Directed Equity ROBS Review: directINVEST Scope, Pricing, and Questions

Directed Equity may be worth a written quote if a prospective owner wants one firm to discuss ROBS alongside SBA, conventional, and equipment financing. The verified public record supports directINVEST as Directed Equity's ROBS program and supports a four-step setup sequence: establish a C corporation, set up the retirement plan, roll over retirement funds, and invest funds into the business.^[5]

The same public record does not support a published-price conclusion. No checked official page gave a directINVEST setup fee, recurring administration fee, valuation charge, employee fee, audit-support charge, correction fee, termination fee, or exit fee. This review therefore does not calculate a first-year, three-year, or total directINVEST cost.^{[5][6][7][8][9][10]}

The practical decision is whether Directed Equity's broad funding approach is valuable enough to justify a quote process with more unknowns than a provider that publishes a fee schedule. Do not treat SBA, conventional, equipment, attorney, CPA, or franchise language as included directINVEST deliverables unless the engagement documents say exactly that.^[5][7][8][9]

These terms carry the review. Read them before comparing Directed Equity with a lender, franchisor, attorney, CPA, or another ROBS provider.

Directed Equity's directINVEST page says the program can use 401(k), IRA, profit-sharing, or pension plan funds to fund a franchise or other small business. It also says funds can be used for initial franchise fees, equipment, leasehold improvements, working capital, or other expenses, and it reports experience with 5,600+ entrepreneurs.^[5] Those are provider-reported scope statements, not proof of account-level eligibility, compliance, investment suitability, or business outcome.

The four cards below separate what the official pages verify from what still depends on a written quote or engagement agreement.

The checked Directed Equity pages did not publish a complete ROBS pricing schedule. The additional-funding page does publish equipment lease and finance programs ranging from $10,000 to $500,000, but that range belongs to equipment financing, not directINVEST ROBS pricing.^[8] It should not be used to estimate setup, administration, valuation, legal, CPA, employee, filing, correction, termination, or exit costs.

The cards below translate that pricing gap into three contract checks: what to request, what not to infer, and how to compare Directed Equity against providers with published fees.

A ROBS transaction is not finished when money reaches the business. IRS materials identify issues involving employee access, discrimination, Form 5500, Form 1120, valuation, promoter fees, Form 1099-R, prohibited transactions, and business failure.^[1][2] DOL fiduciary guidance says plan fiduciaries must act prudently, follow plan documents, monitor service providers, pay only reasonable plan expenses, address prohibited transactions, provide participant information, maintain required bonding, use correction programs when appropriate, and avoid simply walking away from fiduciary duties.^[3][4]

Directed Equity is easiest to evaluate as a broad funding-advisory option with a ROBS service line, not as a low-information substitute for comparing published ROBS administration fees. The cards below separate a likely-fit reader from a reader who should pause until more contract detail is available.

Referral relationships remain an open commercial question. Directed Equity invites bank development officers, loan officers, CPAs, attorneys, and other business and financing professionals to refer entrepreneurs, but the checked page did not publish referral compensation amounts, exclusivity terms, acceptance criteria, or contract terms.^[10] That uncertainty does not prove bias; it means the reader should ask how any referral relationship affects the recommendation.

Use these questions to turn the public claims into a comparable contract record. If Directed Equity, another provider, a lender, a franchisor, an attorney, or a CPA will own a task, the answer should name that party and the fee.

Sources were checked on July 24, 2026. The citations below are kept near the claims they support. This review is educational information, not legal, tax, investment, lender, SBA, franchise, CPA, valuation, or fiduciary advice.

1. [1] IRS: Rollovers as Business Start-Ups Compliance Project

   IRS page describing ROBS as a C corporation sponsored qualified plan using rollover assets to buy employer stock, warning that determination letters do not approve plan operations, and identifying Form 5500, Form 1120, valuation, promoter-fee, employee-access, discrimination, 1099-R, business-failure, and adverse-tax-consequence concerns. Page last reviewed or updated November 16, 2025; accessed July 24, 2026.

2. [2] IRS: ROBS Examination Guidelines

   IRS Employee Plans memorandum dated October 1, 2008 describing typical ROBS steps, C corporation formation, plan adoption, rollover or trustee-to-trustee transfer, employer-stock purchase, nondiscrimination, benefits-rights-and-features, prohibited-transaction, and valuation concerns. Accessed July 24, 2026.

3. [3] DOL EBSA: Meeting Your Fiduciary Responsibilities

   DOL September 2021 publication describing written plan, trust, recordkeeping, participant documents, fiduciary status, prudence, exclusive benefit, service-provider selection and monitoring, reasonable fees, Form 5500 reporting, prohibited transactions, employer stock, fidelity bonding, participant notices, correction programs, and plan termination responsibilities. Accessed July 24, 2026.

4. [4] DOL EBSA: Form 5500 Series

   DOL Form 5500 Series page stating DOL, IRS, and PBGC jointly developed the Form 5500 Series for annual employee-benefit-plan reporting and disclosure and that Form 5500 and Form 5500-SF filings must be electronic through EFAST2. Accessed July 24, 2026.

5. [5] Directed Equity: directINVEST ROBS 401(k) Funding

   Directed Equity directINVEST page stating use of 401(k), IRA, profit-sharing or pension plan funds to fund a franchise or other small business, uses including franchise fees, equipment, leasehold improvements and working capital, a four-step process, attorneys, CPAs and financing experts, tax and retirement considerations, 5,600+ entrepreneurs, and no public dollar pricing found. Accessed July 24, 2026.

6. [6] Directed Equity: Home

   Directed Equity home page stating directINVEST uses 401(k), IRA or other tax-deferred retirement funds, that the team has accounting, tax-law, small-business ownership and franchising backgrounds, and that it specializes in financing solutions from ROBS to SBA lending under one roof. It also describes directEDUCATE, directENDORSE and directVERIFY. Accessed July 24, 2026.

7. [7] Directed Equity: SBA Lending

   Directed Equity SBA page describing SBA 7(a) and 504 loan guidance, a large SBA lender network, application and funding assistance, and SBA uses including franchise fees, build-out costs, equipment, fixtures and working capital. Accessed July 24, 2026.

8. [8] Directed Equity: Additional Funding Solutions

   Directed Equity page describing conventional lending for equipment leasing and leasehold-improvement hard costs, possible limited soft costs such as franchise fees, lender positioning, and equipment lease or finance programs from $10,000 to $500,000. Accessed July 24, 2026.

9. [9] Directed Equity: directEDUCATE

   Directed Equity directEDUCATE page describing one-on-one financing education across 401(k), SBA, conventional and equipment financing, tax planning and wealth-accumulation strategies, and a statement that directINVEST includes full management of financial transactions, legal paperwork and tax planning. Accessed July 24, 2026.

10. [10] Directed Equity: Referral Partner Contact

    Directed Equity referral-partner page inviting bank development officers, loan officers, CPAs, attorneys and other business and financing professionals to refer entrepreneurs; the checked page did not publish referral compensation amounts, exclusivity terms, acceptance criteria or contract terms. Accessed July 24, 2026.

These answers summarize the public pricing, financing-boundary, and professional-service questions most readers need to resolve before relying on directINVEST.