Putting your retirement savings accounts in the hands of a company is a big deal. After all, you spend a majority of your working life saving for your golden years, and you don’t want to trust them to just anyone. Beangle is a self-described “financial concierge” that provides 401(k) accounts and other services. Do you think it’s safe?

This article explains what Beagle 401(k) accounts are and whether the platform is safe and legitimate to use.

How does Beagle 401(k) work)?

Jeffrey Tha, Cyrus Ghazanfar, and Shuo Jiao founded Beagle Invest in December 2020. You can find old 401(k)s from previous jobs and roll them over to a new, consolidated account with the fintech company. As a result, Beagle says, investment management fees could be cut by as much as two-thirds.

On LinkedIn, Ghazanfar, who currently serves as chief technology officer at Beagle, wrote, “meetbeagle.com has helped thousands of people find their lost 401(k) accounts after only seven months since launch.”.

What does Beagle’s 401(k) plan entail?

Beagle finds all of your old 401(k) accounts from previous jobs. As part of this process, Beagle shows you the hidden fees you have been paying out of your investment capital.

“Hassle-free rollover” allows you to transfer all your old 401(k) accounts into a new, consolidated account on the platform. You can also borrow money from an old account at zero percent net interest if you don’t want to roll all your accounts over.

Is Beagle’s 401(k) account safe and secure?

It is a small company with only a few employees, but it does appear to be hiring to keep up with its current growth. The company hasn’t announced any funding rounds publicly. Reviews indicate Beagle has been successful for people with old, forgotten 401(k) accounts that are hard to locate.

Beagle doesn’t charge for account access services and only charges subscription charges for new accounts.

If you’re primarily interested in tracking down an old 401(k) account and rolling it over, you have another option that doesn’t involve Beagle. Your state’s abandoned property portal receives inactive retirement accounts after a period of two to three years. By clicking on your former or current place of residence on the state search, you can access the state’s unclaimed property search portal. Be aware that claiming a 401(k) account from the past may have tax consequences.

For a small fee, you can use Beagle if you don’t want to deal with the government. In terms of legitimacy and safety, Beagle seems to be a straightforward fintech operation, however quaint it may be. Many people who have forgotten about old retirement savings accounts at a younger age or never realized they had signed up for them are pleasantly surprised when they find thousands of dollars.