Advisor Connect
We’re excited to introduce Advisor Connect, our monthly video series designed specifically to share business-building ideas with financial professionals working with qualified retirement plans.
Your TPA Expert Partner Can Help You Win Business
Download The Companion Document When it comes to the administration of retirement plans, most TPAs can execute the work pretty competently. And while there are differences in quality of process and internal expertise, most of this is technical work that happens behind...
Advantages of an Unbundled Platform
Download The Companion Document There are some things that we’re happy to buy right off the rack. After all, mass production usually means consistency and cost-savings. On the other hand, when we do buy off the shelf, we compromise on individual choice and sometimes...
Plan Audits
Download The Companion Document Your clients are familiar with the idea of an audit on their personal or corporate tax return, but they may not be familiar with an audit of their qualified retirement plan. There are two broad categories of plan audits. Today, we’ll...
Maximizing an Owner’s Retirement Benefit
Download The Companion Document It’s a common story – business owners put everything into their businesses for years before being in a financial position to put real money away for retirement. Once they’re ready to really get going, we can suggest a number of...
Understanding how forfeitures work in retirement plans
Download The Companion Document When we talk about 401k type retirement plans we sometimes focus on the contributions made by employees that are ALWAYS immediately vested. In other words, it's THEIR money and they can always withdraw it without forfeiting ANY- subject...
3(16) Fiduciary Services and Why You Should Care
Download The Companion Document As a financial advisor, you know that the people who exercise control and authority over the management of a retirement plan’s assets are fiduciaries. So are professionals who provide investment advice with respect to those assets. In...
It’s All About Relationships
Download The Companion Document There are many industry stats about 401k “sales.” Perhaps you have your own. It’s natural to talk in terms of lead generation and sales funnels and qualifying questions and, of course, closing. But, when you get down to it, it’s not...
Help Clients Understand Why a QDIA Matters
Download The Companion Document Under the regs, a QDIA can be either a target date fund, a balanced fund or a professionally managed account. It's important to note that the selection of one of these needs to reflect the age and income ranges of the employee...
The Loan They Never Take May Make All the Difference
Download The Companion Document IRS rules provide for participant loans and hardship withdrawals from 401k and other plans. They're not required, but rather left to the discretion of the plan sponsor. Today, there's a good bit of debate about how participant loans...
Of Course Your Clients Are Fiduciaries
Download The Companion Document When it comes to the topic of fiduciary responsibilities for qualified retirement plans, there are three things we know really well: Plan Sponsors are, by definition, a fiduciary of their own plan as they exercise control and act on...
When to Set Sail With Safe Harbor
Download The Companion Document You already know that a 401(k) is a very popular retirement plan and, like other plan designs, it allows employees to take advantage of tax deferrals on contributions and earnings while their money accumulates for retirement. To enjoy...
DB Plans Alive and Well
Download The Companion Document For the most part, the news about Defined Benefit plans lately has not been particularly good. Whether a big company could no longer fund its plan or how it was bankrupting their business, headlines have discouraged many businesses from...
Financial wellness – it’s essential to saving for retirement
Download The Companion Document Financial wellness – it’s essential to saving for retirement Introducing a workplace retirement plan can be a compelling way for individuals to take control of their retirement savings, but for so many people that don’t have control of...
Cash Balance plans allow six figure annual contributions
Cash Balance plans allow six-figure annual contributions Most people can contribute to their 401(k) without worrying about exceeding the annual contribution limit. If you’re under 50 years old, that’s $18,000 a year. If you’re 50 or older, it’s $24,000. A small, but...
To Roth or Not to Roth
To Roth or Not to Roth: A compelling feature of a 401(k) type retirement plan has always been the opportunity to contribute money from your current income on a pre-tax basis today - let it work for you over the years - and then pay taxes on the accumulated balance as...
Auto-Enrollment and Auto-Escalation
Auto-Enrollment and Auto-Escalation When we think about the important goals we’ve reached in our lives, like graduating from college or achieving a career milestone, the journey likely took time, perseverance, and a whole lot of hard work. But the payoff in the end...
Answering the “Why Us?” Question
Answering the "Why Us?" Question Whether retirement plans are core to your practice or part of a larger strategy to help clients, you’ll compete more effectively if you successfully communicate how you differentiate yourself from other advisors. From the perspective...
It’s Not A One-Size-Fits-All World
It’s Not a One-Size-Fits-All World This won’t come as a surprise, but we all have different tastes and needs. The examples are all around us. Take TV, for example. To me, it means movies. To you, it might mean sports or news. But that’s ok because we can customize our...