Retirement plans

What To Do When Your Retirement Vendor Is Sold

As a plan sponsor, when your record keeper changes, you have a fiduciary obligation to research how it affects both your organization and your participants. While this may be a good move for your plan, accepting an automatic conversion remains a fiduciary decision. Plan sponsors should initiate a process to...

Retirement Myth: When Transferring Service Providers, There are no Pitfalls. Part 2 - Market Value Adjustments and Fixed Accounts

A new client engaged Innovative to help them transfer their current retirement plan to a new service provider. By recognizing the fund was subject to a market value adjustment (MVA), we devised a plan that eliminated any chance a participant could lose money in their stable value investment during the...

Retirement Myth: When Transferring Service Providers, There Are No Pitfalls. Part 1 - Protected Benefits

A new client engaged Innovative to transfer their current plan to a new service provider. During the course of our detailed review, we discovered that certain employees had annuity contracts with death benefits that exceeded the value of their plan investments. See how Innovative helped our client navigate their retirement...

Retirement Myth: The Only Benefit to a Retirement Plan is Retirement Savings

See how Innovative helped our client add a pension plan to their existing 401(k) and profit-sharing plan offerings to tackle their recruiting and retention challenges. In addition, we’re able to generate significant tax benefits for the owner.

Retirement Myth: Plans With No Financial Consultant Receive The Best Fees and Fiduciary Protection From Their Qualified Plan Provider

See how Innovative’s experience in conducting plan relationship reviews reduced one client’s fees by more than 40% and streamlined the management of their plan.

Retirement Myth: Once I Sell A Company, I Don't Have To Worry About It Impacting My Current Retirement Plan

See how Innovative helped our client from running afoul of the Affiliated Service group rules and saved the client from potential serious regulation issues.

Retirement Myth: Mergers and Acquisitions are Simple

Innovative’s merger and divestiture of plans expertise enabled us to provide complete end-to-end service for our client during their multi-state, aggressive acquisition strategy. In the end, we were able to consolidate the plans, reduce overall fees by more than 40%, add fiduciary oversight, and ease their administrative burden.

Retirement Myth: I Can't Offer a Student Loan Benefit in my Retirement Plan

While current student loan repayment programs can relieve financial stress, they do not offer tax benefits to employees. However, a recent IRS Private Letter Ruling allowing a major pharmaceutical company to add loan repayment benefits to its 401(k) plan has sparked interest in this approach.

Retirement Myth: I Can Rely on my Recordkeeper to Manage Terminated Employees

When Innovative performed an analysis during the on-boarding of a new client, we revealed a significant number of terminated employees. After digger more, we discovered their recordkeeper never instituted the auto rollover feature. After Innovative removed the 138 eligible participants, we saved the client $13,000 per year.

Retirement Myth: Funding a Profit Sharing Plan for a Company with More Than 100 Employees Will Only Benefit My Employees

There is a common misconception that as a company owner of over 100 employees, increasing funds for a profit-sharing plan would mainly benefit employees rather than the owners and executives. See how Innovative helped one client generate significant tax savings for the owners as well as substantially increasing their share...

Retirement Myth: Employer Profit-Sharing Deductions Must Be Recognized in the Year the Contribution is Made

See how Innovative’s strategic planning and Profit-Sharing experience helped our client maximize tax benefits, coordinate tax benefits of the profit sharing plan with corporate objectives, and fund significant plan contributions for their key employees.

Retirement Myth: As a Plan Sponsor, I Shouldn’t Consider Adding a 3(16) Service to My Plan

An existing client had experienced problems with their 401(k) plan audit for several consecutive years due to internal operational issues. The client requested our help in determining whether they should spend the money for a 3(16) service. See how Innovative helped the client determine if it was the right strategy,...

Retirement Myth: All Highly Compensated Employees are Defined by Salary Alone

See how Innovative helped our client to be compliant with ADP testing, correct a misclassification, and prevent the need to refund contributions to highly compensated employees.

How Working With a Qualified Plan Advisor Can Improve Your Audit Experience

Hiring a quality qualified plan advisor provides many advantages to employers that sponsor a retirement plan. Specifically, one of those advantages is improving your annual qualified plan audit. As each audit season begins, employers often dread having to coordinate with their accounting firm while juggling their day-to-day tasks. The good...

Cybersecurity Due Diligence Assessment for Plan Service Providers

9 Questions to Fulfill Your Due Diligence Requirements As a plan fiduciary, you need to establish a prudent process to understand the cybersecurity standards and practices of your service providers. Download this questionnaire to help you fulfill your due diligence requirements to document such practices. Send each of your service...

Best Practices Surrounding ESG Funds

Socially responsible investing has grown in popularity as investors become more aware of how organizations operate from an environmental, social and governance perspective. As a result, plan sponsors are considering Environmental, Social and Governmental (ESG) fund options as employee’s interest in ensuring their money has a positive impact on society...

5 Steps to Creating a Financial Wellness Program

Many employers incorporate a health wellness program into their organization, but financial wellness is just as important. Studies show that 47% of all employees are stressed about finances and 54% of those employees say they will likely use their retirement funds for expenses other than retirement.

5 Critical Questions to Put Your Advisor to the Test

A knowledgeable plan advisor is an important component in the successful operation of your qualified plan. However, selecting the right candidate requires more than simply reviewing typical Request for Proposal (RFP) responses. You should make sure the potential advisor possesses broad industry experience and expertise that applies to your unique...

4 Steps Plan Sponsors and Retirement Plan Committee Members Take to Protect Themselves?

When managing a qualified retirement plan, there are certain duties the plan sponsor and committee members have to the plan and participants as named fiduciaries. These duties create liability for the plan sponsor and committee members for decisions made regarding the plan. How can plan sponsors and committee members ensure...