Why choose us?

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

business owner talking with employee

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

That’s why Principal 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 with your financial professional.

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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, a monthly recordkeeping fee of $185 ($555 billed quarterly), a $6 monthly fee and OneDigital Investment Advisors LLC (“OneDigital”) monthly advisor fee of $250 ($750 billed quarterly) and 45 bps (11.25 bps deducted quarterly) until plan assets reach defined threshold. These are consistent costs you can plan for in your budget.

*Refer to your OneDigital 3(38) agreement for more details.

Simply priced Solution

Simply Retirement by Principal®
recordkeeping costs

Up-front

$500

One-time
setup fee

Every month

$185
+
$6for every
participant

OneDigital advisory fees

$750
+
11.25bps*

Every quarter

There's a one-time startup fee of $500, a monthly recordkeeping fee of $185 ($555 billed quarterly), a $6 monthly fee per participating employee, and OneDigital's monthly advisor fee of $250 ($750 billed quarterly) and 45 bps (11.25 bps deducted quarterly) until plan assets reach defined threshold.

*Refer to your OneDigital 3(38) agreement for more details

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Diverse investment options

OneDigital offers diverse investment options, helping make the most of employees’ contributions and any matching contributions provided by the business owner.

OneDigital 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 OneDigital.

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Automatic enrollment

You have the option for employees to be automatically enrolled at a default pre-tax contribution percentage (set by you, the business owner).

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 per tax year for the first three years of your .

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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. OneDigital is 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

1 The decision to delegate and ongoing monitoring of the service provider is ultimately a responsibility that belongs to the appropriate retirement plan fiduciaries.

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.

*Retirement account assets at all: “Retirement in America: Out of Reach for Working Americans?” Jennifer Erin Brown, Joelle Saad-Lessler, and Diane Oakley, National Institute on Retirement Security, September 2018.
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Simply Retirement by Principal ® 401(k) plan recordkeeping and administrative services are provided through Decimal, Inc. dba Ubiquity Retirement + Savings (“Ubiquity”). Ubiquity is not affiliated with any plan and investment administrative services provided through Principal Life Insurance Co., or affiliated with any company of the Principal Financial Group ® . Principal makes available the investment options for customers to select through Simply Retirement by Principal ® . All other services provided by service providers not affiliated with any company of the Principal Financial Group. Refer to related documents and agreements for more details on plan services available.

Simply Retirement by Principal ® requires a client service agreement between Ubiquity and the plan sponsor (Customer). In addition to and as part of the services, each Customer will sign separate agreements with the following parties: the custodian and OneDigital as the 3(38) investment manager. Simply Retirement by Principal ® services and costs are subject to change.

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

*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% - 0.86%, 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 the Simply Retirement by Principal® with OneDigital solution, OneDigital is the fiduciary responsible for 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 up to 50 employees a tax credit of 100% and those with 51-100 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.

SECURE 2.0 Act legislation allows small businesses with up to 50 employees a tax credit of 100% and those with 51-100 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.

New tax credit for start-up plans offering employer contributions: A tax credit equal to the applicable percentage of employer contributions, capped at a maximum of $1,000 per employee.

  • Applicable to small employers with 50 or fewer employees.
  • For employees with 51-100 employees: The credit is phased out by reducing the amount of credit each year 2% for each employee in excess of 50.
Applicable Percentage: 1st and 2nd year = 100%, 3rd year = 75%, 4th year = 50%, 5th year = 25%, 6th year = 0% No contributions may be counted for employees with wages in excess of $100,000 (inflation adjusted). If taking advantage of this tax credit, employer contributions may not also be counted towards “start-up costs” in the start-up tax credit calculation.