My 401K provider was hacked July 13. Still not back up. Absolutely no account access since then. No balance checks, no transfers, no nuthin’. It was Trustage. Anyone else having this problem? Is this going to be the new normal going forward. 10,000’s of people not being able to access retirement accounts seems like a pretty large problem. No real communication on the problem either.
Ransom attack? Palantir? GPT? Who knows?
V
TruStage proactively shut down its networks in mid-July 2026 following a major cybersecurity incident, which temporarily blocked user access to 401(k) accounts and retirement services. As of August 2026, TruStage reports that 401(k) account balances have not been affected, and they have publicly confirmed no ransom demands or ransomware details. [1, 2]
Yeah… wow.
If it has been inaccessible for nearly a month, one would think your HR would be actively engaged in finding a new provider. To your point, that is unacceptable.
They are actively engaged in doing just that.
Why would your employer be using Trustage rather than Vanguard or Fidelity?
The last place I worked before I early retired had a big all-hands meeting to reveal the new 401k Plan which had a Richmond, VA bank as the trustee and plan operator. This was a Fortune 500 chemical company with a lot of high salaried employees, so getting the contract to run the 401k plan is a big deal.
There were probably 40 or 50 engineers in attendance, a handful like me who understood the arithmetic.
As I had my hand raised to ask why we’re paying a 1% expense ratio on an S&P 500 index fund while Vanguard only charges 0.20%, another attendee asks, "Does the fact that the Senior Vice President of Sales at XYZ bank is the CEO’s niece have anything to do with the Trustee selection?
Of course the clueless HR hacks who were running the meeting had no answers as the questioning got increasingly heated. After about 20 minutes, the company President came down from his office and closed out the meeting.
I retired a few months later and transferred everything to my IRA . I don’t know how long they kept the trustee with the outrageous fees.
intercst
I don’t know. Trustage is the interface. Vanguard funds are available to invest in. the company pays the trustage fees, not the participants. That we get index funds was my doing when I showed upper management that their high fee fund choices were atrocious around 20 years ago.
The usual answer is that Vanguard and Fidelity have minimum size requirements. Small employers frequently don’t qualify. They are stuck w more costly plans.
“The answer to all your questions is money.” - Don Ohlmeyer.
Either the company is too small to be worth the effort or someone in the company decision making tree is getting a benefit.
I just checked and Fidelity offers plans for all company sized, from sole proprietorship (1 owner-employee), small companies (1 to 50 employees), medium companies, and large companies.
But probably w different fee structures based on total assets and number of participants.