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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)
    7.1
    71%

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

7.2
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

(1-25 of 68)
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Score 1 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We are a new, small business and were excited to set up our 401k. What a mistake we made going with Human Interest. At every possible turn, we have been disappointed. First, our salesperson lied to us. Once we signed the Agreement, we were moved to a manager who had no idea what he was doing and it took months for him to figure out that what we were sold wasn't actually possible. We were gifted 6 months free because of our issues, but we continued to be invoiced every now and then so I had to continuously fight to get refunded when we shouldn't have been invoiced. The end result was us having a 401k that we were never able to contribute to and we are happily in moving to a management service that is the opposite of Human Interest—our new team is honest and cares about us, not just building their own business fast. Stay as far away from Human Interest as you can if you want to actually invest and make money, not pay for zero services.
Score 5 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
In my experience, Human Interest is meant to be an easy "set it and forget" for our 401K management.
  • Easy to use platform
  • Easy processes to follow
  • Good FAQs
  • It could use better customer service
  • I feel like there are forced cash outs
  • Improvements for Payroll Team
  • I would like to see more reliable account reps, as in our experience, ours has changed 5+ times
I believe it is good for a company that is looking for a pretty portal.
Jan Johnston-Tyler, MA | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 1 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We contracted with Human Interest to manage our 401k plan.
  • In my experience, erroneous transactions in the amount of $11k
  • In my experience, lose customer service reps at alarming speed
  • No way to contact after hours. This is critical when $11k was erroneously deducted from my account without notice. They apparently re-ran several payroll periods 'accidentally'
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Human Interest provides us with a retirement savings benefit for our employees. Almost all of our eligible employees participate in the 401K plan that we offer through Human Interest. The plan is a way to take care of our employees and to stay competitive as an employer, while doing it in a way that minimizes the overhead effort and time involved by our company staff, because it's optimized for a small business such as ours. It is also appropriately priced for us as an employer, while offering low-load funds for our participants. The range of options for funds is good.
  • optimized for small businesses
  • takes care of most of the administrative overhead of our 401K plan
  • offers a good range of options for funds
  • well-priced
  • We purchased concierge service, but contact person changes frequently, and getting support when we need it is sometimes spotty.
  • Sometimes features of the admin dashboard / portal don't work correctly.
  • When contact person changes for concierge service, typically we're not notified, and we don't know who to contact when an issue comes up.
Good for small businesses.
Chris Braund | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We use Human Interest for the administration of our company's 401(k) savings plan. It is integrated with Rippling, our HRIS platform.
  • Clean, intuitive user interface
  • Communication with our employees
  • Integration with Rippling (enrollments, account changes)
  • Support
  • The administrative cost is a good bit higher than our prior plan administrator (a bank)
For a small business, Human Interest makes it really easy to offer a retirement savings program. The service is costly, but it's a good value and the Secure Act 2.0 gives some tax breaks. From the employer's perspective, most of the enrollment and administrative process is hands off, allowing us to focus elsewhere. Human Interest just completed our year-end plan testing and tax reporting, which was also smooth and easy. I also had an annual plan review with an account rep, which was unexpected and useful.
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We use it to manage the retirement options for our employees.
  • ease of use
  • Paperless enrollment
  • Prompt customer service response
  • Plan details to provide to prospective employees
  • FAQs for employees
  • Clarity on financial implications of plan choices for employer
I think it is well suited for managing the retirement needs of a small organization with a simple plan need. We ran into issues with communication from them on the implications of choosing a plan, which I wish they had provided better support around. We are a small organization so our understanding of all the details of retirement plans is evolving and we needed better support than what they provided, which was none.
Score 7 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Human Interest is our 401K administrator.
It allows us the opportunity to offer a benefit that we and our team believe in while investing in their future.
  • Website is easy to navigate
  • Responsive
  • Provide assistance in choosing funds
  • Making withdrawals on time
Website is easy to navigate, they provide great assistance in choosing funds for our risk preference, and allow us to invest in our team's future. We have many issues with withdrawals going through on time resulting in large withdrawals at once affecting cash flow, and interest compounding later than it should. We had a couple of employees not having the correct amount withdrawn a few times though it was correct on the website.
Score 7 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Human Interest provides 401(k) services to my business. These are retirement services for my business.
  • User friendly
  • Transparent
  • Positive
  • Human Interest could provide lower fees and could be less expensive overall
  • Human Interest could improve its dashboard
Human Interest has done what we hired them to do and it has been valuable to us in terms of setting up a retirement plan for a small business. It is well suited to providing retirement services to small business. I am not sure it is well suited for very small businesses, however.
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Having a 401(k) plan helps my businesses meet increasing employee expectations and retain top talent. 401(k) provides me with significant tax breaks and deductions. Both my businesses and my employees benefit from optional employer contributions to workers' 401(k) accounts.
  • affordability
  • good customer service
  • portfolio management and excellent payroll integration
  • better sales support
  • more communications with employees
Human Interest plans, offer payroll integrations, low-cost funds, and dedicated customer support. These features are designed great fit for my businesses looking to offer a compelling benefit, meet a state requirement, or attract and retain talent.
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.
Score 6 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We use Human Interest to administer our 401(k) plan.
  • API Integration with Zenefits
  • User-friendly platform
  • Auto-portfolio selection and rebalancing
  • Reporting! This one is huge.
  • Managing employer match caps
  • Allowing for $ amount contributions instead of just %
Small businesses just getting started out or a with a small HR department. The management of this tool is very straight forward and user-friendly; however, it does lack in certain functionalities that larger companies may find critical.
Michael Johnson | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We use Human Interest for our 401k plan. We chose Human Interest due to its cost, ease of use, and fiduciary role. The produce takes the responsibility away from the company and is responsible for it. This requires less work on our end as they deal with all the employee notifications, email, and interactions. This allows me more time to do my real work.
  • Running the 401k plan
  • Sending out the required emails for the plan
  • Letting participants know when they are at the plans yearly limits.
  • It would be great if the current case managers contact info was on the dashboard
If they are a small company that wants to provide a 401k plan but does not what to deal with the yearly paperwork and maintenance of the plan. It is easy to use and priced competitively.
May 10, 2023

