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Human Interest

Human Interest

Overview

What is Human Interest?

Human Interest headquartered in San Francisco offers their cloud-based 401k administation platform for employers featuring flexible plan design and a dedicated account manager.

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Recent Reviews

TrustRadius Insights

Human Interest has proven to be a reliable and user-friendly platform for managing 401k plans and facilitating profit sharing. Users have …
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Honest Review

6 out of 10
July 11, 2023
Incentivized
To provide 401k benefits to employees as a benefit. As a small business, it is hard to administer such benefits on our own.
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No Regrets Review

9 out of 10
July 05, 2023
Incentivized
We utilize Human Interest to meet the requirement set by the state of California to offer 401K programs to our employees. Human Interest …
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Awards

Products that are considered exceptional by their customers based on a variety of criteria win TrustRadius awards. Learn more about the types of TrustRadius awards to make the best purchase decision. More about TrustRadius Awards

Popular Features

View all 5 features
  • Ease of Enrollment (35)
    7.9
    79%
  • Filings and Disclosures (34)
    7.3
    73%
  • Plan Flexibility (34)
    7.2
    72%
  • Compliance Maintenance (35)
    7.2
    72%

Reviewer Pros & Cons

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Pricing

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Essentials

$120 + $4 per eligible employee

Cloud
per month

Complete

$150 + $6 per eligible employee

Cloud
per month

Concierge

$180 + $8 per eligible employee

Cloud
per month

Entry-level set up fee?

  • $499 one-time fee
    Required
For the latest information on pricing, visithttps://humaninterest.com/pricing/?utm_…

Offerings

  • Free Trial
  • Free/Freemium Version
  • Premium Consulting/Integration Services

Starting price (does not include set up fee)

  • $124 per month
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Features

401(k)

These are common and important features of 401(k) software. They pertain mostly to the administrative and recordkeeping aspects of a 401(k) provider

7.3
Avg 6.7
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Product Details

What is Human Interest?

Human Interest (“HI”)is a 401k provider boasting clear, transparent pricing. Human Interest, Inc. helps provide companies and their employees more options when it comes to crafting a retirement plan.

Testimonials are unique to the reviewer and may not be representative of others’ experiences. HI solicited clients for testimonials in exchange for nominal, non-cash compensation starting 2/28/23. Previously, from 8/23/22-12/31/22 Human Interest offered gift cards as an incentive for customers to complete reviews. An offer of non-cash compensation or a gift card and direct solicitation for a testimonial incentivizes reviewers to portray Human Interest favorably. Past success does not guarantee future results

What comes with a Human Interest, Inc. 401(k) plan?

  • Automated Administration

  • Compliance Monitoring

  • Dedicated Support Team

  • Investment Education

  • 3(16) Fiduciary Services Available

Their solution aims to make it possible for companies to offer high-quality 401(k)s as a part of a competitive benefits package without putting a huge administrative burden on HR. Employers can set up and administer a 401(k) plan entirely online, and make it easier for employees to manage their retirement benefits.

Human Interest Features

401(k) Features

  • Supported: Administration and Recordkeeping
  • Supported: Payroll Integration
  • Supported: Compliance Maintenance
  • Supported: Plan Flexibility
  • Supported: Filings and Disclosures
  • Supported: Ease of Enrollment

Additional Features

  • Supported: Zero transaction fees
  • Supported: Integration with 400+ payrolls
  • Supported: Onboarding and ongoing support

Human Interest Screenshots

Screenshot of Admin Portal - A summary page offers a snapshot of the plan.Screenshot of Admin Portal - Employee List: See employees at a glance and information such as contribution rate, participation, balance, risk setting, etc.Screenshot of Employee Dashboard - History View: Employees have the ability to view their YTD contribution amount and account related activity on this page.Screenshot of Employee Dashboard - History View: Employees have the ability to view their YTD contribution amount and account related activity on this page.

Human Interest Competitors

Human Interest Technical Details

Deployment TypesSoftware as a Service (SaaS), Cloud, or Web-Based
Operating SystemsUnspecified
Mobile ApplicationNo

Frequently Asked Questions

Human Interest headquartered in San Francisco offers their cloud-based 401k administation platform for employers featuring flexible plan design and a dedicated account manager.

Human Interest starts at $124.

Guideline, ForUsAll, and Betterment are common alternatives for Human Interest.

Reviewers rate Ease of Enrollment highest, with a score of 7.9.

The most common users of Human Interest are from Small Businesses (1-50 employees).
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Comparisons

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Reviews and Ratings

(222)

Community Insights

TrustRadius Insights are summaries of user sentiment data from TrustRadius reviews and, when necessary, 3rd-party data sources. Have feedback on this content? Let us know!

