GuidelineReviews of guideline.com

very hard to find help from a person. low cost is good.

I have repeatedly tried to contact the customer service and do not get a response.

Guideline is a pretty good option for small companies that want to offer 401 k benefits to employees. The price has doubled in the last 2 years which seems a little excessive and might be hard for small businesses to keep up with.

Although Guideline initially started off with a mission to eliminate fees on AUM which we strongly believed in, we've been betrayed by the introduction of these fees this year and now it's just like all of the other 401k companies that take advantage of workers everywhere. Guideline should be ashamed of the way it has treated its customers with this horrible bait and switch. At the very least they could allow customers to choose whether to accept fees on AUM or one-time fees for certain services as before. We will move to Vanguard, a company that is owned by and actually cares about its customers, as soon as reasonably possible.

Easy to use. Efficient investments and cost. Allows all employees to participate effectively. Very good reporting and governance features with minimal workload required of the client,

If you are looking for an amateur operation to manage your 401k, then you find the right company. Cleary inept and surly unable to "Guideline" anyone on the right course to staying compliant with their plans. Their success team has what seems to be zero training; after account set up, it's no better. Appointments are missed, communications are poor, and their ability to resolve issues or concerns is nill. They have a slick website, but don't let that fool you - their systems are far from customer-centric and filled with erroneous information. Their upper management is non-responsive to concerns failing even to return phone calls. Don't trust them with your money!!

When I was researching a 401k solution for my small software company I came across these negative Trustpilot reviews. They definitely gave me pause! I looked at a number of different products, and liked the pricing and the look and feel of Guideline the best, though. With trepidation, I decided to use Guideline. The onboarding person I worked with (Kat) was superb, very knowledgable and helpful. The onboarding process was polished and smooth. Kat assured me that they had (and still are to a lesser degree) undergoing some growing pains and support has been a bottleneck. I reached out to support with a few questions to test the waters, and received fairly good answers with < 24-hour lag. The product/app part of Guideline is extremely high quality. Their documentation is also top-notch. Most of the negative comments appear to be about two issues: (1) Surprising increase in pricing (2) Extremely hard / slow to discontinue service Re the pricing: My belief is that there was no intentional bait and switch. I find their new pricing more than fair. I'm new to the service, so haven't, of course, tried to leave it. If I ever run into any significant problems with Guideline, I'll try and remember to update my review here.

They increased our monthly fee by over 150% in July. Their website states that there is no plan termination fee for employers with their new pricing structure. However, a customer service rep has just told us that Guideline charges a $250 fee to terminate our plan. Who is right? It also takes them up to 90 days to close an account and transfer the assets and, of course, they keep charging the monthly fee until the plan fully transfers the assets. Guideline, of course, says that their revamped pricing plan structure is better for their clients. This is not true for most of them, particularly for very small businesses with 1-9 employees. Guideline used to be the cheapest solution for very small businesses. Not anymore. They are now among the most expensive ones. Having been a Guideline client for almost 4 years, I can't recommend them. We are leaving them. Update: We terminated our plan on 11/30/2022. Only 2 people were enrolled when we terminated it. Their account balance was transferred immediately. Yet, 3 months later, Guideline is still billing us. Why? Because, as they say, it may take up to 90 days to complete the termination process. The truth is, even if your situation is very simple (1 or 2 employees, immediate $$$ transfer), Guideline will take its time to terminate your plan so that it can keep charging you its monthly management fee. I find this unethical.