Human Interest

Score 1 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Initial set up and implementation was simple. In my experience, communication has always been slow. Getting responses to issues is a major setback. We are attempting to terminate our plan with Human Interest and customer service is obsolete. Our plan termination date was January 31, 2023. We filled out termination paperwork and submitted the requested reports. I was told everything was in order. Now, four months later, the plan is not terminated. My former employees have not been able to roll over their accounts. The employees are in limbo and I am being told it could take up to twelve months to completely terminate the account. We are still being invoiced for monthly service charges. I can not get a straight answer of why or how this can be resolved. The most "intelligent" thing I have heard is "It is a process." Lovely.
  • The set up was easy.
  • They ignore communication.
  • Their website is easy to navigate.
  • In my experience, zero communication.
  • In my experience, extreme lags in response for issues.
  • No clear picture of processes or procedures.
  • No personal commitment to customer satisfaction or loyalty.
  • Representatives do not have working knowledge and aren't prepared to assist with real time problems.
I chose one of ten because zero is not available.In my opinion, I will not recommend a company that won't follow up on issues and fix problems. I was fooled into thinking this would be a great fit because it was easy to get set up. Once you are setup the ease is on Human Interest's side. The client does all the work from there without guidance or personal attention.
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We use Human Interest for our own company. The blend of convenient integration with our payroll and benefits administration software with a low cost in fees for our 401k participants was important so that we could help them save the greatest amount possible.
  • The User Interface it really simple to understand
  • They keep our employees up to date on each funding date and their balances
  • The ability to see performance reports on demand is really nice
  • The customer service has a touch of an overly automated feel. More human interception of questions and less overtly Salesforce programming would be nice
Human Interest is really easy to setup and even doing a transfer from another 401k trustee was extremely smooth
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We use Human Interest for our 401k. It allows a personal and daily window into what our 401k funds are doing.
  • Personalized ability to review our 401k holdings
  • Quick ability to adjust contribution levels
  • When changes are made, quicker response to customers
Any small company that does not want to deal with a financial management company to make minor 401k adjustments.
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.
Catherine Mukes | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Using Human Interest has allowed my small business to offer retirement accounts for our team. We have been able to secure 401(k) successfully for our team members.
  • Ease of use
  • Timely communication
  • Reasonably priced for small business
  • Some issues with timeliness of billing
  • Some issues with accuracy of billing
  • Integration with my payroll product
I was pleased to find a reasonably priced full service 401k product for my small business. Many big brands won’t offer this product or it is very cost prohibitive. My team is grateful to have a retirement option started.
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 7 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
I was looking for a simple retirement plan for a small business when I found Human Interest.
  • Simplicity of fees and options
  • Responsive customer service that solves problems
  • Logical fund choices
  • Transaction dates --- transactions are made on random dates
  • Transparency on when transactions will occur
  • Cannot find dates of buy/sell
  • What is shown as allocation within account is incorrect - showed 100% cash as allocation, but actual allocation was 60/40 with only new funds in cash.
High cash flow businesses are looking to maximize tax savings without employing a fleet of accountants and attorneys. The sweet spot is companies with employees who can max out, but would pay too much in fees for a custom provider.
Score 4 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We utilize Human Interest for our 401(K) program for employees. We switched payroll vendors from ADP (who always administered our 401k) to Paylocity, and Human Interest was recommended to us. It recommended investment strategies for employees in layman's terms and the process looked very easy in the demo. There was also Spanish support we needed for our company. This was the only company that would eat the cost of the conversion fee that ADP was going to charge us to switch 401(K) vendors. We looked at other companies, but I chose Human Interest because of the API capability with Paylocity and the ease of use for our employees.. However, we've realized that because we have two company codes (aka IDs) under one EIN, the API is not working.
