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If you ask most small business owners, they know the benefits of offering a retirement plan. It’s not a lack of interest that keeps them from sponsoring one for their employees. Usually it’s an understanding of the...

You became a financial advisor because you want to help people. Luckily, your business owner clients have a lot of things that they need help with. One of their biggest issues is usually their company-sponsored retirement plan. There...

Most business owners want to take care of their employees and do what is right for them. They know that sponsoring a retirement plan can help their employees and also help the business by retaining top talent. Unfortunately, there are...

With the effects of the COVID-19 limitation measures wreaking havoc on the economy, many are talking of recession in the coming months. The news that the U.S. economy contracted for the first time in six years in the first quarter of...

On March 27, 2020, President Trump signed into law the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act. The $2 trillion bill is the largest economic stimulus package in the history of our nation, with a broad range of...

If you’re a financial advisor, you’re familiar with the term fiduciary. You know about the fiduciary standard versus the suitability standard, and you likely followed along closely as the Department of Labor tried to roll...

There are a number of reasons that an employer might choose to freeze its pension plan. Perhaps they simply cannot afford it anymore. Maybe they just wanted to go in a different direction with their employee benefits. They could feel...

Sponsoring a 401(k) plan is a big responsibility. The laws governing workplace retirement plans are complex and the tasks required can be arduous and time-consuming. Because of this, most 401(k) plan sponsors outsource a lot of the...

Sponsoring a retirement plan is a big commitment of both time and money. With so much on the line, it is important for plan sponsors to ensure that they are getting the most out of the plan that they sponsor. If you have clients who...

Nowadays, just about every business owner needs to sponsor a retirement plan in order to stay competitive. Even if they aren’t concerned about attracting top talent, they likely need a retirement plan to enable them to save for...

Over the past half century, defined contribution plans have taken the American retirement landscape by storm. They are now the foundation of the private-sector retirement system with assets above $7.5 trillion and over 100 million...

As a financial advisor, you are likely very familiar with the costs of retirement these days. People used to aim to have $1,000,000 stashed away, thinking that that would guarantee a retirement of luxury. But $1,000,000 just...

Sponsoring a workplace retirement plan has become somewhat of a catch-22 for business owners. It’s practically required to have one to stay competitive in today’s tight labor market. After all, the American Institute of...

When you work with business owners, you end up helping them with a lot more than just investments, insurance, and other typical personal financial planning topics. Some of them likely sponsor 401(k) plans and end up asking you a lot of...

By now your clients that sponsor retirement plans know that they’re complicated, defined benefit plans in particular. There is a lot of work and expertise that goes into running one successfully. Luckily, your clients are not...

While defined benefit plans are declining overall, there is one outlier that is bucking the trend. Cash balance plans grew 16 times as fast as 401(k) plans in 2016 and went from making up 2.9% of all defined benefit plans in 2001 to...

As financial professionals, we know that “set it and forget it” is not an option for most of the things we do. One area where this certainly applies is with employer-sponsored retirement plans. Though it can be tempting for...

There are some things in life that we do because they are good for us, not because we particularly enjoy them. Things like getting root canals and eating spinach. For your business-owner clients, one of those things is sponsoring a...

Small business pension plans: most business owners have a love-hate relationship with them. On one hand, they make it possible to set aside large sums of money for retirement and assist them in recruiting and retaining talent. On the...

With the new year upon us, it seems everyone is taking a fresh look at their lives, their financial lives in particular. A new year brings new opportunities to do better and get closer to achieving our goals. Some of your clients have...

As a financial advisor, retirement planning and tax planning are two of the things at the top of your priority list. You want to help your clients take advantage of every opportunity available to grow their wealth and keep as much of...

In 2016 (the most recent year for which we have data), the number of new cash balance plans surpassed industry projections to grow 16%. By comparison, new 401(k) plans only grew by 1% that year. (1) This is a continuing trend, as new...

A number of the largest payroll providers are now offering 401(k) third-party administrator (TPA) services. It seems to be logical since 401(k) contributions come out of payroll and they work with a lot of the same numbers. But is it...

While failure is something that most people avoid at all costs, it’s actually very common among 401(k) plans. One study found that over 57,000 plans had recently failed their most recent nondiscrimination testing. (1) As a result...

You probably realize that your business-owner clients that offer 401(k)s have a lot of compliance issues to deal with. One of the major ones, especially for small- and medium-sized businesses, is the annual non-discrimination testing....

In late March of 2018, the IRS announced new rules and deadlines for pre-approved defined benefit plans. The new announcement requires that all defined benefit plans using pre-approved plan documents restate their plan before April...

Your clients who sponsor retirement plans put in a lot of time and effort to keep their plans in compliance. Many dollars and hours go into making sure that they are following the tax laws for their qualified retirement plans. But,...

Many small businesses choose a SIMPLE IRA as their first employer-sponsored retirement plan. They are a good beginner plan because they are cheaper than 401(k)s, quicker and easier to set up, and are overall, like their name, more...

Usually, when your clients decide to sponsor a retirement plan, it’s not because they actually want to run a retirement plan. It’s because they care about their employees and want to be competitive when trying to attract...

It’s common knowledge that ERISA law is complex and even the best-intentioned plan sponsors make mistakes. Because audits are timely and costly, the IRS devised a system for plan sponsors to acknowledge and correct their mistakes...

