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“Cover Me” with the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation

DWC 08/19/21
Welcome back to Cash Balance Corner (CBC) after a brief summer hiatus. We thought you deserved a break after all the math we threw at you in the last few entries. This is the 15th installment for CBC, which started with cash balance plan basics and progressed to the complexities of nondiscrimination testing. Our plan is to wind up CBC by the end ...
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Designing Your 401(k) Plan for Combined Testing

DWC 05/6/21
Thousands of 401(k) plans are designed each year to promote savings in the most cost-effective manner. Most are established as stand-alone plans and will remain that way for their entire existence. Some, however, are initially set up as stand-alone, only to be paired with a cash balance plan down the road. Since most cash balance plans are ...
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Nondiscriminatory Benefit Amounts - Treat Me Right

DWC 04/8/21
Outside the complex world of qualified plans, the term “nondiscrimination” can take on many different meanings based on many different points of view. Fortunately, in the qualified plan world, the meaning of “nondiscrimination” is well defined, albeit quite complex. Here, the only point of view that matters is that of the IRS.
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Nondiscrimination Testing Creates Career Opportunites

DWC 02/11/21
Sponsoring a retirement plan can provide significant benefits to a company (and its participants). But with great benefits comes great responsibility…responsibility to follow all of the various regulatory requirements. Since these plans provide hundreds of billions of dollars in tax deductions each year, Congress and the various agencies want to ...
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Anticipating a New Hire - You Might Change Your Mind

DWC 01/28/21
Sponsoring a retirement plan can provide significant benefits to a company (and its participants). But with great benefits comes great responsibility…responsibility to follow all of the various regulatory requirements. Since these plans provide hundreds of billions of dollars in tax deductions each year, Congress and the various agencies want to ...
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Adding an Employee to Your Cash Balance Plan? You Should be Thinking This Article is "Just What I Needed"

DWC 12/3/20
Sponsoring a retirement plan can provide significant benefits to a company (and its participants). But with great benefits comes great responsibility…responsibility to follow all of the various regulatory requirements. Since these plans provide hundreds of billions of dollars in tax deductions each year, Congress and the various agencies want to ...
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Cash Balance Compliance: "Takin' Care of Business"

DWC 11/5/20
Wow! We have covered a lot of ground over the last few entries, learning about how cash balance benefits are earned and funded. So far, our plan sponsor Robert Smith, Inc. has dealt with the complexities of an owner-only plan. Now, it’s time to take a step back to take a look at some of the more mundane-sounding but still very important ...
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How to "Push It" (But Not Too Much) by Prefunding Cash Balance Plans

DWC 10/22/20
Thanks to the last few CB Corner entries, we now know that our plan sponsor Robert Smith, Inc. has a wide range of options when it comes to making contributions to its cash balance plan.
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Maximum Contributions: Additional "Opportunities"

DWC 10/8/20
In our last episode, we mentioned we would move on to developing an ideal funding policy. Before doing so, we realized there is one more aspect of the maximum allowable contribution we need to cover – tax deductibility. After all, the need for additional deductions is one of the main drivers for businesses to setup cash balance plans in the first ...
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Maximum Contributions: "Everybody Wants Some"

DWC 09/17/20
Let’s do a little recap. In the last two installments, we discussed what Robert is required to contribute (the Minimum) to his cash balance plan and what he should contribute (the Recommended). Now, we will talk about what he can contribute (the Maximum).
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The views expressed in this blog are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the views of any other person or organization. All content is provided for informational purposes only and is not intended to be tax or legal advice.