Introducing Guideline Pro: A 401(k) platform for accountants, financial advisors, and benefits professionals

Accountants, financial advisors, and benefits professionals have long stood as a bridge between business owners and the complex world of finance and compliance. Planning for retirement is one of those important topics. Research shows that 80% of financial and benefits professionals have advised their clients on offering a 401(k).¹

In 2019, we launched Guideline for Accountants and Guideline for Advisors® to support these professionals and help them deliver even more value to their clients through retirement planning. Since then, over 3,000 professionals have joined the platform, leveraging our expertise and resources to help their clients save for retirement.

But this was just a first step.

Today, we’re excited to celebrate the next phase of growth with the announcement of Guideline Pro, a free platform for accountants, financial advisors, and benefits professionals to help grow their retirement business. Guideline Pro is designed to make it easy for professionals to help their clients offer a meaningful benefit, deepening their role as their clients’ trusted partner.

Whether retirement planning is something you routinely manage or have shied away from in the past due to its complexities, Guideline Pro is a platform for you. With an expansion of our plan offerings through Starter and Enterprise, Guideline can better serve companies of all sizes, structures, and industries.² Similarly, the partners on our Guideline Pro platform serve businesses of all types — which is why we’ve invested in helping them grow their retirement services to meet the unique needs of their clients.

Why join Guideline Pro:

Growing the retirement arm of your business can help you become an even more trusted full-service firm. With Guideline Pro, you can help your clients set up a modern 401(k) they’ll love, access advice, plus get the tools to monitor all of your plans in one place — at no additional cost to you or your clients.

With Guideline Pro, you can:

Streamline plan monitoring: Imagine overseeing all your clients' retirement plans from a single, intuitive dashboard with minimal effort. Guideline Pro empowers you to invite, track, and monitor multiple 401(k) plans seamlessly, giving you a comprehensive view and advanced plan visibility.
Access support from your dedicated relationship manager Your clients turn to you for professional advice. Now you can turn to us for 401(k) insights. With Guideline Pro, every partner is matched with a dedicated relationship manager to help you with outstanding tasks and answer your questions. From acquainting yourself with the dashboard to understanding intricate plan matters, we're here for you.

You may qualify for even more benefits:

Pass on discounts to your clients: Guideline Pro partners can pass on meaningful savings to their clients year-round, starting at 4 months of no employer fees for each client you sign up. We’ll also waive 6 months of employer fees for your firm’s own Guideline 401(k) plan.³
Earn referral rewards: Guideline Pro partners can earn $100+ for each new 401(k) added. Rewards are doubled for eligible plans with 50+ employees.⁴

Who Guideline Pro is for:

We've built Guideline Pro to support a diverse network of financial and benefits professionals, including but not limited to:

Accounting professionals: CPAs, bookkeepers, and outsourced CFOs can leverage exclusive discounts and earn rewards on easy-to-manage 401(k) plans.
Financial advisors: Broker dealers and RIAs can now offer robust retirement plans with built-in billing, enhancing their service offerings.
Benefits professionals: HR consultants and brokers can enhance benefits packages with an affordable 401(k), plus earn referral rewards if they qualify.
Business consultants: We're here to support a variety of consultants, ready to collaborate. If you don’t see your role mentioned, reach out to our team.

We’ve built Guideline Pro to grow with you. We’re committed to helping you become a trusted advisor and grow your own business with a better platform experience, resources, and support. Join for free today.

Disclosures:

¹ Source: Guideline research run with Suzy. Insights based on data collected December 2023 through January 2024, from a survey of 474 US-based financial and benefits professionals. Guideline was not identified as the survey sponsor. The experiences of the respondents in this survey may not be representative of all people.

² Go here for more information on Guideline plans. Go to Form ADV 2A Brochure for more information about our fees.

³ Employer fees include the monthly base fee and a monthly participant fee after the new plan begins. Other participant-paid fees will apply. This offer can’t be combined with other offers. Guideline reserves the right to modify or discontinue this promotion at any time without prior notice.

⁴ A new Guideline 401(k) plan invited through your dashboard, provided that you do not act as a fiduciary for the plan, is eligible for referral payment. A new plan is defined as a start-up 401(k) plan and does not apply to a preexisting 401(k) plan transferring to Guideline.