Our Story

What Brought Us Here

Our founders' 50 years of collective experience managing retirement plans taught us that...

Advice Improves Outcomes

Financial markets can be volatile, which causes many individual investors to make poor short-sighted decisions. This is exacerbated in the absence of good investment advice with proper asset allocation. The right advice focuses on goal-oriented investing.

Investment Costs and Fees Matter...

Investment costs and fees drain a portfolio's investment returns. Unfortunately, most individual investors do not know the true costs of their investments. Paying just 1% too much might mean thousands of dollars in excess fees over long time periods.

...But Savings Rate Matters More

Fees drain investment returns, but financial outcomes are more affected by an investor's savings rate. As an example, by investing $3 per day in lieu of buying a cup of coffee, an investor may accumulate $3,500 in just 3 years. The amount you should save depends on your assets, financial goals, income sources, liabilities, time horizon, and many other factors.

Scale Reduces Costs and Fees

Workplace retirement programs, such as 401k plans and pension plans, are designed around scale. Scale enables such programs to operate more efficiently. More efficient operations enable workplace retirement plan participants to benefit from less costly investment options and lower fees.

Retail Investors Have Disadvantages

Individual investors generally pay substantially more for investment management and advice than 401k plan participants. Without very large sums of money to invest, individual investors often pay large fees for high-cost retail investments, and receive little-to-no advice with asset allocation or financial goal-setting.

People Need a Better Approach

We began asking ourselves, "what if individual investors could benefit from the scale provided in workplace retirement plans within their IRAs?" In 2010, we began developing the solution. The GROUPIRA® Program was launched July 4, 2011 with this vision in mind: Enable people to invest better for whatever comes next in life.

Enabling our Members to invest better for whatever comes next in life.

We incorporated in Washington State under the name GROUPIRA, Inc. on September 8, 2011. GROUPIRA, Inc. is completely independent and is financed exclusively by employee shareholders. We have not accepted any external capital, so we are free of conflicts of interest, and are not influenced by venture capitalists or external private equity investors. As a Financial Technology (fintech) Company, our Members benefit from our conflict-free approach to service, access to quality advice, and leading technology, all of which facilitate a simple and cost effective way to invest better for whatever comes next in life.

"We launched GROUPIRA with one overarching objective in mind -- enable individuals to invest better for whatever comes next in life."

Petros P. KoumantarosChairman and Co-Founder

"GROUPIRA democratizes investing by offering everyone access to high quality investment advice, regardless of their wealth or account balance."

Yannis P. KoumantarosCEO and Co-Founder

OUR STORY