As far as for whom the services are designed, Panagakos says BeniVest should have something for everyone. The middle-tier service, for example, is designed for employees earning between $80,000 and $200,000 a year, with under $700,000 in investable assets. This tier, she adds, will include services such as stock option planning.

Observers note that financial planning as an employee benefit isn't new. Companies have provided such services for years as a perk for upper-management employees. One recent survey by Clark/Bardes Consulting found that about 57% of companies provide their executives with financial planning benefits, and 80% of eligible executives use the benefit.

In a survey of benefits specialists last year, 94% of respondents foresee an increase in financial planning benefits, according to the International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans. Only 17%, however, say financial planning benefits are likely to become mainstream.

What sets BeniVest apart, according to those involved with the company, is its concentration on lower-level employees-whose moderate incomes aren't attractive to the typical financial advisory firm. "It's pretty tough to get financial advice if you don't have $250,000 in investable assets," says Eric Flett, portfolio manager at Bay Isle Financial in Oakland, Calif., and a member of BeniVest's board of advisors. "The business model for many planners requires either a sizeable fee or a large amount of investable assets."

Flett, who is also a minority shareholder in the company, says companies have tried to get at this niche market. For many, the answer to making their market cost-effective has been delivering service through Web-based financial planning tools.

BeniVest, however, will focus on face-to-face contact between advisors and clients, Flett says. "The Internet, on its own, cannot replace the relationship a client has with a valued advisor," he says.

How does Panagakos expect to profitably provide personal service to a market that many advisors consider too low-margin? For Panagakos, whose background has been mostly in the management consultant business, the answer lies in streamlined service and economies of scale.

Advisors, for example, will be in-house employees who will set aside certain days to meet with employees of a company in one block of time. Analysis and research, meanwhile, will be handled by in-house as well, she says.

"That allows us a fair amount of economy of scale," she says.

So much so that she believes the company can attain profitability with slightly less than 1,000 individual clients-a scale she expects will be achieved by signing on between one and five company clients.