SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The Grand Prize at the Money20/20 Las Vegas Conference—the largest FinTech conference in the world, was awarded by Shaquille O’Neal to Laurie Rowley, President and Founder of Icon Savings Plan, who pitched her company to the event’s four judges, as well as its 4,000-person audience.
Icon Savings Plan is an entirely new and compelling way for employers to offer a retirement savings plan to their people. Today less than 43% of them offer a 401(k) plan, due to the fact that these plans have failed to adapt to the modern workforce. They’re time intensive, expensive for employers, and risky because employers become a fiduciary when offering a 401(k) plan. For workers, they often come with high fees and they don’t travel with you from job to job.
Icon solves all of these problems. For employers Icon is free, it takes only a few minutes to set up, and the employer is not a fiduciary. And because Icon is built on a modern technology platform, it removes the employer pain points.
For workers, when you use Icon Savings Plan, you pay a fraction of the cost of a 401(k)—then, when you leave your employer, you keep your plan—and your money.
“Unlike most FinTech startups, we didn’t start with technology,” Ms. Rowley said, “we started with a human problem: The lack of hope for retirement shared by millions of Americans, and we used technology and behavioral finance to solve it.”
Icon Savings Plan was one of 24 companies selected to compete out of 1,000 applicants.
Reached shortly after winning, Ms. Rowley said that while she was humbled by the competition and the pressure of the event, she felt that “the real winners here are the millions of American families who will benefit from a sensible, accessible retirement savings plan that they can use to build better futures.”
Set to fully launch in the first quarter of 2019, Icon (www.IconSavingsPlan.com) is the only plan of its kind in the country, or anywhere.
About Startup Pitch at Money20/20
Held this week at The Venetian Las Vegas, Startup Pitch at Money20/20 is the FinTech ecosystem’s most exclusive startup challenge. This year, 24 of the industry’s finest startups in AI, wealth management, biometrics, and payments competed on the prestigious Money20/20 stages for the honor of winning Startup Pitch at Money20/20. With 11,000+ attendees including more than 1,700 CEOs and Presidents from 4,500 companies and 85 countries, Money20/20 brings together an industry that's revolutionizing the ways in which consumers and businesses manage, spend, and borrow money.
This year’s final was judged by executives from Andreessen Horowitz, Bain Capital, and last year’s winner Steady—with special guest Shaquille O’Neal.
About Icon Savings Plan
We believe that retirement savings should be for people and making their lives better, not about assets under management, sales goals and commissions.
Icon is the only automatic, tax-advantaged, low-cost, easy-to-use retirement plan built for the 75-million people who are self-employed, work as independent contractors, or work for employers who don’t offer retirement plans. Unlike other plans, Icon is portable, so when you leave your employer, you keep your plan—and your money.
For employers, Icon is free to use, takes just minutes to sign-up, and is risk-free because they’re not made fiduciaries.