Human Interest has proven to be a reliable and user-friendly platform for managing 401k plans and facilitating profit sharing. Users have praised the platform for its transparency regarding fees and updates, providing peace of mind for companies and employees alike. It has simplified the onboarding process for 401k programs, automating tasks that were previously time-consuming. The integration with existing payroll providers has also been seamless, streamlining the administration of 401k plans. Small businesses with limited HR staff have found Human Interest to be a valuable tool in simplifying 401k administration and meeting state requirements.

Additionally, Human Interest has been recommended by financial advisors for offering competitive costs and a user-friendly interface. The software provides a personal and daily window into 401k funds, allowing users to control their investment amount and strategies with ease. It also ensures that no contributions are forgotten through automatic 401k contributions. Despite some challenges faced by users in canceling the service or getting a prompt response from customer support, the platform's overall simplicity, ease of use, and integration capabilities have been highly appreciated by both businesses and employees. Human Interest enables small businesses to offer retirement accounts to their employees while benefiting from tax breaks and deductions. By taking on the fiduciary role, it reduces the workload for businesses by dealing with employee notifications and interactions. Overall, Human Interest's intuitive interface and ability to meet diverse business needs make it a valuable asset for companies of all sizes looking to provide retirement services to their employees.

Sales Process: Reviewers have praised the initial sales representatives for doing a great job of selling the product. They found their approach convincing and effective, resulting in successful conversions. Furthermore, having the presence of their manager during the sales process has been highly beneficial as it helped address any questions or concerns raised by executives.

Ease of Use: Users consistently commend the platform's ease of use. The interface is simple and intuitive, allowing employees to navigate through tasks quickly and efficiently. Whether it's completing paperwork or accessing important information, users appreciate how user-friendly the platform is.

Integration with Other Systems: A significant advantage highlighted by reviewers is the seamless integration of this platform with various systems such as HR, payroll, book management software QuickBooks, and enrollment/account changes software Rippling. This integration greatly simplifies processes for users by eliminating manual data entry and reducing administrative tasks. Users can seamlessly transfer information across different systems without encountering compatibility issues or additional steps.

Complications with the antiquated system: Some users have encountered complications with the outdated system, leading to issues with API integration between payroll and Human Interest. This has caused significant stress and uncertainty on payroll days.

Lack of communication from customer service: Users have expressed frustration over consistently unhelpful updates from customer service. There is a clear lack of communication and training during the rollout of solutions, leaving users feeling unsupported.

Higher administrative cost compared to previous plan administrators: Users have noticed that the administrative cost is higher compared to their previous plan administrators. They also wish for easier access to contact information directly on the dashboard.

Attribute Ratings

Reviews

(1-19 of 19)
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Score 1 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Summary: It took 45 days to get a rollover check for our 401k!We worked with 4 other funds in this process and the next slowest took 14 days (which included required rounds of documents back and forth) In my opinion, either intra company communication is very bad or something more nefarious is going on. While I was at Routable Human Interest took months to get my 401k contributions correct. We actually had to submit some extra “catch up” contributions to get back on track and even those were done incorrectly.
  • Non
  • Communication
See above
June 19, 2023

Human Interest

Score 1 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
In my opinion, Human Interest is a mistake you could make to invest on your 401K. I believe they are happy to take your money, but completely have no accountability when they drop the ball on a cash out. All they tell me is it’s a process. Well during that “process” I have been told many different things by different customer service reps, and have the emails as proof. Yet they simply seem not to care. This is hands down the most frustrating company I have dealt with.In my opinion,they don’t have a problem messing with other people’s money and livelihood.
  • Easy to start
  • Standardized communication
  • More honest with customers
  • Take accountability for wrong actions
  • Show remorse for mistakes they have made
  • Offer intelligent solutions
I believe it is a horrible company that takes no accountability for mistakes they have made. I believe they have no problem taking your money, but a big problem giving it back to you. They have admitted no fault, when I have documented actions of where I was being strung along and being told different things by different people. Yet nobody takes any accountability nor do they make any effort to fix their mistakes.
April 07, 2023

