Streamlined Support for Your Business

Individual(k)^TM plans, also known as Solo 401(k) plans or self-employed 401(k)s, are designed for self-employed individuals or small business owners with no additional non-spouse employees. These plans offer many of the same benefits as traditional 401(k) plans, including tax-deferred growth and the potential for employer contributions. However, there are some requirements you need to consider before your spouse can participate in your plan.

As a plan sponsor, you may be wondering if you are required to provide a 401(k) match for long-term, part-time employees. Although the rules and regulations of the Setting Every Community Up for Retirement Enhancement Act of 2019 (SECURE Act) and the SECURE 2.0 Act of 2022 (SECURE 2.0) have changed the eligibility rules for long-term, part-time employees, the requirements for matching contributions have stayed the same. Read on to learn more about these provisions and why offering an employer 401(k) match can be valuable to your small business.

Fiduciary. It's become somewhat of a buzzword over the last few years in the retirement industry—and for good reason. With many retirement plan sponsors falsely believing they don’t have fiduciary responsibilities in relation to their plan, and the Employment Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA) holding them to a rigorous standard regardless, there’s a clear disconnect when it comes to who is a plan fiduciary is and what their responsibilities are.

You've probably heard that the only two guarantees in life are death and taxes—but with recent stock market volatility, many retirement plan participants would like to add three more items to that list of guarantees: preservation of principal (I can't lose what I contributed), investment return (I know how much my money will earn), and lifetime income (I can't outlive my investments).

Growing your business is always top of mind, and as a small business owner, you have to work strategically to earn community support and grow brand awareness. While holding a sale or giving out coupons may facilitate the expansion of your business, consider how offering a 401(k) and financial wellness education as part of your benefits package can be an alternative strategy to stand out, as well as attract and retain team members who can help your business grow in the long-term.

As tax time approaches each year, small business owners often begin scrambling to find ways to decrease their annual corporate taxable income—sometimes resorting to making large purchases to write off as a business expense or even adding employee benefits, like a retirement plan, to their benefits package. And lately, profit sharing has become a hot topic in the industry.

Humans feel stress daily. It's a part of life, but that doesn't mean it needs to creep into the workplace. Outside stress can cause a serious lack of focus among affected employees, and one of the biggest stressors is money. In fact, nearly half of employees who report feeling financially stressed admit that their personal finances have been a distraction at work—and among those employees, 56 percent admit to spending three or more hours per week dealing with or thinking about issues related to their personal finances while on company time.¹

You've done the research and you've seen the statistics: more than 90 percent of American employees value a 401(k) or similar retirement plan as an important benefit—and more than 4 in 5 agree that retirement benefits offered by a potential employer would be a major factor in their decision-making on whether or not to take a job.¹

Every few years, for one reason or another, the stock market begins to plummet—and as a result, every few years, there’s widespread panic about a potential recession, what that may mean for Americans' finances, and how it may impact the future of our economy.

As a responsible retirement plan sponsor, you may occasionally wonder if there's a different retirement plan provider that's more beneficial to your employees and your organization. In fact, as a fiduciary, you should consistently review what your plan needs are, what you currently receive in terms of services, the amount you pay for those services, and what else is out there on the market. Before you do any legwork, and certainly before you make any decisions, it’s important to formulate a game plan because no two plan providers are exactly alike, and there are no "cookie cutter" solutions. 

Endless opportunities for relaxation. Time to take up new hobbies. Feeling financially free with wide-open days. However you personally envision spending the autumn of your life, one of the cornerstones of the American dream is a secure retirement. After a long and dedicated career, people envision their golden years stretched out ahead of them, filled with leisure and a chance to enjoy what they worked hard for all their lives. That dream has become more difficult to reach over the past decades, but with a little bit of employer-sponsored help, it’s still possible to restore retirement to America.

A 401(k) savings plan is a cost-effective way to offer flexibility to both the employer and the employee—and there are a lot of Americans saving with these plans. Roughly 54 million Americans hold an estimated $5.3 trillion in assets in 401(k) plans, and that number is on the rise.*

Sponsoring a workplace 401(k) plan can be a little intimidating if you’re not a financial expert or you’re apprehensive about the fiduciary decisions you may be asked to make. With all the news about fiduciary standards and so many rules and regulations to follow, many 401(k) plan sponsors feel overwhelmed without help on their side. Fortunately, assistance is available. Financial advisors can act as a guiding light for plan sponsors, and hiring one may help alleviate any initial concerns or confusion you have.

