2024: A year in review

From becoming profitable to being recognized as a leader in design, 2024 marked a year of milestones for Guideline.

Last year, over 15,000 businesses signed up for a Guideline 401(k), which means over 57,000 businesses¹ trust Guideline with their retirement benefits. Nearly 1.3 million people² nationwide have saved with Guideline on their journey to retirement. Today, we’re among the top two recordkeepers³ in the country for new plans added.

Businesses aren’t just offering 401(k)s for the first time — they’re switching plans. In 2024, over 1,000 businesses converted their 401(k) to Guideline from another provider — our highest annual conversion count to date. After poor prior experiences, many are choosing Guideline for our affordable fees (up to six times lower than the industry average⁴), seamless integrations, and award-winning design.⁵ Businesses are starting to recognize that alternatives to legacy providers can be better for employers and their employees. Some customers have shared that they saved thousands of dollars a year in service fees alone by switching to Guideline.

Complex, multi-entity businesses are also selecting Guideline for our scalability. Last year franchises with over 100 locations collectively — like Dunkin' — brought Guideline 401(k)s to their employees. We made a number of product investments to meet the unique needs of large-scale businesses; everything from a single signing experience⁶ to a unified dashboard that shows all their plans in one place helps multi-entity companies set up and offer a retirement benefit with ease.

Beyond expansion, our in-market products and plans continued to make an impact in 2024:

We also achieved profitability as we balance high-growth and further investments in our product while building a sustainable business for the long term. Well capitalized and profitable, we’re built to support savers at every step on the path to retirement — today and decades into the future. We now have nearly $140 million in annual recurring revenue¹⁰ and close to $17 billion in assets under management.

These are just a few highlights from a truly landmark year. For a deeper dive, take a look at our full 2024 Year in Review below.

"Our employees love the Guideline mobile app. They can see their investment performance in real-time, make changes without waiting on admins, call Guideline’s support team directly — it’s been a big hit."

Brandy L.

Owner, Cashiers Valley Pharmacy

Client of Guideline. Views may not be representative of other clients.

Strengthening our commitment to accessible retirement

We built 7️⃣ custom payroll integrations this year. We believe in building people-first experiences through tech. Our direct, two-way integrations connect our platform to integration partners without using any third-party applications for a seamless and secure user experience. Here are the partners we added to our roster in 2024:

"The integration between Guideline & Deel has been a game changer for our team and our employees. Setting up the integration was one simple click of a button, and so far, it's saved us hours of manual inputs every payroll cycle and enabled us to streamline our HR tech stack with fully automated workflows."

Tiffany C.

People Lead, Clutch

Client of Guideline. Views may not be representative of other clients.

Our customers and their 401(k) plans

A 401(k) is a powerful benefit for businesses. In fact, 70% of employers agree that offering a retirement benefit has positively impacted their ability to recruit and hire talent.¹¹ Here’s a look at the employers on our platform:

"We’re committed to making 401(k) fair and simple for everyone on our team — from our admin team to our manufacturing floor. When we compared ease-of-use across 401(k) providers, Guideline was the obvious winner. Our employees get a user-friendly product and great customer support, and that matters a lot to us."

Barrie G.

Head of People & Chief of Staff to CEO, Fox Robotics

Client of Guideline. Views may not be representative of other clients.

Our savers and their 401(k) contributions

Access to retirement benefits matters. According to Guideline research, 93% of employees say that a retirement benefit influences their decision about whether to join a company. One in two employees said they would turn down a job offer from a company that did not offer a retirement benefit.¹¹ Meet our savers:

"I want our team to have a path to real retirement savings, and Guideline is helping them get there."

Les W.

Operations Director, Family Pet Hospital

Client of Guideline. Views may not be representative of other clients.

Looking back on one year of Starter

Just 10 months after Congress created the Starter 401(k) through SECURE 2.0, Guideline was the first to launch our Starter plan in the market. It’s now been in-market for over a year, and it has helped make retirement more accessible to small businesses, especially those with lower-wage, hourly workers.

These states all have state mandates in place that require employers to offer a qualified retirement plan, like a 401(k), once they meet a specific employee threshold.¹² So it’s not surprising to see employers in those states leverage our most simplified, out-of-the-box plan.

We surveyed employers with a Starter 401(k)¹³

"Starter 401(k) plans are affordable for small businesses, there’s less compliance responsibility, and they’re dead simple to administer."

Ana R.

Owner/CPA at Rosique Accounting

Client of Guideline. Views may not be representative of other clients.

Looking ahead to 2025

We’re committed to making retirement accessible for all types of businesses and their employees — from solopreneurs to small businesses to large-scale enterprises. Going into next year, we’ll continue to prioritize sustainable, people-first experiences through our integrations, design, service, and more. 2025 will mark a decade since being founded, and with the upcoming launch of new exciting products that better support businesses and savers — we’re just getting started.