Blooom makes national TV debut

Overland Park-based financial tech firm Blooom hopes to seed new growth opportunities after a recent national TV appearance.

Blooom CEO Chris Costello and President Greg Smith hopped onto Fox Business Tuesday to discuss 401(k) management and their company, which created an online 401(k) management tool that’s seen solid early traction.

The tool uses a flower in various growth stages to symbolize the health of one’s 401(k) and offers professional advice on how to allocate funds.

Costello said that the appearance likely will lead to more adoption of Blooom’s product, which already has customers in 48 states.

“The exposure that Fox Business provided us was wonderful,” Costello said. “We are confident that this exposure will lead to a significant number of retirement savers looking into Blooom to fix their 401(k).”

In addition to explaining their company, Costello and Smith discussed with Fox Business a recent report that revealed for the first time in U.S. history, more people withdrew from their 401(k) accounts than those that deposited. Americans withdrew $11.4 billion from their 401(k) accounts in 2013, according to the Wall Street Journal.

“We recognize that middle-class Americans are not being successful in their 401(k)s,” Costello said on Fox Business. “We think advice, education and fancy calculators aren’t going to fix the problem. People need help. People need someone to do it for them.”

To access Blooom’s services, users pay $1 per month for an account less than $20,000, and $15 per month for accounts more than $20,000. Costello said that the platform resonates well with younger people who lack knowledge about their 401(k)s and are more apt to conduct financial transactions online.

“Tens of millions of middle class Americans are going to rely upon their savings, not pensions, to fund the last third of their life,” Costello said. “This (appearance) is more validation that we are solving a problem that affects 10s of millions of Americans.”

Blooom in September beat out more than 60 competitors to claim first place at the annual Finovate conference in New York City. The conference features dozens of financial tech firms hoping to disrupt the finance industry.