As a 401(k) plan sponsor, one responsibility you face is to make sure that you and your employees stay educated and equipped with the right tools to put everyone on a secure path to retirement readiness.

Saving for retirement is a long-term game, but when emergencies or unforeseen expenses arise in the short term, accessing those retirement savings can be tempting. Most retirement plans offer several different ways for participants to access their savings, whether through a qualified hardship distribution or by taking a plan loan.

As a business owner, offering a company-sponsored 401(k) plan that your staff can contribute to kills two hypothetical birds with one stone; you're offering a high-value employee benefit that will help attract and retain talent and you're keeping business expenses relatively low.

Pooled Employer Plans (PEPs) are a type of 401(k) plan that’s designed to reduce employers' administrative and fiduciary responsibilities relating to the plan, which—as a retirement plan sponsor—means fewer hours spent reviewing your plan's investments and more time spent running your business.

The concept of employers banding together to create a group of retirement plans with shared plan administration and management, and potentially lower costs has existed for many years. What busy employer wouldn't be interested in sharing responsibilities and potentially offloading some administrative duties? However, these grouped plans required that the employers have a common nexus.

There's long been a coverage gap in the retirement industry, specifically as it relates to small businesses. In fact, only one-third of small businesses offer any type of retirement benefit to employees—making it a serious challenge for those employees to properly prepare for a financially secure retirement.¹ In an effort to safeguard the financial future of its citizenry, the California state government is stepping in to tell small business owners that they're going to have to start offering employees a retirement plan to save in.

For many people, reaching a financially secure retirement may seem more like an unrealistic daydream than a future reality. Too few people are adequately saving for their retirement, too many are relying on Social Security to fund their golden years, and too often, employees don't have a savings plan available through their employer to help. If we continue down this path, the future (and the economy) may look drastically different than what we envision today.

Most small employers in the state of Illinois are now required to offer employees a retirement savings program to save in—an attempt from the state government to protect its citizenry from reaching retirement age without having adequate savings to get them to and through retirement

As a retirement plan sponsor, you have a lot of responsibilities—including keeping your retirement plan document up-to-date with the latest legislative and regulatory changes.

Small business owners looking to implement a retirement plan for their small business commonly decide a SIMPLE IRA is a good savings vehicle for them to start out with; it’s a low-cost option that is pretty easy to run and offers employees a place to save for retirement. However, as the business grows and business owners start to experience limitations in the plan, many outgrow their SIMPLE IRA and begin to think about upgrading to a 401(k) plan.

Artificial intelligence (AI) may be all the rage these days, with multiple reports coming out almost daily highlighting the benefits of AI on both professional and personal levels. But before we had AI, we had automation.

There are plenty of different types of insurance the average person is likely to have: life insurance, health insurance, car insurance, etc. However, many small business owners begin the process of sponsoring a 401(k) plan and hear for the first time that they may be required to purchase a bond to serve as insurance on behalf of their 401(k) plan. 

Small business owners and their employees often enjoy perks such as a strong sense of community, a family-like atmosphere, and the ability to make each employee feel as though their voice is truly heard.

Small business owners make hundreds of decisions a day ranging from big to small—and many decisions have some sort of effect on their company's bottom line and overall livelihood. When it comes to the benefits package offered by the company, small business owners may also make decisions that impact the livelihood of their employees as well.  

Determining the right type of 401(k) plan for your small business can be challenging. With so many options and so much to consider, one key decision you may have to make is whether to go with a traditional plan design or a safe harbor plan design. This is a vitally important decision, as your choice can have long-term implications for both your employees and your company.

As year-end approaches, many business owners begin scrambling to find ways to maximize potential tax benefits for the year. Perhaps your financial advisor suggested saving any expensive company purchases for the end of the year in a last-ditch effort to lower your profit margins and drop your business into a lower tax bracket.

Small business owners who decide to set up a retirement plan to benefit themselves and their employees may consider a Simplified Employee Pension (SEP) IRA. Not only is it a low-cost option for the employer, but it doesn’t require the same IRS reporting and plan testing involved in running conventional retirement plans.

It always seems like the most important time to have a plan in place is when you’re in the midst of uncertainty. When anything can happen, life’s twists and turns seem easier to handle if you know to expect the unexpected.

There are many benefits that come along with self-employment and running your own business ; you make your own work schedule, you’re passionate about what you do, and you’re in full control—just to name a few. One advantage that may not be as prevalent in self-employment, however, is benefits.