Birdseye Pension didn’t materialize out of thin air. Although only three years old, the firm is the product of careful planning by partners Michael Moore and Roger Beebout. Michael studied accounting in college but quickly realized the traditional CPA track wasn’t for him. “I’ve always had this urge and desire to kind of do my own thing for myself, but also to directly impact the lives of others,” he said. When Roger, head of a mid-sized CPA firm, mentioned that some of his clients needed retirement administration help, the opportunity clicked.

Together, they built Birdseye from the ground up, always keeping one goal in mind: to be more attentive to clients

Company Overview

Name:

Birdseye Pension Group

Type of Company:

Third Party Administrator (TPA)

Location:

Carmichael, CA

Core Services:

• Retirement plan administration for small and mid-sized businesses

• Compliance oversight, including Form 5500 tracking and reporting

• Document preparation and client-facing portals

• Communication management and task tracking for plan sponsors

Goals:

• Bring a more attentive, hands-on approach than traditional TPAs

• Integrate technology to improve efficiency and transparency

• Bridge the knowledge gap for small business plan sponsors

• Ensure clarity and predictability in client communications and service delivery

• Deliver transparent, all-inclusive subscription fees with no surprises

Grand Plans – Where’s the Tech?

Michael and Roger had grown up with technology and knew the days of doing things manually were long gone. When they sketched out their vision for Birdseye, they came armed with ambitious goals: streamlined client communication, automated processes, and modern tools to make plan administration more efficient than the “old school” way of doing things.

At first, they assumed it was simply a matter of choosing the right systems. Instead, they discovered the technology they imagined just didn’t exist in the retirement plan marketplace. “Even though we had a good idea of what we wanted, we didn’t know what we didn’t know,” Michael said. What they found was a patchwork of outdated or incomplete systems—some still stuck on servers, others lacking the modern features they’d counted on to deliver seamless service.

In the end, it fell on Birdseye to stitch together a workable system: a cloud-based document and portal provider, a CRM for communication and task creation, and a doable invoicing structure. The patchwork system wasn’t their first choice, but it gave them a foundation to build on. Still, none of it lived up to their original vision of seamless service. For Birdseye, patchwork fixes weren’t enough—technology had to work hand in hand with their people to keep clients confident and cared for.

Cha-Ching…Cha-Ching – No Surprises Here

When it came to pricing, Michael and Roger found the same problem they had already run across with administration: there was definitely an “old school” way, and it wasn’t working very well. Traditionally, plan sponsors were billed once a year after annual compliance work was completed, and fees could swing dramatically depending on plan activity. An invoice might read $1,800 one year and $3,500 the next—followed by the inevitable question: what changed? Were reconciliation problems so bad they cost an extra $1,700 to fix? That wasn’t the relationship Birdseye wanted with their clients.

Birdseye’s aim was a more engaged partnership: set expectations up front, be available, and make it easy for plan sponsors to call without worrying about being nickel-and-dimed. Pricing had to match the promise. So they scrapped the old annual invoicing cycle in favor of an all-inclusive monthly subscription. The flat rate kept Birdseye’s cash flow steady and gave plan sponsors confidence they could budget ahead without worrying about surprise fees.

The model also kept Birdseye involved year-round, not just at crunch time, reinforcing the kind of partnership they believed plan sponsors deserved. In their view, clients deserved better than business as usual—and the fee model should prove it.

Data Here… Data There - Double the Hassle, None of the Fun

If technology was supposed to make administration easier, Birdseye quickly learned the opposite could also be true. They found ftwilliam to be the best at keeping the moving parts so they flow nicely together, but it was missing a CRM. So Birdseye went with a different CRM, thinking they could just merge the two together. But it didn’t quite work that way. Instead of working from one platform, Michael and his team found themselves bouncing between programs just to track communication, manage tasks, and gather census information.

“It created a lot of data here, data there, and kind of double work,” Michael said. “But it was necessary because it enhanced our service to plan sponsors.”

Birdseye began exploring other platforms that promised more—better portals, stronger census collection, tighter integrations—such as Seven Simple Machines and PensionPro—but each option came with trade-offs. Some improved efficiency in one area while adding complexity in another. Others carried costs that didn’t make sense for a small firm. After a lot of time and effort patching together programs that didn’t talk to each other and experimenting with other platforms, they still hadn’t found the all-in-one automation they’d imagined when they launched Birdseye.

The bottom line: even with their best efforts, administration remained fragmented. Birdseye could keep things afloat, but Michael kept following their dream. In conversations with industry partners, he didn’t stick to small talk—he probed about technology, automation, and whether anyone was building tools that could really change the game. That curiosity set off a string of introductions to new tech players, including Stax.ai.

