OVERLAND PARK, Kan.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Blooom www.blooom.com today announced the launch of the country’s first low-cost online tool created exclusively to help improve the way average Americans manage their 401(k) retirement plans.
“As financial advisors, we know first-hand that most Americans are confused, intimidated, and overwhelmed when it comes to managing their 401(k) retirement plans. Our goal is to ‘fix’ the epidemic of inappropriately invested 401(k) plans we see every day with a simple, scalable, professional service. We didn’t want to just create another way for folks to get advice on their 401(k) and send them packing, blooom actually digs in and manages the 401k account for our clients,” said Chris Costello, co-founder of blooom.
Blooom is one of 71 companies selected out of hundreds of applicants to present at Finovate New York, a leading conference that showcases cutting-edge financial technology. Blooom differs from the many other investment management tools on the market because it can be directly accessed by individual plan participants, regardless of their plan’s investment line-up, employer, or 401(k) custodian.
Created by financial advisors, blooom is an online Registered Investment Advisory (RIA) firm co-founded by Costello, Kevin Conard and Randy AufDerHeide. Costello and Conard have been managing investment portfolios for clients for almost 20 years and co-manage another traditional RIA firm that manages over $500 million of client portfolios.
In five minutes, the prospective blooom client can access the patent-pending user interface to assess the 401(k) options available in their 401(k) plan. Next, blooom uses a simple, everyday analogy of a flower to communicate the health of the 401(k). The algorithm blooom uses runs more than 100,000 calculations to identify the ideal dollar amount to invest in each fund. The cost is $1/month with quarterly checkups for those with less than $5,000 invested ($10/month for accounts more than $5,000).
“Today, there are 88 million people in this country that are investing in a 401(k) (or similar) retirement plan. Of this, the number of inappropriately invested 401(k)’s is frightening,” said Costello. “Our mission is to remove the anxiety from the 401(k) experience to help average Americans meet their retirement savings needs.”
Blooom is also announcing a partnership with voluntary benefits-exchange company Connected Benefits, a private benefits marketplace with access to tens of thousands of consumers.
“We especially like blooom’s ability to help any 401(k) participant, regardless of where their 401(k) is held,” said Steven Schultz, SVP & Executive Director at Connected Benefits. “With overall exchange enrollment expected to surpass nine million by 2016, blooom is poised to become a key voluntary employee benefit.”
About Blooom
Blooom www.blooom.com is an online tool that assesses a consumer’s 401(k) in about five minutes from start to finish - and provides ongoing (human!) management of it for only $1/month for those with less than $5,000 invested ($10/month for those with more than $5,000). Blooom is a Registered Investment Advisory firm co-founded by financial advisors with 30 years of cumulative experience. Blooom is the only firm in existence that works to fix any consumer’s 401(k).
About Finovate Fall
Finovate Fall is an annual two-day technology showcase where a number of selected companies are given a limited timeslot to demonstrate their cutting edge innovations that are likely to change the face of the banking and finance industry.
