Audit receipt: your Nova Southeastern 401(k), in very simple words
Source: Nova Southeastern University 401(k) Summary Plan Description (31 pages) · language: EN · register: muy sencillo / very simple
The register
Very simple (muy sencillo). Grade-school words, sentences of 12 words or fewer, a worked example with real numbers for every money rule, and zero bare technical terms in the visible page. The truth rules never change with register; nuance is displaced deeper, not deleted.
What moved deeper for this register: all definition popovers were removed because the terms themselves left the visible page (vested → "yours to keep", safe harbor match → "the sure match", beneficiary → "who gets your money", salary deferral → "the pay you save", rollover → "move the money straight to a new plan"). Contribution limits, taxes, loans, death rules, claims, and the four special cases all sit in expanders, each rewritten to the same very-simple standard.
SIMPLE score
Scored 0-4 per dimension by the adversarial auditor. Passing floor: 3 on every dimension. Clarity rose from 3/4 (sencillo) to 4/4 here: at the very-simple register every visible term is an everyday word.
Original vs simplified (4-axis)
Before = the locked Stage 1 baseline of the original 31-page plan document. After = the auditor's re-measurement of this very-simple page.
Readability
Flesch-Kincaid grade and Flesch Reading Ease, measured on the visible reader-facing prose (`assets/metrics.py`, syllable estimate; treat as directional). Very-simple target: grade 4 or lower, ease 80 or higher, sentences 12 words or fewer. Achieved: visible prose grade 1.2, ease 103.7, average sentence 9.6 words; whole page grade 1.4, ease 101.5. For comparison, the standard "sencillo" version of this same document reads at grade 6.8 / ease 76.4.
Reader panel (comprehension gate)
Result: PASS. Three synthetic reader profiles read only the rendered page.
L1 (basic reader) — the profile that must pass at this register: answered all four questions correctly (what this is, what to do, by when, what money), with zero non-understood items in the visible, non-reference content. After the redline rounds, the only remaining notes were three REFERENCE IDENTIFIERS, each now carrying a plain purpose statement beside it and therefore exempt under the W18 gate-scope rule: "401(k)" (taught in place: "This is your 401(k). That is a savings plan at work."), "Summary Plan Description" (the reader's own official document name: "your plan's official summary"), and "SIMPLE" (the service that made the guide). Reference identifiers exist so the reader can point at the original; they cannot be simplified further and are not dropped for the metric.
L2 (middle reader): answered all four correctly; its only note was "IRA", which appears inside an expander (the get-money-out panel), not in the visible page.
L3 (nuance retention): confirmed every displaced exception is still reachable — the 3-year vesting cliff, the 1,000-hours rule, the discretionary "maybe" match, the four special cases (Museum prior job, code 1031, new/under-21, military), limits, loans, taxes, death and claims, and the single phone number with the honest "no website listed" note.
What was done (very-simple pass)
- Hero rewritten to four short sentences plus a worked dollar example: "You earn $50,000 and save $2,000. Your job adds $2,000. You now have $4,000."
- Every visible sentence cut to 12 words or fewer; paragraphs to two sentences or fewer.
- All bare technical terms removed from the visible page and replaced with everyday words; the definition popovers used in the sencillo version are gone because the jargon itself is gone.
- A worked example added to each money rule: the match, the 3-year wait, and what you lose if you leave early ("Leave at 2 years: you keep $0. Stay 3 years: you keep all $1,500").
- The live match calculator kept and re-verified; its formula block rewritten in very-simple words with a worked example. The extra "discretionary" match stays a "maybe" and is not counted.
- More content displaced into expanders (limits, taxes, loans, death, claims, special cases), each translated to the same very-simple standard.
- Voice kept as "your job / the plan office" (never "we"); no deadline invented; the plan lists no website, and the page says so.