At first, though, Stax.ai wasn’t a fit. The trust accounting system they were offering didn’t match Birdseye’s immediate needs—and as a small firm, the cost was out of reach. Michael set them aside and kept searching. He weighed features and costs, and came close to signing with PensionPro, convinced this might be as good as it would get. But just before he committed, Stax.ai reappeared with something new on the horizon— an all-in-one platform called CX, built for plan administration. For Birdseye, it was the game-changer they’d been waiting for.

Missing Pieces – Putting the Fun Back

That “new thing” called CX? Finally, something that worked—and it was fun!! Automated workflows, task tracking, integrated communication—finally, software that fit the way Birdseye worked. For Michael, the choice was clear. “From the start it was a done deal.” At last, technology matched the promise Birdseye had made from day one.

CX wasn’t just another system tacked on to the old way of doing things that would require a lot of effort by Birdseye to integrate with what they already had. Instead, it gave Birdseye one single place to run their projects and keep tabs on clients. The platform even shows a quick “pulse score” for each plan sponsor, so Michael doesn’t have to scroll through old emails wondering, How’s this client feeling? Are they engaged? The answer is right there on one of his screens, along with a quick summary of recent conversations and what’s on the client’s mind. For Birdseye, that kind of at-a-glance clarity finally met their vision of service that was both personal and efficient.

The appeal wasn’t just about another system; it was the feeling that CX was the missing piece they’d been searching for since day one. By the three-year mark, Birdseye had already tried enough patchwork fixes to know it wasn’t sustainable. Now they could finally see a way to administer plans the way they had always imagined: seamless, proactive, and centered on plan sponsor needs. For Michael, CX felt less like adopting a platform and more like stepping into the future they’d imagined from the start.

No Hassle – All Value

Onboarding proved Michael right. “They [Stax.ai] were really good every step of the way. Every time I had a question, whatever, they were there,” he said. Birdseye’s small size made the process easier, and Michael’s comfort with technology helped speed things along. Michael has been enthusiastic about CX ever since it onboarded in April 2025. Yes, there were a few hiccups—like formatting quirks with emails and delays getting some plan sponsors connected to the portal—but none of it dampened Michael’s enthusiasm. “I absolutely love it. Honestly, it’s everything we wanted. Even some things we didn’t know we wanted when we first started out.”

For Birdseye, CX has delivered on two promises they’d set from the beginning: saving time for the TPA and being proactive with plan sponsors. On the time-saving side, Michael points to automation as the biggest win. “CX takes the grunt work out of client communication—one email template can go to 50 plan sponsors at once, freeing my time for higher-value work.”

Now Birdseye can build out a process once and use it over and over again. Annual census collection, payroll connections, plan document signatures—all the routine tasks that used to take extra back-and-forth with the client now launch automatically as projects inside CX. Even better, CX comes with a library of ready-made templates, like audit prep or plan conversions, that Michael can tweak and save as his own. And when a sponsor signs a proposal, the system doesn’t wait around for humans to tell it what to do—it immediately starts onboarding, prompts the client for information, connects payroll, and routes documents for signature. What used to mean juggling checklists now happens behind the scenes, so Michael can keep his focus where he wants it: on the client. In short, CX brought the fun back into plan administration.

That time saved has translated into stronger client service. Automated reminders about deadlines, notices, and Form 5500 filings have made it easier to keep plan sponsors informed without constant back-and-forths. “Frequently, the most difficult part of the process is getting accurate data back from plan sponsors on time,” Michael said. “That’s where Stax.ai provides the biggest benefit to any TPA.”

Another big win has been the ability to stay proactive with plan sponsors. By automating notices, reminders, and even educational updates, Michael can give clients a clear picture of what’s coming next—before deadlines sneak up. That proactive communication has turned into the kind of steady partnership Birdseye promised from the start.

The Next Frontier

The story doesn’t stop here for Birdseye. With CX as their foundation, Michael and his team are already expanding services and piloting the 5500 workflow, which he calls “the last piece”—a  way to finally tie compliance back-end work to what plan sponsors actually see and use. Just as important, CX lets them build and reuse a library of workflows that cut out repetitive tasks and keep service consistent. Need to support an audit? Handle a plan termination? A tested process is ready in minutes, freeing time for the next opportunity.

Looking ahead, Birdseye plans to grow in select niche markets while holding fast to the values that shaped the firm from the beginning. With Stax.ai, Michael believes they finally have the platform to grow without losing the attentiveness that defines their brand. For him, CX isn’t just software—it’s the partner that makes their vision of better service a daily reality.

At the end of the day, CX keeps Birdseye free to do what they set out to do from the start: focus on clients, not checklists.