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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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Overtime Is Up and Bonuses Are Down: Will This Year's Irregular Compensation Impact our Retirement Plan?

DWC 12/1/20
Facts We sponsor a 401(k) plan for our employees and provide a company matching contribution to those who defer. Our plan specifies that in calculating that match, we only consider employee base pay and exclude “irregular” forms of pay (specifically bonuses and overtime). This allows us to be more precise when we are building the expected cost of ...
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DWC's Thanksgiving Dinner Prep Playlist

DWC 11/24/20
Facts All year long we've been leaving little rock 'n' roll Easter eggs in our Cash Balance Corner feed. ICYMI: Each post title incorporates one of our favorite songs. And for our 20th century rock music fans, our retirement plan-savvy business owner, Robert Smith's name should ring some bells. (Hint: His music has the cure for what ails you.)
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How Do Furloughed Employees Impact Our Plan at Year-End?

DWC 11/17/20
Facts Like many businesses, we had to furlough some employees earlier this year in response to the coronavirus shutdowns. We’ve been fortunate enough to bring back a few of these employees, but a number still remain in limbo. As we approach year-end, we’ve started wondering how this might affect our 401(k) plan and potential company contributions.
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Are There Plan Design Options We Should Consider as Part of the Mandatory Cycle 3 Plan Document Restatement?

DWC 11/10/20
Facts We’ve been following your recent posts about how making even small changes to certain plan provisions can make managing the plan easier without sacrificing our objectives. Making life easier, while minimizing chances for errors…you’ve really been speaking our language.
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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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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.