- I almost posted something this morning about this, because I received an email that really frustrated me. I have a 401k with Guideline from an old employer. The email was from Accrue <no-reply@accrue401k.com>, and said, in part:
> Login: Please visit my.accrue401k.com to log in. You’ll find that the 401(k) dashboard and user experience remain familiar. If you’ve set up your account, your same login credentials will provide you access into the dashboard. (Please note, Accrue does not currently offer a mobile app).
The my.accrue401k.com part was a hyperlink to that site. I've independently done some digging (and contacted my old employer to verify!) but this is precisely how a targeted phishing attack would work. Asking someone to enter their financial account credentials into a site they've never used or heard of, based entirely on an unsolicited email, is INSANE.
This email was the first time I've heard of Gusto, of Guideline being acquired, or of Accrue 401k (which apparently is the company created to hold Guideline's 401k accounts that are NOT affiliated with Gusto). Nice.
- Fun Guideline story: I worked for a company that went bankrupt and used guideline for 401k. The first day the website allowed me I withdrew the balance for rollover. Apparently this should not have been possible before the bankruptcy was finalized. I found from court filings that the bankruptcy trustee kept telling Guideline they need to freeze withdrawals until the bankruptcy was finalized, and Guideline kept dragging their feet and acting like they didn't understand. The trustee ended up having to go to court and get a temporary restraining order to prevent more employees from withdrawing their balances before the bankruptcy was finalized.
Un-fun bankruptcy fact: All employee names & mailing addresses are part of the public record and accessible on PACER because they're potential creditors in the bankruptcy.
by JumpCrisscross
5 subcomments
- Guideline has an FSA/HSA product which is a walking CMMS and IRS violation.
I never bothered escalating my disputes, but simply said, their customer service agents have multiple times admitted in writing to their systems being designed to break federal and state law.
I never thought it was worth pursuing. But Gusto has deep pockets…
- the real lesson here is how acquisitions break customer trust overnight. you can't just rebrand someone's retirement account via email and hope they figure it out.
every SaaS acquisition forgets that users care more about consistency than "exciting new features." keep the old brand alive during transition or lose half your customers to support tickets.
by dudeWithAMood
2 subcomments
- Every job I've had with Gusto has managed to screw up payroll at some point. The support from Gusto is very poor, even a supervisor that's offshore when you call em won't be able to understand your basic questions.
- Interesting this is being posted now when the acquisition was two months ago.[0] Has anything changed?
My copium as a shareholder is that they’re beefing up their services to boost a valuation for IPO.
One can dream!
[0]: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/joshuareeves_better-together-...
by boarderboy03
0 subcomment
- I had my account with Guideline also. No way was I going to allow them to role it into a holding account. I rolled everything into my Human Interest 401(k) plan. Very similar to Guideline, but a few added features that I like now.
- My wife tried using Gusto and hated it. She then happily went a different direction, picked up Guideline for her 401K provider, and now she's super unhappy she's getting pulled back into Gusto. /sigh
by add-sub-mul-div
1 subcomments
- Slorp is now Bonto!
- Notes about 401K backtesting and funds,: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42387927
- [dead]
- [flagged]
- [flagged]
Hacker News