Why choose us?

It's an easy way to help your employees save for the future.

Employees and business owners meeting at a table.

75% of small and midsize business (SMB) employees are interested in their employer offering additional benefits within the next *

That’s why we created Simply Retirement by Principal®.

We’ve paired decades of experience in retirement solutions and investments from Principal with the simplicity and cost-effectiveness of the Ubiquity Retirement + Savings® online recordkeeping platform, breaking down barriers like cost and complexity so more small businesses can offer their employees a way to save for retirement.

What Simply Retirement by Principal® offers you

Simply Retirement by Principal® was created specifically to simplify the process of researching and setting up a retirement plan for small businesses with fewer than 100 employees. You can complete every step right here online.

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What makes Simply Retirement by Principal® a different kind of solution?

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Predictable, no-guess pricing

A 401(k) plan with Simply Retirement by Principal® has simple, transparent pricing.

There’s a one-time startup fee of $500 for bundled plans, a monthly recordkeeping fee as low as $145 ($435 billed quarterly), and a $6 monthly fee * These are consistent costs you can plan for in your budget.

Simply Retirement by Principal® costs

Upfront

$500

One-time setup fee for bundled plans

Every month

As low as

$145+
$6for every
participant
Help me calculate the monthly
cost for my company
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Investments with competitive performance

Simply Retirement by Principal® investment options offer attractive performance with a competitive return, helping make the most of your employees’ contributions and any matching contributions you provide as a business owner.

Wilshire Advisors LLC selects the investment options for the plan and your employees can pick the investments that best match their needs from the plan’s streamlined * See the Fiduciary Responsibility tab under Reduced Risk below for more about Wilshire Advisors LLC

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Automatic enrollment

The Simply Retirement by Principal® 401(k) plan requires employees to be automatically enrolled at a default pre-tax contribution percentage set by you.

The Simply Retirement by Principal® 401(k) plan requires employees to be automatically enrolled at a default pre-tax contribution percentage set by you. Don't worry—employees can change their contribution and investment election or opt out of the plan at any time. Automatic enrollment can help increase participation, simplify administration, reduce follow-up, and help your employees save for retirement. It may also qualify your business for a SECURE 2.0 Act tax credit of up to $500 per tax year for the first three years of your *.

If you’re working with a TPA, automatic enrollment, eligibility, and vesting options may vary.

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Simple-to-use online dashboard

With the Simply Retirement by Principal® platform, you’ll have a central place to manage your retirement plan.

You’ll be able to add employees, manage contributions, and change account settings—all online.

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Payroll provider integration

Ubiquity Retirement + Savings® supports integrations with select payroll providers—helping business owners save time and reduce errors by automating contribution reporting.

Ubiquity supports direct integrations with dozens of payroll providers, including Paylocity and Namely. ADP®, Paychex®, QuickBooks®, and others are supported through add-on third party services. Ubiquity’s Payroll (K)oncierge service can help you get started with setting up your payroll information.

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Reduced risk

You don’t have to be an expert on regulations, because the administrative platform helps you determine what you need to do and when to do it.

Simply Retirement by Principal® takes the guesswork out of staying on top of plan compliance. Electronic participant statements, forms for tax filing and plan documents, participant disclosures, annual plan notifications, IRS plan compliance testing and monitoring, and eligibility notices are provided—meaning less work for you.

Fiduciary responsibility

Choosing investments for a retirement plan comes with a lot of responsibility. It’s called being a “fiduciary” and fiduciaries are personally liable for those choices. Wilshire Advisors LLC will be the plan’s 3(38) investment fiduciary. They’ll provide objective, independent third-party oversight for the screening, selection, and monitoring of the plan’s investment options, and will make changes as appropriate. This service will help manage your related fiduciary liability.1

Wilshire Advisors LLC is a diversified global financial services firm with 40-plus years of experience providing investment guidance to some of the largest plan sponsors in the U.S. The firm serves more than 500 clients across 20 countries, representing combined assets of more than $9 trillion.2 This includes providing fiduciary services for more than 39,000 plans.3

1 The decision to delegate and ongoing monitoring of the service provider is ultimately a responsibility that belongs to the appropriate retirement plan fiduciaries. 2 As of June 30, 2019. 3 As of Jan. 31, 2019.