Could Be Better

Score 5 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
We use Human Interest for our company's 401(k).
  • Onboarding was relatively simple.
  • The employer portal is user friendly.
  • Integration with payroll processing platforms is a nice time-saver.
  • Following up / resolving issues is nearly non-existent.
  • Lack of communication on the part of Human Interest.
  • Customer service leaves much to be desired.
The biggest reason I would hesitate to refer others to Human Interest is the poor customer service from my experience. When we have an issue the response is always "we'll get back to you" but that doesn't happen. Good customer service means following through with what you say you're going to do and keeping customers informed of the status of their request. My impression is that because we are a small plan we are not a priority to Human Interest.
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Human Interest is our 401k manager. They make it simple for users to control their investment amount and strategies. Their payroll integration also makes it pretty seamless from a management perspective.
  • Payroll integration
  • Individual User control
  • User interface
  • There was one instance where a contribution for a couple employees was missed and it was very difficult to get corrected.
  • The customer service has been mostly good, but our original account manager was very slow to respond and took a long time to solve problems
It is a fairly simple plan that doesn't require a lot of management oversight. Employees can basically self manage all of their own contributions and investments and with the payroll integration, it runs fairly autonomously.
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
I use human interest to oversee my 401k plan for my employees. They have been great at answering questions and it was a pain free experience to set up the plan. Their website is easy to maneuver and it’s easy to see contributions. There is an auto option for maximizing 401k deductions which makes it easy. They also ensure we are following federal guidelines for the plan. So far it has been a good experience.
  • Transparency
  • Respond quickly to emails
  • Setting up 401k plan
  • Bill could be clearer
Good for small businesses trying to set up a 401k for their employees
Score 7 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
My organization uses Human Interest to administer our 401(k) plan. After the former vendor lacked usability for our team members, we switched to Human Interest. We wanted to low-cost option that had an easy to use portal and a responsive support team.
  • Visuals within interface (on the front-end)
  • No easy way to report on current year contributions from other organizations - team members reports it but no report on the back end
  • No day-to-day market impact visuals like other tools (Fidelity)
  • Can't terminate a team member in the system in advance of their last day (have to add a reminder even if they put their notice in earlier)
  • My rollover contribution check (over $70,000) was lost within your trust for several weeks
The user experience for a team member is good. The graphic design and portal are nice. They could use more features to see day-to-day changes within the market, as well as more robust reporting features.

There have been instances when things appeared disorganized on the back end. I rolled over a previous 401(k) and the funds were lost within your trust. No one notified me and I had to email several people over the course of several weeks to locate it. This is a major concern when housing your money with someone.

When new team members start, we are sent an email that lists their year-to-date contributions with another provider. There is no where within the admin portal where we can run a report that lists other contributions to date.
Lee Powers | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 1 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We use Human Interest to administer our 401(k) plans for all three of our companies; total of around 50 employees.
  • Ease of selecting investments
  • Administration is not user friendly
  • Customer service takes weeks if not months to resolve issues
  • unable to change simple details for employees such as email address
  • sync with payroll rarely works properly
  • forceout process is slow and always done incorrectly
The ease for employees, enrolling and selecting investments is great. The administration and "back end" work is not good at all.
Score 1 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We use Human Interest for our 401K plan. I administer this plan
  • Has an online presence
  • Ease to schedule meetings with CSM
  • In my experience, integration was a complete failure
  • lack of responsiveness in getting contributions into plan
  • No way to escalate issues other than scheduling call
  • in my opinion, lack of timely problem resolution
  • Client needs to manage the plan because no one at Human Interest seems to be aware or concerned when contributions are not made into employees plans
  • High turnover
I could not recommend Human Interest based on this experience. I recognize that errors happen however what I find egregious is the lack of responsiveness and non-answers to client's questions.
December 29, 2022

HI has great staff.

Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
401k management, not much else to write here. It’s our 401k management software.
  • Dashboard is easy to use.
  • UI / UX is good.
  • The support email is quick.
  • Support calls are great, people are knowledgeable.
  • Showing the breakdown of fund investments more clearly; better graphics here would be great.
  • More education on financial wealth would be welcome.
I really enjoyed the few times I’ve had to call in for support. Never really thought about saying I “enjoyed” calling a customer support number, but it’s true; the employees on the line were very knowledgeable and patient and helped me in a quick manner.
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Enables our small non-profit to offer retirement benefits to our employees in a cost effective way. Being able to offer a retirement plan helps us recruit and retain quality team members.
  • Communication
  • Back office management of plan
  • Compliance
  • More responsive and quicker customer service support
Especially helpful to smaller employers who otherwise might not be able to offer a retirement plan.
Score 1 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We use it for our 401K. It provides us with an easy-to-use registration for 401K, but their onboarding and current plan have caused more of a headache than it's worth.
  • Easy to use registration
  • Customer Service
  • Onboarding Process
  • Better trained employees that are knowledgeable about the company
  • Don't promise services you cannot provide
  • Get approval before you roll out things
  • Respond to emails and support tickets quicker or even at all
  • Don't leave company in the dark about the process
  • Better database that shows current employee contributions
  • Better training for company, rather than no training at all
  • Being aware of issues and proactively finding a solution, vs company having to reach out to correct issues that could have been prevented
  • Better monthly reporting
  • A system with less glitches
I have had some serious issues with Human Interest, and it doesn’t seem to matter who I talk to; I feel I’m either ignored entirely or the issues mentioned aren’t addressed. In my opinion, this has been the most difficult, frustrating, and unprofessional company I’ve ever worked with. I feel that I have been in the dark since I left the section with my initial onboarding specialist. In my experience, no one has kept me informed of anything. In my experience, things were rolled out without my knowledge and rolled out with incorrect info to my entire company - then I had to go behind and clean up the mess. I scheduled a meeting with one of our companies to help them sign up, and we started the process and in my experience, every single one of them is blocked and can’t proceed because they are commission-based pay, and it won't allow you to even sign up if a salary isn't listed. I feel that's something that they would have known and should have proactively addressed before they even rolled it out. So, I planned a meeting that wasted my time and their time, in my opinion. I emailed support for a fix and heard nothing for almost a week. In my experience, I was told one thing at signup, and then they would flip-flop and say we couldn't do something. We went back and forth for a month on the same issue, and ultimately, it was something they could do, and they even had paperwork to initiate it. In my experience, they have sent signup requests to employees that weren't eligible, charged me for a full month at the start when there were 3 days left, and didn't even inform me that they were rolling out the program or even get my approval. Because of another issue, we didn't even start deductions until the middle of the next month. They still made us pay. If I had known it was going to be this bad, I wouldn’t have ever chosen this company.
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Human Interest manages our 401(k) offering. It coordinates with our employees and our payroll company to make the appropriate withholdings to the individual accounts.
  • Manages employee defined contributions
  • Shops around for performing funds to invest in
  • The support team is responsive to all our requests
  • Better coordination with payroll vendors
Human Interest is very helpful in managing out retirement programs. It would be best if they could run payroll so we had an end-to-end application.
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We sought out Human Interest as a retirement plan provider after our previous plan provider ceased operations. Our employees log in to the system to select their investments and rate of savings, and the system communicates any changes back to the payroll portion of QuickBooks, which is a large time saver for me.
  • Easy site navigation
  • Fantastic onboarding team
  • Straightforward recommendations for investments
  • Their general support team has had some delays in response time.
  • They are still a start-up, and some of my questions needed to be forwarded to a specialist. They were always answered, but it seemed to be basic questions at times.
  • I would love for the a journal entry for the contributions and matches to be created in QB after each payroll. I am doing this manually right now.
Human Interest is great when you are looking for a cost-effective way to serve a diverse number of employees, especially when they are happy to have a curated investment lineup. Advanced investors who prefer to have a self-directed 401k plan would be better served elsewhere.

Human Interest is great for plan administration with minimal day-to-day effort.
Score 1 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We selected Human Interest as our 401k provider. Selected based on their integration abilities with our current payroll provider. I had implemented them at another company 2 years before, knew they would be the perfect fit for my current company. Need a 401k provider that could handle, the conversion from pervious plan and the payroll contributions. Human interest during onboarding agreed to be able to handle out needs
  • Welcome emails were great
  • Onboarding with new clients
  • In my opinion, Account managers, need to be more responsive. Since 90% of questions relate to employees money, 2 weeks to get back is unacceptable.
  • Follow through with the first integration process, my team did not prepare or check how the process went. In our case it was very messed up, took 2 months for them to find employees missing contributions.
  • Integration with Payroll provider, they promised they would be able to sync with our payroll provided. Ensure the current contributions come out each month. 4 months later, and i have manual adjust over 50 employees. Still have employees missing contributions from 3 weeks ago
Please see the last question. They have not been very responsive, employees are upset and missing money. Lost of market gains, accounts are not review, management doesnt seem to care
October 14, 2022

