Our View of Qualified Retirement Plan Consulting and Administration

The most successful retirement plans are a balance of the needs of owners, managers, and employees.  That’s why we offer an integrated approach to benefits and workforce consulting.  We take the time to understand our clients’ goals, budgets and administrative capacities to help design a plan which truly suits the business.  Our service model supports this view of business and commitment to individualized service.

Our qualified retirement plan consulting and administration services include:

• Plan Design and Implementation
• Tax Qualified Designs and Administration
• Non-Qualified Designs and Administration
• Allocation Formulas
• Profit Sharing, Age Weighting, New Comparability
• Compliance and Government Reporting
• Solo/Owner’s Only Plans

We work with many types of plans, including:

• Traditional 401(k) Pre-tax and Roth
• Safe Harbor 401(k)
• Profit Sharing
• New Comparability and Age-Weighted
• Money Purchase Pension
• Defined Benefit Pension

By far, the best-known qualified retirement plan is a 401(k) plan. According to the Profit Sharing/401(k) Council of America (www.psca.org), approximately 400,000 companies have 401(k) plans, benefiting 42 million employees with $1.5 trillion invested.

401(k) plans are a popular benefit for many reasons – they are relatively simple, inexpensive and provide an opportunity for employees to save for retirement on a tax-favored basis. Although they are popular, 401(k) plans are subject to a number of rules and regulations and have many design alternatives. Administering a plan in an efficient and effective manner that satisfies plan participants, the plan sponsor, and fulfills the many administrative reporting and testing requirements of 401(k) plans is often too specialized and time-consuming for most employers.

Plan sponsors typically use pension consultants (sometimes known as “third party administrators”) for required annual compliance work, such as non-discrimination testing, ratio testing, Form 5500 reporting and disclosures.

Flexible Investment Options for Our Clients

There are many options for 401(k) plans. Often financial advisors will help our clients work through the options available for investing the funds in a 401(k) plan. Typically, the investment company chosen will perform many record-keeping tasks, including crediting and valuing participant accounts and preparing participant statements. We work with the financial advisor to create a team that works together to meet the needs of administering a plan. We also pride ourselves on working cooperatively with accounting and legal advisors.

Participant Services for Corporate Clients

Retirement plan participants face critical planning decisions during the last ten years before they retire. We assist participants by connecting them with an unbiased, qualified expert, who will work with them one-on-one.

Some of the issues participants face as they prepare to retire include:

• Expectations for retirement resources
• How Social Security will fit into the picture
• If an annuity or defined benefit pension plan can extend the life expectancy of retirement savings
• Pros and cons of rolling money from an employer sponsored retirement plan