The original Excel workflow wasn't broken — it was a careful, professionally-maintained tool that produced real client value. Each chapter below preserves what worked and upgrades what was limiting.
Each row below is one dimension of the benchmarking workflow. The "Then" column captures the state under Excel and v1; the "Now" column captures v2.
The jump from "digitized Excel" to "intelligence layer" happens along six specific axes. Each one was chosen because it either saves the advisor time or makes the report more defensible in front of a sponsor.
Every PLANSPONSOR industry cut is now a benchmarkable peer. Twelve of these — the original set — carry full plan-design detail (match structure, vesting tiers, auto-features, QDIA). The remaining 39 carry headline metrics with the "All Industries" aggregate overlaid for plan design. As additional PLANSPONSOR industry cuts are licensed, they graduate from "headline" to "rich" tier without code changes.
PLANSPONSOR answers "what does this industry look like?" Vanguard's How America Saves 2025 answers "how are participants behaving nationally?" Fidelity's BFF Q4 2025 provides a 22-industry cross-reference with year-end 2025 data. American Century's 12th Annual surfaces the perception gap between participants and sponsors. Each fact in the AI analysis carries a {{cite:source}} token that renders as a numbered footnote.
v1's "AI Insights" were well-crafted rule templates — if deferral is 1.5 points below peer, emit concern. Useful, but rigid. v2 calls Claude Sonnet 4.6 on every generation with the full plan + peer data. The model ranks material observations by weight, groups them (leads / trails / worth exploring), and writes in a consultative voice suitable for a sponsor meeting. Citations are strict — the model is instructed never to invent statistics.
The entire Form 5500 corpus for plan year 2024 loads into the app at startup, indexed by EIN. Paste an EIN — with or without dashes — and the report pre-fills plan name, sponsor, city, state, and average account balance. NAICS auto-mapping drops the advisor straight into the right industry peer cohort. The report footer shows the cohort size: "based on 36,188 plans" rather than the abstract "industry averages."
Every peer benchmark, behavior norm, and industry statistic in the AI analysis carries a numbered superscript. Below the analysis, a "Sources cited in this analysis" block auto-populates with full citations — publisher, sample size, publication date. This turns the report from "marketing collateral" into a document that can stand up to sponsor scrutiny.
The Excel workflow topped out at roughly 1 plan / 30 min of advisor time. Bench(k) v2 runs at 1 plan / 90 sec — a 20× throughput improvement. For a Prime advisor with a book of 100 plans, that's the difference between a quarter-long project and a single-afternoon exercise. It opens the door to running benchmarks proactively rather than reactively.
Here's the complete advisor flow from opening the app to downloading the client-ready report. The clock starts when the advisor types the EIN.
Visit bench-k.pages.dev. Form 5500 universe begins loading in the background — status pill shows progress. By the time the advisor has the sponsor on the phone, the universe is loaded and ready. ~25s · one time per session
Type or paste the sponsor's EIN — dashes welcome or omitted. Plan name, sponsor name, city, state, participant count, and average balance auto-populate from the Form 5500 record. Industry is auto-selected from NAICS. <2s
Segmented buttons for match, vesting, auto-enroll, Roth, loans, QDIA. Every input is click-through — no typing required. Report updates live as the advisor configures. ~30s for a standard plan
The NOX pulse-wave spinner fires. Claude Sonnet 4.6 analyzes the plan against peer benchmarks, behavior norms, and Fidelity overlays. Status messages cycle through the five phases of analysis. 15–20s
Advisor reviews the generated narrative, scans the ranked strengths / concerns / opportunities, and clicks Export PDF. The report lands in a Prime-branded, citation-ready deliverable the sponsor can archive. ~15s
Prime Capital's visual identity anchors every report — Prime navy & gold, the "Retirement & Wellness" lockup, the clean benchmark-grid layout the sponsor community already knows. The advisor's underlying workflow — identity, metrics, design, optional features — mirrors Debi's original four-stage Excel columns. Nothing that worked was discarded; everything that was slowing the advisor down was automated.
Faster reports are the visible improvement. The deeper change is what Prime can now do that it couldn't do before.
At 90 seconds per review, an advisor can run their entire book of plans in an afternoon. Quarterly benchmarking becomes a calendar event, not a project.
Before a prospect meeting, the advisor runs Bench(k) on the prospect's EIN — open data — and walks in with a citation-backed benchmark of their current design. Zero sponsor effort required.
When the AI says "74% of peers offer auto-escalation," a numbered footnote ties it to the exact study and sample size. Sponsors, ERISA counsel, and plan committees can trace every data point.