Sit Back and RELAX

Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We use Human Interest for the management and procurement of our 401k retirement accounts for the company and its employees. It has helped us address the needs of our staff as an added benefit for the employees.
  • 401k management
  • Customer service
  • Selection of products
  • Case scenarios with investment choices
  • In depth analysis of risk/ reward models
  • Other options regarding needs of the employer and their employees
Human Interest is very responsive to any of my questions and inputs, too. They have an easy-to-use interface for the user as well.
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
My company has been using Human Interest for about 100 days now. The onboarding process was super easy as their team walks you through every step with a quick zoom call. Human Interest provides our company with a 401k platform that is simple to navigate as an admin and employee.
  • Onboarding process
  • Customer support
  • Detailed options
  • Easy to navigate platform
  • Option to enter employees immediately instead of going through payroll platform
Human Interest is well suited for providing companies, small or large, with 401k options.
Score 7 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
I am the owner and operations manager for a small business. I have offered a 410k plan for the past 13 years. Human Interest was recommended to me as a "full service" 401k plan. I was interested in this because I no longer wanted to have administrative responsibilities for the 401k plan with my business. This was the most important rationale for my considering and then selecting Human Interest. Ultimately the costs were competitive as well, particularly when including the lower administrative fees associated with the available funds for employees to choose from for their plans. Presently I have about 75-80 employees and unfortunately very few choose to participate when eligible. Still, the promise of a user-friendly interface was a desirable feature as well.
  • take on 401k plan administrative responsibilities - forms, census, etc.
  • interface with employees directly upon eligibility, eliminating tasks for internal administrative team
  • offer reputable funds with low administrative fees
  • interfaces with my payroll company directly, eliminating yet another task for internal administrative team
  • I experienced frustration with Human Interest in the process of moving from my prior administrator (not "full-service) to Human Interest. Communication was poor, the timing of withdrawals was not accurate, and materials to send to employees about a new provider were sent after employees were contacted by Human Interest with details about a new 401k plan.
  • Website interface for employees does not provide as much information as my former provider. For participants, this has been noticeable. Those with loans cannot track their loan payoff on the site, nor do they see as much information about the performance of their individual funds and overall portfolio. More details would be helpful.
  • We have had a few glitches along the way (for example, Human Interest shows balances without accounting for employee loans whereas the former plan showed the loan as part of the balance -- that we didn't know about this left an employee feeling like 5K of her money "disappeared") and the most frustrating part of this has been challenges in communication. Customer service has ONLY been through digital interface and, in some cases, a phone call could help problem resolution and customer satisfaction significantly. Even as issues have been sent up the pole in escalation, I have not had a single call from customer service.
  • One cautionary note that perhaps Human Interest should address with its sales team is that the sales person sold me rainbows and unicorns - the promise of a smooth transition process, readily accessible customer service, an interface for participants that would provide all the information they'd like. I have experienced issues with each of these features and it seems like the operations side of Human Interest get set up for frustrated customers/clients due to the overselling of the sales team. Perhaps more communication and working on challenges would improve the customer experience.
My interest in and ultimate choice to move forward with Human Interest is directly linked to the elimination of my administrative duties in relation to the 401k plan I offer to my employees. I did not want to continue to have responsibility for completing/checking the census at the end of the year, the Form 5500 process, informing staff of eligibility, etc. Human Interest does offer a "full-service" 401k Plan that has enabled me to take these tasks (and the worry over meeting deadlines) off my plate. Costs seem reasonable, administrative fees associated with funds available are reasonable. Thus far, however, Human Interest has required my involvement at the problem-solving level -- monitoring the transition process and catching mistakes along the way, responding to my staff who participate in the plan and who have had unsatisfactory experiences with customer service, and a few other mishaps along the way. Given that customer service appears to be only web-based interactions, this is a potential point of frustration for a business owner trying to extricate themselves from the 401k plan administrative duties. All of this being said, however, I am hopeful that Human Interest is committed to learning from the "glitches" and making improvements to enhance the customer experience. My rating of 7 reflects my experience thus far and my hopefulness about what the future holds. As with any service, persistence in having problems resolved has been necessary, and, they have been resolved.
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Human Interest is our 401K provider. It was a seamless process and certainly helped that they were integrated with our payroll company.
  • Seamless process
  • Integrated with our payroll company
  • Easy to connect with when necessary
  • None thus far
We needed to set up a 401K, and the process was very easy. It was a huge plus that they already worked with our payroll provider.
May 13, 2022

DO NOT RECOMMEND

Score 1 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Beware of this company! The customer service is great during the initial sign-up and onboarding period. The part when they're taking your money. However, after we decided to cancel the service we have yet to speak to anyone helpful. We've sent numerous emails and calls. We get the same reply that someone will get back to us within a few days. They never do. Very typical of the scam type companies that start making money from your checking account and then make it almost impossible to get them to stop doing so.
  • Easy sign up process
  • Very difficult cancellation process
  • Very poor customer service
Do not use this company. You will be happy in the beginning during the signup phase. They obliviously have their best sales and customer service people working during this time. However, once you decide to cancel or need support they will not contact you. It has been weeks of the same excuse. Read some of the reviews from their other customers. You will see similar complaints.
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