better Business Bureau A+ accredited
- Support more than 600 firms
- No minimum requirements for plans in terms of company sizes
In this PAi Retirement review, I’ll cover their major services, which include:
- 401k
- IRA
- Integrations
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PAi Retirement Services Review
The PAi Retirement services center around helping small businesses develop strong retirement plans.
Often, they cannot offer these benefits to their employees due to their limited budget, which is a shame, because it inadvertently turns would-be workers away from searching for small business jobs.
The PAi Retirement 401k intends to supply small businesses with the same options that big businesses have when it comes to retirement plans. With it, businesses can cater their plans to their needs and those of their employees.
Additionally, business owners can continue to save towards their own retirement as 401ks have high contribution limits.
All that being said, let’s list out all the PAi Retirement services offered.
The first is the PAi Retirement Copilot Prime. It’s a bundled 401k designed to accommodate businesses of all sizes. It prioritizes flexibility to meet that goal. You can adjust the limits and overhead of the plan to cater to your available resources.
Next up is the PAi Retirement Copilot Prime Pooled Employer Plan. This plan cuts out many of the administrative duties associated with 401ks and the PAi Retirement Copilot Prime by outsourcing those tasks. This can provide employees with more fiduciary protection while retaining many of the benefits of a standard 401k, including:
- Distribution and loan processing
- Managing an audit
- Rollover acceptance
- Plan design review
- Eligibility calculations
PAi Retirement also has the PAi Retirement Copilot Open Architecture plan, which stays true to its name by opening up the investment possibilities it offers with regard to investments. With it, you can integrate those investments into your retirement plan in the long run.
The final plan I’m going to mention in this section of my PAi Retirement review is the PAi Retirement Fiduciary 3(16) Plan Administrative Service. You can tag it onto any other plan that PAi Retirement offers as it’s more of a way to ensure that all your t’s are crossed and your i’s are dotted.
What I mean is that the PAi Retirement Fiduciary 3(16) Plan Administrative Service offloads many of the administrative duties from the sponsor’s shoulders (i.e. you) and onto PAi Retirement, thus giving you more time to focus on your business at the moment instead of worrying about keeping all your paperwork up to date.
PAi CoPilot Services Review
In this portion of my PAi Retirement review, I’ll go over some of the company’s main features that exist in all their plans.
PAi Retirement’s employees can help you from the very instant you sign up. They’re available to guide you through the installation and set-up process to ensure that you start off on the right foot.
That’s not where their contributions end either, as it’s not as if they’re going to leave you in the dark once you’ve installed everything.
They offer a bevy of services that can make maintaining a 401k simple and stress-free. The first of these is their reliable alert system.
PAi Retirement can send you notifications of upcoming events and important dates that would’ve otherwise gotten lost in your memory. These includes:
- Annual notice alerts
- When new rules are implemented that will affect your plan
- When a Long Form 5500 needs to be filled out
- When the Year End Reporting Questionnaire must be submitted
There’s also the PAi Retirement Years of Retirement calculator. This function processes information to tell you how your savings will impact your retirement time. In essence, PAi Retirement can inform you how long your retirement savings will last once you stop working.
You can use this prediction to alter your plan and invest more or if the PAi Retirement Years of Retirement tells you that you’ll save enough to last you 50 years, then you can afford to take a bit out of your plan.
PAi Retirement also offers payroll integration, which ties together hours worked and other payroll information with 401ks. This can drastically cut down the time you spend entering data and lessen the amount of admin work you need to perform.
How Does PAi Retirement Work
If you’ve made it this far into this PAi Retirement review, you may be wondering how the service actually works from a customer’s perspective. As I’ve mentioned a couple of times already, it’s meant to streamline everything, cutting through the clutter and background noise that obscures the retirement planning process.
First, you’ll sign up with PAi Retirement by creating an account. You’ll have to supply them with information like your social security number, your date of hire, and an account access code.
Once you create your login, you’ll then get the chance to work alongside PAi Retirement to develop your plan alongside them. They’ll provide you with insight as to which strategy would best suit your needs – and those of your employees.
The company will take into account many of the factors that affect small businesses more than they would large businesses. For example, McDonald’s has to worry about location as much as they are too close to a mall with other burger joints. If they are, they can cut their losses and go elsewhere.
That’s not the same for small businesses that have yet to franchise. Location, alongside size, goals, budget, and other factors can greatly affect how a small business approaches 401ks.
Thankfully, PAi Retirement takes these into consideration and works with their users to ensure that their retirement plan fits their means.
How Much Does PAi Retirement Cost
This portion of my PAi Retirement review will break down the prices associated with each plan.
The PAi Retirement Copilot Prime PlanPAi Retirement uses a group pricing plan. Each employee has a $4 monthly recordkeeping fee along with a 0.07% annual custodial and trading fee and a 0.25% annual investment fiduciary fee. Meanwhile, employers have to pay a monthly $100 fee along with a one-time $390 set-up fee.
