Frequently Asked Questions
Savvyfi is a digital investment adviser registered with the securities and exchange commission.
Our innovative technology makes it hassle-free and inexpensive for employers to offer college savings and student debt repayment benefits to their entire workforce.
A 529 plan is an investment account that allows savings to grow tax-free if the funds are used for qualified expenses at eligible higher education institutions. Eligible institutions include four-year universities, community colleges, trade schools, and private K-12 schools. Qualified expenses typically cover most costs associated with attending school. Learn more at: https://savvyfi.co/what-is-a-529/
Your employees can open an account for their children, grandchildren, nieces, nephews, and even the neighbor’s kid – as long as your employees have the future grad’s social security number.
Your employees with student debt can even open an account for themselves and use SavvyFi’s cashback rewards feature to pay down their debt more quickly.
We send a contract for review and signature via email. Once the contract is digitally executed, we enable our portal for your employees. This process typically takes under an hour.
To help you launch the benefit, you have access to a toolkit with handouts, presentations, and videos to share with your employees
If you are providing contributions, we set up a simple ACH debit based on your payroll report.
No. Even if you are making contributions, we clear the aggregated payments through one ACH deduction once a pay period and provide appropriate reporting and an audit trail.
The participation rate depends on many factors. Major factors include employer contributions and how the benefit is communicated to the employees. We have a toolbox to help you communicate clearly and efficiently to your employees about the benefit. For companies not providing contributions, the participation rate can range from 5-20%. For companies providing contributions, the participation rate can range from 10-40%.
We offer a full suite of online resources, including email templates, handouts, presentations, and videos. We also have a dedicated employee help line that can handle individual employee issues. We also offer a real-time webinar and the webinar recording can be reused for employees that can not attend.
Contact us for an estimated price based on the size of your organization and anticipated employee eligibility and adoption rates. There are no minimums, implementation, or advisor fees.
No!
- Employees use their work email addresses to sign up for SavvyFi online.
- Employees provide basic information, then securely connect their bank account to SavvyFi for transfers.
- A 529 account is automatically opened for their first beneficiary. Employees can easily add more beneficiaries, with each beneficiary having their own account and gifting links.
- All contributions are automatically invested in an enrollment-date option, which selects investments based on the beneficiary’s age.
If the child does not attend college, there are many options for how the savings can be used. They can transfer the 529 account to another family member, use the funds for their own education, or withdraw the funds to give their child a head start on other important financial goals. If the funds are not used for a qualified education expense, they can use all the deposits without penalty, but the earnings will be subject to a 10% penalty.
When an employee leaves your company, their student loans and 529 accounts continue to exist. Employees have the option to continue using the SavvyFi gifting and cashback features by assuming the monthly cost or discontinue using SavvyFi and access their loans and 529 accounts directly.
You can send us a list of approved employee email addresses and we can filter based on that list.
What is the error message for someone not on the list? [ps1]
No. As long as you differentiate by pay grade, position, or location, you can vary the amount of contributions. You are not allowed to discriminate across protected classes of people such as race, gender and age. However, we always recommend you seek legal advice before setting up different contribution levels between employees.
The tax-advantaged contribution for student loans has to be used for the employee. Per 26 U.S. Code § 127 - Educational assistance programs | U.S. Code | US Law | LII / Legal Information Institute (cornell.edu). However, contributions to 529 plans can be used to pay off any student loan.
- At the federal level, employee contributions to 529 accounts are after-tax but withdrawn savings used for qualified education expenses do not incur capital gains tax.
- At the federal level, employer contributions to 529 accounts raise the employee’s taxable wages.
- Employee contributions to student loans are always after-tax.
- Employers can make pre-tax contributions up to $5,250 annually towards an employee’s student debt if the employer has a section 127 plan in place.
No, employees access SavvyFi through a secure website, optimized for both mobile and desktop. SavvyFi performs just like a mobile app but does not require employees to download yet another app onto their phone.