Lincoln Financial's Payroll 360 targets manual 401(k) data work

Lincoln Financial's Payroll 360, an API inside its LincSmart technology, automates the exchange of payroll and retirement-plan data and reaches many supported payroll platforms, according to Patrick Sullivan, vice president of insurtech strategy and enablement for workplace solutions at the firm. He described the tool — which handles contributions, deferral-rate changes and loan starts and stops — in an episode of the 401(k) Specialist Pod(k)ast published Nov. 9.

When payroll and the recordkeeper are not connected, employers move and reconcile plan data by hand, which can produce delays, rework and errors, according to the interview. "The best technology is often the technology that the employer doesn't even notice," Sullivan said. "It's just working behind the scenes."

Sullivan's checklist for advisers evaluating a provider starts with whether the technology eliminates unnecessary steps, works with the systems a client already has and reduces the adviser's and the client's effort. He adds two more: whether it makes information easier to access and whether it makes the participant experience more intuitive. How well any of it works depends on which payroll, recordkeeping and HR systems a sponsor already runs.

Lincoln Financial says the connection is built so employers do not have to add a system or redesign the technology they already run. "Ultimately, our employers, they don't have to redesign their technology or add a system to effectively work with us," Sullivan said. "It's our job to just connect into what they already have."