Slavic401k

Pros: If I had to give them one pro, it would be that sometimes their customer service representatives are nice.

Cons: Slavic401k are slow to update their information, create unnecessary delays, have a deficient website and fail to convey accurate information to their participants.

Overall: Slavic is just terrible. Apparently my prior employer's HR company didn't notify Slavic that I was no longer employed with the company so I was only given the option of taking a withdrawal based on a "Disability" rather than "Termination" so I could initiate a rollover. I informed the HR company that Slavic was missing this information and they got Slavic the information the SAME day, yet it's still a week later and Slavic STILL hasn't updated their system to give me a "Termination" option. It's just absurd that it takes this long to make a simple update just to even give me the option to take out a withdrawal. I'm truly dreading the hoops I'm going to have to go through when it's actually TIME to take out a withdrawal. I've dealt with NUMEROUS other 401k companies before and they were literally able to update their system within 24 hours. I guess they like to hold their participants' money hostage.

Pros: Nothing. This is the worst website that deals with my money that i have ever used. It's such a shitty design its sooooo frustrating. I want to yell at the people in charge. Seriously.

Cons: Everything. Ghost links. Confusing layout. Dead ends. Links that don't exist. P. O. S. Programming.

Overall: I'm out $3500 because of this company. Thanks guys. Btw i absolutely will quit a job if to they use oasis payroll or Slavic 401k. They are so horrible I cannot describe the lack of respect. Burn the house down and start over jeez.

Pros: Their use of color on the paper statements is the only thing pro that I can see about this company that pretends to care about all enrollees.

Cons: The headline wasn’t just meant to grab your attention, it is also true. The short summary is my son’s 401k only had a $500 balance or so at separation as his first part time job. Monthly fees to the tune of $15/mo for a little over two years since he was let go after the company was acquired, dipped his balance below $100 which automatically triggered a release. His $81 balance after a $75 rollover / distribution fee, he got a check this week for $6.32.

All of this is perfectly legal. The monthly fees are spelled out. The $75 fee to mail you a check is pretty standard though for balances under $1000 it is excessive. For under $100, it is arguably criminal. The company sent quarterly statements showing investment performance. However, in a world where job changes are more frequent, people have multiple 401k’s from different jobs. Even your average person often forgets to rollover their 401k to their new employer or personal IRA with each job change. For a person on the spectrum, it was an amazing feat just to land and hold this first job for as long as he did. Unfortunately by not keeping track of what was happening to the account, being parked with Slavic401k, and fees slowly depleting the balance, until finally automatic triggers did what it did….~$500 to ~$6 which amounts to 98% fees.

In thinking through this, I can imagine this is just the default plan for Slavic401k for the number of high transition employees that have low balances and just miss the fact that fees are eroding their accounts. I imagine that the type of employee that falls into this trap would be someone switching jobs frequently with auto-401k enrollment and perhaps not savvy enough to diligently roll it over upon a change in employment when these monthly fees kick in. It would be interesting to know how much of Slavic401k’s revenue comes from these employees. It isn’t the employer that is benefiting from this. They pay a separate fee to companies like Slavic401k to manage the mechanics of the plan for them but Slavic401k also makes money on administrative fees. It doesn’t cost $75 to close an account and cut a check. It does not cost $15/mo to maintain an account regardless of the balance. There is no incentive for Slavic401k to help former employees roll over their 401k or they would lose their fees.

Just to add insult to injury, if my son can’t get this rolled over in the IRS time limit, that’s another 10% penalty on top of the income tax and state tax on the $6. So the net effect is closer to $4 which makes it 99% fees and penalties.

Way to go Slavic401k. I won’t be using you for my company’s 401k nor will I recommend you to any of my CEO network.

Overall: They take advantage of people with lower balances as I can speak from experience. If your employer uses them, you should question that company's judgement.

Pros: The customer service reps have all been nice. But of zero help. One rep told me she'll call me right back with an update. Nothing..nada. it was probably just a ploy to get me off the phone. I'm so disappointed with this company.

Cons: I requested a personal property loan on 10.25.23. the quoted lead time is 10-15 days, 1-3 days for distribution. It's now over a month later and I have yet to receive MY MONEY, although it's listed as "distributed". I start paying that loan back in 1 week, yet I haven't received the actual loan. This is absolutely ridiculous!!!!!!!

Overall: I would never recommend this company to anyone. I'm tempted to stop investing and find other avenues to place my money.