Meanwhile, the PAi Retirement Copilot Prime Pooled Employer Plan has almost the exact same costs except for the monthly employer fees, which come out to $200.
The PAi Retirement CoPilot Open Architecture Group Plan has the same $390 set-up fee and 0.07% annual custodial fee for employees. However, employers have to pay a monthly record-keeping fee of $5. The employers have to pay a $150 monthly fee. For this plan, sponsors have up to 25 different investment options. Plus, they can mix and match investments.
Finally, let’s talk about PAi Retirement Copilot IRA’s prices. These are charged on an individual level, meaning there are no monthly employer fees. Individuals have to pay $4 monthly for recordkeeping and the regular 0.04% annual custodial fee. The annual investment rates range from 0.02% to 0.83%. You’ll also have to pay a percent for your annual IRA platform, running from 0.20% to 0.10%.
Who Is PAi Retirement For?
The services I’ve outlined in this PAi Retirement review are capable of scaling up to larger companies, but I believe that small businesses would best benefit from them. The fewer people there are in your company, the less you’ll have to worry about paperwork and administrative duties. Although PAi Retirement already takes care of all of these tasks, it’d still be easier to manage with a compact business.
PAi Retirement Reviews: What Do Customers Think?
Sadly, there weren’t many aggregate PAi Retirement review scores on the internet. The brand reported an average customer score of 4.8/5 stars, but they don’t give any further information beyond that. They don’t disclose how many customer reviews were taken into account, where the customer left their feedback, or even what the users said about the company.
This meant that I had to do some digging. So, like a mole rat sniffing around in the dark for food, I scoured the internet to see what customers liked and disliked about PAi Retirement.
The customers who left positive PAi Retirement reviews said that the service did an exemplary job at what they set out to accomplish. Sponsors were especially charmed with the way that PAi Retirement handled their bookkeeping.
As one buyer wrote, “Pai is a quality firm and will provide an excellent platform for your 401k. They are very helpful and want you to get the most for your company. I 100% believe if you have a small company which needs a retirement they would be better than 99% of all choices. They provide the TPA, custodian and record keeping all in one for a very reasonable price. I 100% recommend!!!!”
The majority of PAi Retirement reviews that came from happy writers spoke to the brand’s customer service. These reviews came from long-time PAi Retirement users who had experience talking with the company for years. They said that it was always a pleasure to speak with them and that they could rely on the workers to see their problems through and find solutions.
“Spoke w/Hanna today. Exceptional service. Went well out of her way to help a non-HR person mitigate both site & executive direction…To be fair…could say this about any PAi team member since Day 1. From Ryne in Mar 2017 to Hanna today. Friendly & helpful, without exception. Many companies claim to make customer service a priority. Few ensure it’s part of their culture. Thanks for being among the exceptions,” wrote one customer.
That being said, in spite of the fact that there certainly were some positive PAi Retirement reviews, there was also an assortment of negative customer testimonials. Some people were disgruntled with the way the company conducted business, particularly in regard to their customer service.
The less-than-glamorous PAi Retirement reviews claimed that the company was difficult to contact or that they would be redirected to a chatbot. This led some customers away from the PAi Retirement. However, not every customer felt that way, and there were still some long-standing users who remained with PAi Retirement.
Is PAi Retirement Legit?
Unfortunately, more than a handful of negative PAi Retirement reviews claimed that the company made it unnecessarily difficult for customers to cash out their 401k. Some users reported that the company dodged their attempts to contact them or did not send them the paperwork they requested.
I also read some accounts of unexpected fees cropping up when customers tried to cancel the service or take out the 401ks. This was surprising because the entire point of retirement investing is that one day you’ll have to take out the money, otherwise you won’t have any to spend when you stop working.
Is PAi Retirement Worth It?
I hesitate to fully endorse PAi Retirement due to what customers said in their testimonials. While I can’t outright say that they’re not worth it because they do have a robust set of plans and many of their personalization options mean they can adapt to your needs, it’s hard to deny the frustration some customers felt when working with them.
In summary, I’d say that you should look into them and speak with a customer service representative before you sign up.
PAi Retirement Promotions & Discounts
There weren’t any promotions or discounts running when I wrote this PAi Retirement review.
How To Get Started On PAi Retirement
You can get started with PAi Retirement through their website, www.PAI.com.
FAQ
Who owns PAi Retirement?
PAi Retirement is owned by Ascensus.
What is PAi Retirement’s Privacy Policy?
PAi Retirement has an extensive privacy policy that you can download in full on their website.
What is PAi Retirement’s Cancellation Policy?
There isn’t much information readily available about PAi Retirement’s cancellation policy on their website. As such, the best course of action is to contact them.
How to Contact PAi Retirement
If you want to reach out to someone in the PAi Retirement team, then you can do so by calling 800-236-7400.
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