401K and More

401K and More

401K and More was founded in 1998 by Michael Silverman, who serves as Managing Director. The firm operates as a state-registered investment adviser in Illinois, dealing almost exclusively in qualified retirement plans for smaller employers. Its origin story is representative of a wave of independent retirement-plan specialists that emerged after Revenue Ruling 98-30 simplified small-business 401(k) adoption. Rather than building a general wealth-management practice, Silverman elected to stay narrow — plan design, compliance, employee education, and fiduciary support — a posture that has anchored the firm for over 25 years. The firm offers a standard 401(k) service stack — investment selection and monitoring, participant enrollment meetings, and plan benchmarking — but its edge is covering plans that sit below the $10 million breakpoint where most recordkeepers reduce service. Portfolio construction draws primarily from no-load mutual funds and ETF model portfolios from providers such as Vanguard, Fidelity, and Dimensional Fund Advisors. By regulatory filing, 401K and More reports around 470 plan sponsor clients and $200 million in regulatory assets under management (per SEC IAPD, 2025), placing average plan size near $425,000 — squarely in the micro-plan tier. The geographic footprint is concentrated in the Chicago metro area, with secondary exposure across the Midwest. Scale is boutique: the firm lists five licensed professionals and no additional offices, typical for an adviser of this vintage and specialization. Unlike the consolidator platforms that have rolled up hundreds of similar books — firms such as CAPTRUST or SageView — 401K and More remains independently held, with principal Stephen Silverman listed alongside Michael Silverman as an investment adviser representative. No public record indicates a related philanthropic structure, separate wealth-management arm, or multi-family-office overlay. September 2024: The firm's Form ADV annual amendment confirmed 470 high-net-worth individuals as clients, consistent with its longstanding focus on business owners who sponsor plans. The structural differentiator is a negative-space advantage: 401K and More serves plans that the national retirement aggregators are exiting. As asset minimums have risen at the major recordkeepers, micro-401(k)s have become orphan accounts. The firm's ability to operate profitably on accounts well under $1 million — and sustain 25 years of client relationships — signals an architecture built on low-overhead, high-education service rather than scale. Succession risk is the obvious vulnerability: the two named principals are in their sixth and seventh decades, with no publicly identified next-generation operator.