Pros: The only positive I can think of is the variety of funds they offer to move your account funds into. Other than that, no other positives I can think of.

Cons: Terrible customer service. Multiple accounts created under my name on website and they can't fix it. Slow response.

Overall: This company is going downhill. I wish my company can use another 401K provider, I have no choice but to tie up my retirement savings with this company. I have several calls to them about the status of my loan and why it is taking so long. First, the automated phone questions asks for all of your information (acct #, SSN, DOB) to help expedite the call, then when you get someone, you have to answer the same questions again. When asked why my loan status on the website hasn't updated in 3 weeks, all they can tell me is they are working on the amortization schedule, which is BS because a computer can generate that in seconds, this is 2023.

Pros: How easy it was to shut down my account after they repeatedly failed. This company cares nothing for their customers and their service practices are horrid.

Cons: Everything everything everything everything everything.

Overall: Complete incompetence! Trying to get a disbursement. They waited until the very last minute, attempting to make themselves more $$ from mine, and ended losing about 5%. They said they were u able to verify the ACH transfer, but I'm reality they never attempted it at all. They think communicating this at the end of business on a 3 days weekend is the best way to communicate their IT interface failure. Then after multiple phone calls they finally will send my check (charging me an extra $25 because their system failure) and I had a SUPERVISOR verify my address. One ONE ONE hour after the supervisor verified my address, they sent it overnight to the wrong one. I'm sure my money will be lost in transit now and it'll take probably 60 days to wait for it to show back up. I've pulled every penny from them. If they can't handle mailing a package ONE hour after verifying m address. They certainly can't be trusted with my future

Pros: Nothing. There are no benefits compared to any other 401k investment firm. This is simply a poor decision for anyone looking to invest in a retirement plan.

Cons: They refuse to actually provide distribution service to their clients - a key part of a company that services 401ks. Plus, meager at best ROIs.

Overall: TLDR - emails asking for guidance were ignored, hung up on when calling, no help whatsoever.

Full Review - Attempted to get a partial hardship distribution but my emails asking for guidance on documentation were ignored and my request was closed without any acknowledgement of my emails. I called to straighten this out and the representative I spoke with could offer no explanation and told me I needed to submit a new request, which I did. I asked if I could speak to someone higher up to lodge a complaint against the initial employee who ignored my emails and the person told me they would do so...and then promptly hung up on. I've opened a BBB complaint for this situation as well and will update my review if and when this is actually fixed. Not holding my breath though - seek other 401k options, use this company as a last resort only.

Pros: I would say the website, but even that doesn't deserve a star. There are no pros that come to mind whatsoever. Well on second thought, the pro would be that they do have competitors!

Cons: Customer service is 100% scripted. They are not helpful and ask you more questions than you have for them.
I initiated a hardship request to prevent an eviction and although I've explained my situation to each of them multiple times, they still reminded me that it's 10-15 business days before they actually release your money. They for sure WILL take every bit of the 15 business day rule. In the meantime, my phone was disconnected, my car repossessed, I was locked out of my home until I paid the balance which all depended on Slavic releasing my money. They don't care about your hardship and God forbid if I was using it for a funeral expense and had to wait 3+ weeks for a decaying body to be put to rest. I will be changing my contribution amount to zero percent I will not give another penny of my hard-earned money to this company to do anything with. And I will be discussing this with my employer hoping that they will change companies.

Overall: Without a shadow of a doubt, a complete 100% nightmare that I wouldn't wish on my worst enemy. I am ending my contributions effective immediately.

Pros: Nothing at all. I didn't like anything about this business. I have nothing positive to say about them.

Cons: - Awful customer service - worse than useless
- Takes >30 days for a funds distribution
- Barely usable UI

Overall: Avoid like the plague. Their interface is bad, their customer service is unhelpful, they cannot process fund distributions in any sensible way.

Pros: The integration with Justworks is easy, which is why this product was being used at my company. When things work, they are fine, but.... they don't always work.

Cons: If anything goes wrong with your account (either from the administrator side or the individual side) brace yourself. It is 100% impossible to speak to anybody who knows anything. If you need something from the trade department, you can't talk to them. Customer Service has to open a ticket with them, and then, maybe, you'll get a response in 24-48 hours. The response is generally not helpful, so you have to call again, and since you never speak to the same person twice, you explain the entire issue again and find yourself in an endless loop. I am amazed at how it is impossible to get an issue escalated. This is not the fault of the customer service agents. I actually feel bad for them.