Safe harbor matching

Safe harbor is a popular solution for business owners who want to maximize their contributions. If you choose this option, you can have a simpler plan design that allows you to bypass some of the compliance testing required by the IRS. To avoid compliance testing, business owners must make a minimum safe harbor contribution to the plan. “Compliance testing” essentially refers to two government-mandated nondiscrimination tests that prove that the plan is not providing a more significant benefit to highly compensated employees (those who earn at least $150,000 in 2024 tax year or who own more than 5% of the company). A safe harbor plan is deemed to pass these tests.

Pre-approved documents

Simply Retirement by Principal® provides you with a qualified, preapproved document, so you don’t have to prepare this document yourself. The Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) requires plan administrators (the people who run plans) to provide certain information to their retirement plan participants in writing. The plan document must be submitted for approval by the U.S. Department of Labor.

Participant communication

We create required participant notifications for you and make them easy to distribute.

Deadline reminders

If you’re late for a required task, such as sending in contributions, we’ll send you a reminder to help you stay in compliance.

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Data accuracy and protection

To put it simply, your data is accurate and protected.

Ubiquity Retirement + Savings® knows how important security is to you and your employees. Ubiquity has completed the requirements for a Service Organization Control (SOC) 1, type 2 audit covering their proprietary Paradigm Recordkeeping System, which is the platform used by Simply Retirement® by Principal. The SOC 1 standard covers internal controls relevant to financial reporting at service organizations. Ubiquity’s continued investment in their SOC 1 program and reporting demonstrates their year-over-year commitment to ensuring complete and accurate financial accounting, as well as proper information technology general controls over their Paradigm Recordkeeping platform.

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Ready to take the next step?

See if our 401(k) solution plan is right for you

Intended for plan sponsor use.

*year. 2024 Principal SMB Sentiment survey of small and midsize employer non-customers (272) and employees (260) conducted between January 22 and February 14, 2024.

*Retirement: “LIMRA Research Finds 4 in 10 Small Businesses Currently Offer Retirement Benefits,” January 2019.
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*Per participating employee:Fees paid by the business owner are billed quarterly. Fees paid by participants are deducted monthly from participant accounts.

*Recordkeeping-fee:Pricing shown applies when working with a TPA. Bundled pricing is a $500 initial setup fee, then $185 per month. Fees paid by the business owner are billed quarterly. Fees paid by participants are deducted monthly from participant accounts. Participant fees are charged if there is a $100 account balance, regardless of whether the participant is active or inactive. Custodial and investment fees are charged against participating employees’ accounts (those vary by investment and range from 0.03% - 0.95%, as of September 30, 2024). If the business owner chooses to work with a financial professional and/or TPA, their fees are also additional and may be billed to the business owner. Financial professional fees may be deducted from participant accounts.

*What’s included: Plan costs are billed quarterly. Custodial and investment fees are charged against participating employees’ accounts (those vary by investment and range from 0.03% – 0.86%, as of September 30, 2024). Should you choose to work with a financial professional, their fee is also additional.

*Investment lineup: As part of Simply Retirement by Principal®, Wilshire Investments, Inc. is the fiduciary responsiblefor the selection and monitoring of the investments.

*Plan:This credit is for plans that include the eligible automatic contribution arrangement (EACA) feature only. In addition, SECURE 2.0 Act legislation allows small businesses with fewer than 100 employees to claim a tax credit of 50% of the qualifying start-up costs for a new employee retirement plan for the first three years of the plan as follows but limited to the greater of (1) $500 or (2) the lesser of (a) $250 for each non-highly compensated employee who is eligible to participate in the plan or (b) $5,000. Information about the SECURE Act is educational only and provided with the understanding that Principal® is not rendering legal, accounting, investment advice or tax advice. You should consult with appropriate counsel or other financial professionals on all matters pertaining to legal, tax, investment or accounting obligations and requirements.