Our transition was also later than anticipated so we have to manually process a couple of 401(K) contributions with ADP.
  • They sold us very well in the beginning and the original sales rep brought in his manager which also helped answer questions our executives had.
  • Ease of use for employees seems great. Walking through as an employee is simple and quick. All electronic paperwork is great.
  • Sending reminder emails to sign up for the 401(K) is a great feature that's easy to use. I have used these a lot!
  • I felt completely in the dark and blindsided by Human Interest at times. This was a very rocky transition for us - it seemed like they didn't have our transition together. Our API still doesn't work between payroll and Human Interest.. We have a fix at the moment with the ops team manually making changes, but I had to follow up a lot on questions I had and I was extremely stressed out on payroll days, not knowing if the 401(K) deductions were correct or going to be processed. *I* was the person who realized that the integration wasn't working between payroll and Human Interest.
  • Being more proactive with issues and communicating with us would be very helpful!
  • The timeline needs laid out from start to finish during the launch/implementation. We were behind the timeline without knowing it, and no one from Human Interest followed up with our CEO on some items at the very beginning... but we were still told we were good to on our first anticipated payroll when in reality we were not.
  • API functionality needs fixed. Having two company IDs with 1 EIN shouldn't be such an issue.
  • The Current Contribution report doesn't match the employee screen with contribution rates because some people have a contribution rate in the system, but haven't signed all of the disclosure documents, so they're technically not supposed to contribute to the 401(K). This makes the report confusing to me.
  • There should be more training close to the first payroll date to walk through the system. Not sure if we had this, but I know I wasn't included in it?
Human Interest seems to be a great system that is user friendly, but the implementation team should support and manage the implementation projects better. Our implementation was a mess and I'm being gracious with my rating because I think the tools are there. I think communication should be clear throughout the project, and issues should be addressed and clearly told how they're being fixed.
We were not told that the integration/API with payroll was broken, so we went TWO PAYROLLS with our previous vendor deductions in payroll.
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 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
He had a hard time keeping up with payroll and payroll tax reports and Human interest was a lot of help for us to overcome this.
  • Payroll
  • 401K
  • Keep up with time sheets it is very simple
  • Customer service when dealing with mistakes
Getting the payroll done on time and correctly as well as the tax reports
Score 7 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Human Interest is our 401(k) provider - our employees use it to save money for retirement. We provide a 401(k) option as a retention/recruiting benefit, as 401(k) options are relatively standard within the tech/startup industry. While we, unfortunately, do not provide 401(k) matching for our employees (due to budget constraints, for now), Human Interest lets employees contribute a portion of their paycheck toward retirement; if we did begin offering matching in the future, Human Interest would facilitate that as well.
  • 401k Management
  • 401k Customization
  • 401k Matching
  • End-User Communication
  • Customer Support
  • Basic Services Explanation
Human Interest has been a solid 401(k) provider for our small company. We don't have the capacity to manage a heavyweight benefits solution, and Human Interest is sufficiently easy for us to work with. Setting up our 401(k) benefit for the first time was relatively easy. I'd recommend Human Interest for other small companies/startups looking to provide a 401(k) program to their employees.
Score 1 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
I use Human Interest as a plan administrator of the company 401k.
  • Nothing
  • Basic data entry
  • Customer Service
  • Understanding customers' time zone
Two scenarios where Human Interest is less appropriate immediately come to mind. They are governed by ERISA guidelines, though from my experience it appears their employees are not aware of the gravity of their mistakes. More specifically, they deducted money from my company's bank account because money was debited from my paycheck, yet, the money did not make it to my account. This took 9 months to "resolve" and I am not confident it was. I escalated this situation to DOL who suggested we shop for a new plan provider. Additionally, $490 was deducted from an hourly employee's pay and company bank account, for a loan payment. However, that employee doesn't even have $500 in their 401k and the employee whose pay should have been deducted was not. Supposedly they are still "researching it", but I feel that is simply poor.
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