Category: Press

Retirement Benefits Without 401(k) Complexity

Icon and UKG have partnered to bring the PRP (Portable Retirement Plan) to UKG clients, giving businesses a radically simpler way to offer retirement benefits.

For most businesses, offering a 401(k) has been out of reach. In fact, most businesses don’t offer any retirement plan at all — not because employers don’t want to, but because the cost of administration, the complexity of plan management, annual testing and audits, and the weight of fiduciary liability have made it too expensive and too complex. As a result, millions of workers don’t have the opportunity to save for retirement at work.

That’s the gap the Portable Retirement Plan (PRP) was built to close. Today, we’re excited to share that Icon is now a certified marketplace partner with UKG, a leading provider of HR, payroll, and workforce management solutions

Why This Partnership Matters

For decades, most employers have faced the same choice: sponsor a traditional 401(k) or offer no meaningful retirement benefit at all. The PRP (Portable Retirement Plan) changes that.

Using our certified integration with UKG Ready, the PRP gives employers a radically simpler way to offer retirement benefits. Employers can provide a payroll-connected retirement benefit without the administrative burden, annual testing and audits, or fiduciary responsibility that come with sponsoring a traditional 401(k).

For employees, saving is just as simple. Contributions are deducted directly from payroll into a professionally managed retirement account, making it easy to build long-term wealth throughout their careers.

“We built the PRP to remove the reasons employers have historically said no to offering retirement benefits—cost, complexity, and risk,” said Laurie Rowley, CEO and Co-Founder of Icon. “By partnering with UKG, we’re making it dramatically easier for businesses to offer retirement benefits through the payroll platform they already use.”

What This Means for Employers and Employees

For employers already using UKG Ready, offering the PRP means:

  • No additional systems to manage. Contributions flow automatically from UKG into each employee’s retirement account.
  • No compliance burden. No nondiscrimination testing, no Form 5500 filings, no annual audits, no ERISA administration, no fiduciary risk.
  • No forced plan design decisions. Employers choose whether — and how much — to contribute. Matching is never required.

For employees, that means access to:

  • A personalized, professionally managed investment portfolio. Icon is an SEC Registered Investment Advisor.
  • A consumer-grade experience to manage and track progress.
  • An account that’s truly theirs from day one, and stays with them through every job change, with no rollovers required.

Retirement Benefits That Fit the Way Businesses Work

The easiest retirement benefit to offer is one that fits into the systems employers already use. By bringing the PRP to UKG, employers can offer retirement benefits through their existing payroll workflow—without the administrative burden of a traditional 401(k).

Learn More

Learn more about Icon in the UKG Marketplace and see how the PRP integrates with UKG. Or reach out to us directly

GoTo Foods Selects Icon as Preferred Retirement Partner for Franchise Network

Innovative partnership delivers modern retirement benefits to thousands of QSR workers across iconic brands

San Francisco, California—August 7, 2025 — GoTo Foods, the centralized supply chain and innovation arm powering iconic restaurant brands like Jamba Juice, Cinnabon, Carvel, and Auntie Anne’s, has partnered with Icon to bring modern, portable workplace retirement benefits to franchisees and their employees across the U.S.

This partnership makes Icon the preferred retirement solution for GoTo Foods franchises, providing immediate compliance with state mandates and delivering a retirement plan designed specifically for high-turnover industries like quick-service restaurants (QSR). 

“Franchise owners are navigating a competitive job market, growing compliance requirements, and shifting employee expectations,” said Laurie Rowley, CEO of Icon. “The PRP gives GoTo Foods’ franchisees a modern, easy, and affordable way to offer a top-requested benefit without taking on the high-cost, complexity, or risk associated with 401(k) plans.”

A Retirement Plan Built for Restaurants

The 401(k) plan was created fifty years ago as a supplement to a pension for large corporations; they are not a one-size fits all plan. The PRP isn’t a better 401(k); it’s a complete redesign of retirement purpose-built for today’s workforce including hourly and part-time employees—many of whom are saving for retirement for the first time. With zero administrative burden, no required plan audits or filings, and personalized investing, franchisees can offer a top requested benefit that builds employee loyalty without draining resources.

Key benefits for GoTo Foods franchisees include:

  • Flat monthly pricing— low cost transparent pricing with no hidden fees
  • Fully-managed plan— turnkey plans require no paperwork or fiduciary responsibility
  • Portability—savings stay with employees across jobs with no rollovers required
  • Attraction & retention—offer a benefit hourly employees actually use
  • Compliance with state retirement mandates

GoTo Foods’ supply chain supports over 9,400 restaurant locations globally, and nearly half of U.S. franchises now fall under state retirement mandates. Icon’s solution ensures operators stay compliant while supporting their teams with a benefit that meets the moment.

Icon Savings Plan Recognized by Fast Company in 2021 World Changing Ideas Awards

Icon, the trailblazer in the portable retirement plan was chosen in two categories for creating the only retirement plan open to every working American.

New York, May 4, 2021 — The winners of Fast Company’s 2021 World Changing Ideas Awards were announced today, honoring businesses, policies, projects, and concepts that are engaged and committed to pursuing innovation in solving health and climate crises, social injustice, or economic inequality.

Icon was chosen in two categories: “Companies on the Rise” and “Wellness.” Icon is innovating the ways companies offer retirement plans and who they offer them to—every worker in the country. More importantly, Icon’s innovative platform radically simplifies the role of the employer.

“Over half the American workforce doesn’t have a retirement plan—That’s over 50 million working people with no hope of retirement,” says Laurie Rowley, CEO and founder of Icon. “It enables every employer to offer every employee, including their contract and gig workers a high quality, low-cost plan, while eliminating their costs, complexities, and fiduciary risks.”

Icon changes things for every worker, too. As the world’s only portable retirement plan, it’s an easy-to-use benefit that travels with them from job to job—permanently. And wherever they go, Icon brings them the security of personalized investing.

Now in its fifth year, the World Changing Ideas Awards showcase some of the world’s most inventive entrepreneurs and companies tackling global challenges. A panel of Fast Company editors and reporters selected winners and finalists from a pool of more than 4,000 entries across transportation, education, food, politics, technology, and more. Plus, several new categories were added, including Pandemic Response, Urban Design, and Architecture. The 2021 awards feature entries from across the globe, from Brazil to Denmark to Vietnam.

About the World Changing Ideas Awards

World Changing Ideas is one of Fast Company’s major annual awards programs and is focused on social good, seeking to elevate finished products and brave concepts that make the world better. A panel of judges from across sectors choose winners, finalists, and honorable mentions based on feasibility and the potential for impact. With the goals of awarding ingenuity and fostering innovation, Fast Company draws attention to ideas with great potential and helps them expand their reach to inspire more people to start working on solving the problems that affect us all.