Understanding APIs: Why 401(k) Recordkeepers are Increasingly Turning to Integrations
Sean Kelly is a seasoned retirement executive with more than 25 years of experience in the industry. Throughout his career, Sean has influenced every angle of 401(k) management, from plan administration to contribution oversight. He has served as the VP?of Goldman Sachs RIA, VP of Retirement Services at Fulton Bank, and Director of Retirement Solutions at WisdomTree. Today, Sean is a Senior Growth Partner for the Pension Resource Institute and a retirement consultant.?
It's no secret the retirement industry is undergoing a massive transformation. A series of concurrent factors—from SECURE 2.0 to the Millenial and growing Gen Z workforce—are pushing 401(k) recordkeepers to reconsider the ways they operate. Employers are also looking for a more integrated experience. They want retirement solutions that are tech-savvy and fit smoothly into their existing tech setup.
By now, you've probably heard of API integrations—the software connections that provide recordkeepers with direct, immediate access to sponsors' HRIS and payroll data. API-based payroll integrations are gaining popularity because they offer a faster and more scalable way to access employment data essential for seamless plan management. In the last few years, recordkeepers that have adopted API integrations over traditional data sharing methods like SFTP have minimized sponsor involvement in day-to-day administration and simplified the onboarding experience. Payroll APIs are fundamentally changing how recordkeepers operate.?
In this article, we’ll discuss API integrations, why they are becoming a preferred choice for recordkeepers to access payroll data, and last but not least, how you can get started building your own integrations.?
The role of payroll data in retirement
Needless to say, one of the core components of successful plan administration is ensuring that you’re working with complete and accurate payroll data. Payroll data is essential for plan administrators and recordkeepers to conduct participant eligibility checks and calculate deferral percentages and distributions.
Yet traditional methods of accessing sponsor’s payroll data, like Secure File Transfer Protocol (SFTP), are riddled with tedious and manual processes. It’s difficult for recordkeepers to get timely and accurate payroll and deduction data to run their operations smoothly. According to the IRS’s 401(k) Plan Fix-It Guide, most retirement plan errors result from inaccurate or incomplete payroll data made available to recordkeepers or plan administrators. And these errors have consequences. A simple mistake in recording plan contributions can lead to additional costs for sponsors like IRS/DOL penalties due to delayed or erroneous plan investments, along with additional time and resources needed to manually check and update the data.?
With the explosion of payroll technology in recent years—from thousands of payroll tools to global employment platforms to embedded payroll—accessing sponsors’ payroll data has only become more complex. SFTP is falling short as the industry status quo, leading recordkeepers to look for new solutions.?
Growing challenges for 401(k) recordkeepers
According to the Defined Contribution Recordkeeping Survey, recordkeepers currently administer services for over $10 trillion of defined contribution assets, with an increasing number of plans being added regularly. That equates to a massive volume of employee data handled by the industry.
Recordkeepers are starting to see that with new legislation driving larger and larger workloads for their Operations teams, SFTP is not the most optimal way to access mission-critical payroll data. As the industry evolves, SFTP will continue to fall short—but the impact on the recordkeepers that rely on it will only grow, making it far more difficult to:
=============================
=============================
领英推荐
Challenge 1: Supporting a large number of first-time SMB sponsors
Federal incentives under SECURE 2.0 and state mandates are driving a tidal wave of new SMB sponsors to the retirement market. These employers don’t have the robust HR departments of enterprise businesses to be involved with plan management. Recordkeepers that hope to earn their business must find ways to minimize sponsor involvement throughout the retirement plan cycle, reduce routine manual back-and-forth with the sponsor, and take more of the administrative duties off their customers’ plates. Using old-school methods like SFTP, where sponsors create and update payroll data files every pay cycle, will make it really difficult for 401(k) recordkeepers to handle a growing number of SMB sponsors.
Challenge 2: Streamlining access to payroll data
Traditionally, all payroll data has been locked in the sponsors’ HRIS and payroll systems. As more SMB sponsors start offering 401(k) plans thanks to SECURE 2.0, recordkeepers are finding themselves dealing with a larger pool of SMB payroll providers. It’s worth mentioning that the SMB payroll market is incredibly fragmented—there are nearly 6,000 providers in the US alone! On top of this, payroll data lacks standardization meaning each provider stores the same data in different formats under different fields.?
File-based data sharing methods like SFTP require ongoing intervention from the sponsors for manually updating and uploading data files to the server. Plus, SFTP doesn’t account for the lack of standardization, meaning recordkeepers need to extract and standardize all the incoming data from sponsors into a format that works best for them. This adds further complexity and resource requirements for recordkeepers.
Challenge 3: Maintaining compliance
Payroll and other employment data are subject to compliance regulations that determine how these personal and sensitive data are collected, used, and stored. SECURE 2.0’s Sections 101, 125, and 603 stipulate sweeping eligibility changes, including mandated automatic enrollment, new eligibility for part-time employees, and updated rules for catch-up contributions—all of which make maintaining compliance harder than ever before.?
Recordkeepers have to stay on top of employee eligibility data—when new employees can join plans, when existing employees can start making catch-up contributions, or when part-time workers reach the hours needed to join 401(k) and 403(b) plans. Any delay can cause recordkeepers to miss SLAs and face penalties.
Plus, the CSV or other flat files involved in SFTP are typically created by the sponsor on their end. This process is highly manual. When downloading, updating, and re-uploading data files, there are many opportunities for several Not in Good Order (NIGO) errors to be introduced to the system, such as improper data formatting and incorrect, missed, or delayed data entry.?
Challenge 4: Improving operational efficiency
Taking on the work involved with supporting many small business plans will put a massive strain on recordkeepers' Operations teams. Scaling teams to keep up with manual work is not the most cost-effective solution, meaning recordkeepers are under pressure to improve operational efficiency and automate routine tasks involved in plan management—from automatic eligibility checks to automated deductions.
?? Further reading:
?? Read the rest of Sean's guide on understanding APIs for a deeper dive into:
?? Other reasons why SFTP could be troublesome for recordkeepers
?? Why should recordkeepers care about payroll APIs?
?? How are payroll integrations used in the retirement space?