Last fall, tax reform seemed to be an all-consuming obsession in Washington. By December, both houses of Congress had worked out their differences and sent a bill to the president’s desk to sign. That tax bill became effective on...

In our modern, one-stop-shop culture of Walmart and Amazon, target date funds (TDFs) have become increasingly popular for defined-contribution retirement plan participants. The automatic rebalancing that moves the fund more...

With so much talk of the demise of defined benefit retirement plans, many people are surprised to learn that there is one type that is growing faster than even 401(k) plans. In 2015, the most recent year for which IRS data is available...

On Friday, the IRS announced their 2018 Pension Plan limits. A number of important limits have increased, such as the Defined Contribution and Defined Benefit dollar limits and the elective deferral limit. Some have stayed the same,...

Upon sponsoring a retirement plan as an employee benefit, your client takes on the legal responsibility of a fiduciary. The Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) spells out a number of responsibilities that come along with...

Each 401(k) plan requires three types of services: investment services, recordkeeping services, and administrative services. An investment advisor typically provides investment services such as selecting funds for the plan, educating...

Typically, all employee benefit plans that have over 100 participants are required to have an audit accompanying their Federal annual report (Form 5500). This includes 401(k), 403(b), pension, and other retirement and health and...

Offering a retirement plan isn’t a decision that your business owner clients take lightly. A lot of time and effort goes into researching options and designing a plan. Once they’ve made the decision, even more time and...

For many businesses, sponsoring a traditional pension plan has become too much of a burden on their bottom line. The costs, related to both administrative and benefits, have left them in search of a more affordable option. Your clients...

It takes a village to raise a child, and the same principle applies to retirement plans. An excellent retirement plan is the result of a team effort. As a financial advisor, you shouldn’t be expected to know everything and do...

Back in October, we discussed the surge of growth in cash balance plans (CBPs). One of the reasons they have been growing ten times as fast as 401(k) plans is the tax savings they provide. As your clients recover from tax time, now is...

ERISA law is complicated, so it’s easy for plan sponsors and their advisors to make mistakes unintentionally. Luckily, the IRS recognizes this. They know that it is in everyone’s best interest for plan sponsors to remedy...

Retirement plans are regulated by the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) and the Internal Revenue Code. As such, retirement plan sponsors and administrators must report to the Department of Labor (DOL), the Pension Benefit...

Back in February 2015, President Obama asked the Department of Labor (DOL) to “update the rules and requirements that retirement advisors put the best interests of their clients above their own financial interests.” The DOL...

Your clients understand that it’s the people working in it that make a company great. They want to attract and retain top talent, and one of the best ways to do that is by offering a retirement plan. Many small- to medium-size...

At the end of every year, it is helpful for retirement plan advisors to review their plans to see if anything needs to be done in preparation for the new year. Oftentimes laws and plans have changed that require specific actions. Here...

Whether you’re starting from scratch or just trying to comply with ERISA’s mandate to determine if you’re paying reasonable compensation, conducting a vendor search can be a daunting proposition. The time involved and...

When you take a vacation, how do you plan your trip? Do you just drive to the airport and see where you end up? Or do you choose a destination, book tickets ahead of time, plan the sights you’d like to see, and make reservations...

As an advisor to tax-qualified retirement plans, you understand how much time and energy your clients put into making sure their retirement plans comply with the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974, or ERISA. Now you have...

Even as 401(k) plan use is surging, there is another retirement option that is growing nearly 10 times as fast. What is this other option that is taking over the defined-benefit plan space and putting 401(k) growth to shame? Cash...

The recent IRS deadline at the end of April required that plan sponsors restate their 401(k) plans and other tax-qualified retirement plans to comply with the Pension Protection Act. For busy plan sponsors, the deadline was easy to...

Advisors who work with business owners know they are often different than the average investor. A 2014 CNBC study revealed that most small business owners have 70% of their wealth invested in their businesses, with 20% having over 80%...

Plan sponsors know that there are more liabilities and regulations for them to worry about than ever before. They are concerned with IRS rules, fiduciary responsibilities, and tax law changes. Failure to comply with regulations can be...

There are new IRS Guidelines for Safe Harbor 401(k) Plans. Take a look at our infographic below to learn more!

As we have previously discussed on our blog before, business owners close to retirement are increasingly choosing Cash Balance Plans over 401(k) plans. In fact, almost one in four Fortune 500 companies offers a defined benefit pension...

One of the most important decisions any business owner makes is what kind of retirement plan to set up for himself and his employees. This decision has far-reaching consequences in how much the owner is able to save for retirement, tax...

How confident are you that you will be able to retire comfortably? In 2014, only 18% of workers said that they are very confident they can retire comfortably. That means that the vast majority of people – 82% – are either...

In our last article, we discussed the difference between 3(16), 3(21), and 3(38) fiduciaries. This week, let’s dig deeper to understand 3(16) fiduciaries. By definition, a 3(16) fiduciary has a responsibility to ensure the plan...

One of the most important decisions any business owner makes is what kind of retirement plan to set up for himself and his employees. This is especially important for physicians because of their above-average compensation. The first...

In our recent blog series, “The Best Retirement Plans for Medical Groups,” we have been examining the options available to physicians and their pros and cons. Choosing the right retirement plan is especially important for...

In our blog series, “The Best Retirement Plans for Medical Groups,” we have been examining the options available to physicians and their pros and cons. Choosing the right retirement plan is especially important for...