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Companies looking to offer retirement plans will soon have a new alternative. Automated investment adviser Betterment said today that it will soon offer a 401(k) platform for employers. In other words, your retirement fund may one day be run by code.

The wealth management startup has made a name for itself in the past few years for its so-called robo-adviser services. Investors hoping to do more with their money, but who might not be able to afford the hefty fees that come with financial advice from a human, have turned to companies like Betterment, Wealthfront, and FutureAdvisor for help. The startups pride themselves in providing a clean mobile experience paired with automated investing for the more tech-savvy millennial investors gravitating to their services.

Betterment is hoping to accomplish the same thing with its latest venture: Betterment for Business, which is set to be available early next year. The new service will provide companies with a robo-driven alternative to other 401(k) providers, including a similar clean interface for both employers and employees. If it works, Betterment’s 401(k) bot may help add financial adviser to the list of human jobs soon to be co-opted by smarter machines.

Clean, Custom, Cheap

For Betterment, the idea for the new service came from the company’s own challenging search process to find a 401(k) provider for its employees, says founder and CEO Jon Stein. After combing through a number of options, Betterment settled on what they believed was the best option they could find. And, even so, Stein says it was a “disaster.”

“It was a terrible process,” Stein explains. “And even once you get it set up, there’s little tooling and little information for benefit providers. It’s a bad user experience, there’s no advice, it’s a paper-based process for them to sign up—and the lowest plan out there was still incredibly expensive.”

Betterment believes that its emphasis on tech and user experience will make it a desirable choice for employers and employees. On the employer side, companies will be able to see a dashboard that allows them to check in on the company’s accounts; enroll new employees; and offer any assistance—all online. Stein says that it is also offering its service with lower fees than its older competitors.

Getting Personal

For participating employees, Betterment says that, unlike its competitors, users will be able to get personalized advice thanks to its automated system. If a user has a company-sponsored 401(k) on Betterment as well as other individual accounts with the company, the automated service will make decisions based on all of the assets combined.

“You can tell us more about yourself so we can further customize a plan for you,” Stein says, meaning that the plan can also take into account social security benefits, other investments, as well as your personal goals.

While the success of Betterment for Business remains to be seen, the company is intent on pushing its expansion into a space traditionally dominated by financial services institutions like Fidelity, Vanguard, and Charles Schwab.

But businesses tasked with choosing company-sponsored 401(k)s will still have to reckon with how willing they are to put their employees’ retirements in the hands of a robot. Even if Betterment offers a cheaper alternative or snazzy interface, companies will have to decide if they really want to put their long-term stake in something new.

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Get Ready to Entrust Your Retirement to a Bot

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