Although my New Year’s resolutions include less procrastination it’s likely that by the time Valentine’s Day gets here that good intention will long be in my rear view. As I draft these 2020 resolutions, my CPA reminds me once again of all the tax benefits, personal and corporate, that a qualified retirement plan can offer. Finding incentive for my 2020 resolutions, I’m reminded that my inaction in 2019 has limited my options for tax savings tools as the 2019 returns are prepared.
Our business is thinking of setting up a retirement plan. We’ve heard that there are new tax credits offered under the SECURE Act available to employers who set up new plans.
We are considering adding automatic enrollment to our 401(k) plan. We’ve read some of the other posts on your website about EACAs and QACAs, but that all seems like a lot of extra complexity that we don’t really need. We’re really just looking for the basics; we want employees who don’t take any action to be automatically in rather than automatically out. That’s it.
(Updated 12/23/2019) Late Friday evening (aboard Air Force One leaving DC for his holiday retreat), President Trump signed the spending bill that included the SECURE Act. In a bit of last-minute maneuvering in Washington, DC, the House of Representatives added the provisions from the SECURE Act to the spending bill that had to be passed by Friday to avoid a government shutdown. Although the provisions that were problematic before are still part of the mix, the political climate is such that both parties wanted political wins and neither wanted to risk being branded as the one that “allowed” or “forced” another government shutdown.
I work for a non-profit organization that is thinking of setting up a retirement plan. One of the service providers who we’ve spoken to about this said something about determining whether we are related to any other businesses through over-lapping ownership.
Written by Keith Clark, Managing Partner
The end of the year is a time for reflection, and this year we have a lot to look back on.
We entered our 20th year of business this past May. Eleven years ago, we started our TPA practice with the goal of differentiating ourselves from the standard industry model. Our emphasis was understanding that we are a professional services firm, and that means providing consistently excellent service. Our clients, advisors, and recordkeeping service providers must always come first.
I never understood why I had to sit in a waiting room when I visited a doctor or dentist when I had a pre-established appointment. The old school service model where their time is more important than mine does not work anymore! We know our clients’ time is valuable and they should never have to wonder when we will respond to them or be in doubt about the status of their deliverables. This is why we developed the DWC Way - our service expectations and basic tenets:
- As originally published in our Q4 2019 newsletter. Didn't get it? Sign up here.
Our 401(k) plan allows participants to take loans from their accounts. We have a written policy that describes how the loans work and spells out the requirements that the plan and participants must follow. Among other details, the loan policy indicates that payments must be made via payroll deduction.
The annual compliance report that our TPA provided to us indicates that we over-funded matching contributions for certain employees and instructs us to transfer the excess amounts out of the affected participants’ accounts and into a plan suspense account. The only problem is that I am not sure what a suspense account is. When I spoke to our recordkeeper, they said we have a forfeiture account but not a suspense account.
Every year we gather with family and friends to stuff ourselves silly in honor of the first harvest here in the New World. Since that time, families have perfected and passed down Turkey Day recipes that have become staples on the dinner table.
Stop us if you’ve heard this one before – a SEP, a SIMPLE, and a 401(k) walk into a bar…unfortunately, there’s not a great punch line at the end of this one. Instead of some good laughs, this situation is a recipe for some issues in need of attention. While it might be unusual for a single company to establish one of each, it is not nearly as far-fetched to discover that related companies may have setup separate types of plans for their respective employees, one with a SEP or SIMPLE and another with a 401(k) plan. This isn’t necessarily a problem with respect to the 401(k) plan, but the SEP and SIMPLE rules restrict how those types of plans can co-exist with others.
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