Human Interest Sets a New Industry Standard with Automated 401(k) Audits
New “Audit Relief™” feature ensures a hassle-free audit experience for mid-size businesses
SAN FRANCISCO, Sept. 23, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Human Interest, Retirement Industry Disruptor™ and the fastest-growing 401(k) provider,1 announces Audit Relief™, a first-of-its-kind solution that takes the stress, cost, and complexity out of annual 401(k) audits. Human Interest’s new solution will unify data collection for auditors across multiple data sources into a single, audit-ready data package, driving greater accuracy, efficiency, and substantially lower costs for plan sponsors.
“Annual plan audits have been a source of dread for business owners for decades. We’re eliminating that hassle while shaking up an entire industry,” said Rakesh Mahajan, Chief Revenue Officer at Human Interest. “Audit Relief was designed in partnership with leading auditors to identify and automate over 15 manual processes typically needed to perform a 401(k) large plan audit. Now, Human Interest customers can rest easy knowing that their audit will be handled efficiently and with no additional cost.”
401(k) audits: a major pain point for business owners
For 401(k) plans with over 100 participants, annual audits are required by law and can cost between $10,000 and $15,000 or more each year2 — sometimes eclipsing the cost of the plan itself. Auditors can spend between 40 and 80 hours or more3 reconciling data from multiple sources to ensure the 401(k) plan is run properly for participants. Despite the significant time commitment, an audit may only review a small sample of a plan’s more than 20,000 transactions.
Human Interest’s Audit Relief feature automates this process by unifying 20 data sources into an audit-ready data package, enabling 100% transaction validation — rather than the traditional 0.5% sampling rate. This means faster, more accurate audits at a dramatically lower cost.
Customer impact
One plan sponsor, Graham Pope, Contract Manager of Optimal US, an Amazon Delivery Service Provider, added, “The annual retirement plan audit is an extremely tedious process, requiring two to three hours a week for several months. This new technology will save my organization $13,000 in audit costs and free up my time to focus on what matters: the expansion of our business. It's exciting to see Human Interest tackle this challenge head-on."
Key benefits of Audit Relief
Beginning in plan year 2026, Human Interest’s Audit Relief will provide several benefits to both auditors and plan sponsors:
- Cost savings - Human Interest customers receive a credit for the value of their standard plan audit,4 saving $10,000 or more every plan year in standard audit fees.5
- Curated auditor network – Customers can select from a network of experienced 401(k) auditors directly from their Human Interest dashboard.
- Audit-ready data - Human Interest technology packages 20 data sources into one unified package for auditors, eliminating manual processes and cutting down the time to complete an audit — from between 40 and 80 hours or more,3 down to five.
- Greater accuracy and compliance - 100% of standard transactions are validated, maximizing protection for participants from potential plan errors or inconsistencies.
Added Mahajan, “After speaking with more than a dozen auditors, it is clear that they see this technology will drive down the cost of audits — some even suggested reductions of over 50%. Audit Relief is another massive benefit to our customers, removing more cost and hassle in offering 401(k)s to their employees. We won't stop modernizing retirement for customers, this time by reinventing how audits work from the ground up."
Audit Relief is part of Human Interest’s commitment to fixing the broken retirement industry, joining a growing list of innovations. The first 401(k) provider to eliminate transaction fees,6 Human Interest saved $24.6 million for customers and their employees in 2024,7 and also offers the only Customer Experience Guarantee of its kind in the industry.8 These innovations have resulted in several accolades for the company this year, including the Dalbar award, the 2025 Fast Company Most Innovative Award, and the 2025 Stevie Gold Award in Customer Experience.9
About Human Interest
Human Interest, Retirement Industry Disruptor™, is focused on fixing a broken industry that often relies on legacy technology, manual processes, and offshored service models. Human Interest is transforming the way 401(k)s should work, including several industry firsts: eliminating transaction fees, offering a cash-back incentive program for plan participants, and the first of its kind money-backed customer experience guarantee. Founded in 2015 and headquartered in San Francisco, Human Interest has helped provide retirement benefits to employees at nearly 40,000 companies. For more information, please visit humaninterest.com.
Media Contact
Maura Lafferty
Firebrand Communications for Human Interest
humaninterest@firebrand.marketing
1Human Interest calculations based on total DC plans added in 2024 as reported to PLANSPONSOR and using plan count data for other providers from "Provider Rankings" reported in the PLANSPONSOR 2025 Recordkeeping Survey.
2humaninterest.com: "What you need to know about the IRS annual 401(k) audit requirement”.
3Human Interest data collected from interviews of CPA firms over a 6-month period.
4See Terms and Conditions.
5Excludes additional fees charged by the Auditor related to the Plan sponsor’s or Auditor’s errors, delays, fraud or other administrative issues (e.g., missed or late payroll contributions) or related to atypical events or demographics during the Audit Year (e.g., mergers or spin-offs, multiple payroll providers, controlled groups, or leaving Human Interest). Additional terms and conditions apply, see Terms.
6For non-rollover distributions, shipping and handling fees may apply to requests for check issuance and delivery.
7Represents estimated fees Human Interest customers and their employees would have been charged with selected providers instead of Human Interest in 2024. Calculation compares Human Interest to six bundled recordkeeper providers across more than 20 transaction fee types. Total savings figure combines plan and participant savings based on Human Interest data as of December 2024. Analysis excludes AUM-dependent fees and 3(38) services. Where select provider’s fee data was unavailable, fees may have been excluded.
8Participants are eligible for a maximum of four (4) successful claims per calendar year, with a limit of 1 claim per month, and must submit a claim form. See Terms and Conditions.
9Human Interest was awarded the “Gold Stevie Award" medal in the 2025 Stevie Awards® for Sales & Customer Service in “Customer Experience.” The company was awarded a “Silver Stevie Award” in “Customer Service Employer of the Year.” Winners were determined by the average scores of more than 170 professionals worldwide in the three-month judging process. Read more about the winning organizations here and criteria for the award here. American Business Awards are registered trademarks of Stevie Awards, Inc. Stevie Awards, Inc. is not affiliated with Human Interest. This recognition is not indicative of Human Interest’s future performance. Human Interest Inc. is honored to be recognized as one of Fast Company's Most Innovative Companies in Finance and Personal Finance for 2025. See the full list here. Human Interest received the Dalbar Plan Participant Service award in April 2025. The award was based on an independent review of 100 phone calls to the Human Interest Support Center. The calls happened on days randomly selected by Dalbar. Human Interest redacted personally identifiable information from call recordings. For additional information on the award, please visit dalbar.com.
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