401GO CEO Dan Beck warns fragmented retirement plan systems may strain under state mandates

401GO CEO Dan Beck says the recordkeeping and payroll technology behind many retirement plans was not built for the volume that state mandates will push into the small-business market.

Rhode Island's first RISavers auto-IRA deadline arrives Oct. 15, and Minnesota's Secure Choice Retirement Program follows Dec. 31. Employers covered by the mandates generally must either join their state's auto-IRA program or offer a qualified retirement plan of their own.

Bureau of Labor Statistics data cited by 401GO puts plan access at 59% of private-sector workers at employers with fewer than 100 employees, against 91% at employers with 500 or more workers.

Beck's concern is synchronization. At many providers, he said in a press release Wednesday, recordkeeping, compliance testing, plan documents, custody and payroll connectivity sit across multiple systems or companies. Each new plan then adds another set of participant records, payroll data and compliance requirements that must stay in step.

The release describes 401GO's own answer: plan documents generated through an API so plans can close in days rather than months, and direct two-way payroll APIs in place of the mostly one-way connections the company says are common. Retirement benefit updates arrive in real time instead of a pay cycle behind. Those are 401GO's claims about its own platform.

Transamerica Institute's May 2026 report put interest in pooled plans at 48% among employers without a standalone plan, and PEP assets reached $34 billion at year-end 2025, as this publication has reported. The approaching state deadlines give those employers a date by which to decide between the public program and a plan of their own.