Overall: I dramatically regret the fact that I was the one responsible for implementing a solution with Slavic401k at my company. They were tightly integrated with Justworks, which was the appeal, but I had no idea that actually working with them would be so painful. No matter how tight their integration is, it is not worth the pain and hassle that comes with the long-term relationship.

Pros: Nothing good about this company!!! You can only speak with customer service. They are reading from a script and cannot help with your investment needs.

Cons: This is the worst company ever for a 401k investment. As a participant they only allow you to speak with customer service that is clearly reading from a script. You cannot talk to anyone else. The entire process is a complete mess. I requested a distribution because I no longer work for the company and it has been 11 days and the only thing they can tell me is that it’s being worked on. The status on the portal hasn’t berm updated in the last 10 days. They had my termination of employment already in there system so what is the hold up. This is crazy that you can’t speak to any over the distribution process but they are holding your money!!! Please do not use this company ever you will be disappointed if you do!!!

Overall: Horrible!!!!!!! Horrible!! So unhappy, you can’t speak directly to someone over your account. You can only talk with customer service!! Please transfer your 401k. If you are currently using this company

Pros: Closing the account will be the best part; I previously had ADP and they utilized Voya which allowed for easy access and the ability to access my account online and through the mobile app.

Cons: -Poor website; cannot easily show you the breakdown of your money
-Customer service is poor; they have you verify information over the phone and then all over again with customer rep
-The rep on the phone blocked access to distribute my funds after we spoke for a "waiting period" after I resigned from my job; is it possible I need to wait 20 days to access my own money?
-She came me a different amount in my account than what was listed on the website
-No mobile app

Overall: Terrible; not even sure why my former company switched to this. I think that there are many good options on the market that offer more transparency and better customer service.

Pros: Nothing.

There are no pros. None at all.

Cons: It takes a week for your funds to be put into your account... you're missing all of the interest that you could be accumulating during this time. I'm positive they take your money and they make interest off you for a week before they let you have it.

It's also an absolute pain to get your money out.

When we met with our rep (thru my company) to ask all of these questions, he could not answer a single one and told us to talk to customer service.

That's wildly concerning.

If you're evaluating Slavic 401k for use with your corporation, just run. Don't do it.

This site looks like it's living in 1999 when the internet just came out. Your reporting is terrible.

Overall: Absolutely abysmal experience. Do better, John.

John, this product sucks. What are you doing over there?

Pros: None, I cannot think of anything, maybe the weekly email. That's it Customer service is the absolute worst.

Cons: They keep you on hold for hours, not ability to communicate with participants. Information I need is not on the website, they have all the info about rolling over money from another employer but NOTHING on how to rollover from Slavic. Bad. Stay away.

Overall: Very poor indeed. I would not recommend this service to anyone or any business. They must be the bottom of the barrel 401k plan option for the cheap PEOs.

Pros: Nothing, this company is god awful and probably doing something shady with the funds they hold, do not engage with this company.

Cons: Everything, they have no redeeming qualities. From the lack of customer service, to the amount of time it takes to get a response or distribution they are absolutely the worst company I have ever dealt with, including major telecoms who are famous for having terrible customer service.

Overall: They don't answer the phones. They don't respond in a timely fashion. Here's a quote when I asked for a status on my distribution after I had to contact the COO at my previous employer to get them to do literally anything. "For your security I will not be able to provide information over the phone."

So the phone number and email I have on file for my account can't be used to provide information to me, the person who's account it is, and somehow that is for security. It felt more like it was to secure time to allow to do whatever dubious things they do with peoples money.

They also took over 6 months to make my account active after my previous employer moved to them, when I asked why they said "Due to a setup error." They used my funds for whatever they wanted without allowing me access to them for a significant period of time costing me money from time in the market.

If your company uses them, or is planning to move to them, you should consider finding another job because they clearly don't have your best interests at heart.

Pros: NOTHING, poor performance on 401k, slowest processing time, horrible user interface and useless customer service.

Cons: Here is a few example, one of their security verification question is which street is near you? I mean....does anyone memorize all the streets "near" them? It is designed for you to fail so they can hold your retirement money hostage. In addition, can you believe, in today modern age, they take 5 business day to change your phone number? Do they go retrieve it from a file cabinet?? To transfer out your money, they say takes 10 to 15 business day, it is now business day 25 and nothing.

Overall: THE WORST of the WORST run away as fast as you can. Don't bother using them. If you are stuck due to employer, try to take out your money to roll over IRA on a regular basis so you don't end up having your money held hostage.