By Doug Coggins
As a business owner, C-suite executive or human resources manager, chances are your areas of expertise lie with your chosen profession so choosing or re-evaluating retirement benefits for your employees can be intimidating.
IRAs, SIMPLE Plans, 403b, 401k – the list goes on. How can you be sure that you choose a retirement plan solution that meets the budget, maximizes tax deductions, keeps current employees happy and makes you competitive for employee recruitment? The best retirement plan service providers will get to know your organization and will work with you as a partner to find the right solution.
Here are five tips to help get you started:
1. Understand your role.
As a business owner, you are a fiduciary to the retirement plan, which means you have three big responsibilities: ensuring the retirement plan is operationally sound by following the terms of the plan document, monitoring the total cost of offering the plan, and monitoring the underlying investments offered.
Assuming you do not consider yourself to be a financial expert, the legal obligations involved with serving as a fiduciary may be daunting. That is why it is critically important to consider the level of expertise of the retirement plan provider working with you. You want to make sure the company you choose will help you fulfill your role as fiduciary to help you achieve the greatest level of success and, as a business owner, the greatest efficiency of your time.
2. Talk to a trusted advisor.
Whether you are looking to begin offering retirement benefits for the first time, or are in the process of re-evaluating your existing options, take advantage of your network. Your commercial lender, legal team and/or certified public accountant are a great place to start. These individuals are likely to be able to recommend a few different service providers that you could reach out to gather more information on what options are available.
3. Consider your goals.
Businesses have different reasons for adding or re-evaluating retirement benefits. You may want to become more competitive in employee recruitment or retention, maximize your tax deductions, or simply give your employees more to help them build a healthy retirement.
Whatever your motivation is, it is important to consider it and to be transparent about it. The better retirement providers will ask and will want to provide a tailored retirement benefit solution based on your corporate and individual goals.
4. Prioritize what’s important to you in plan management.
There are a variety of different plan management strategies. Some companies focus on offering the lowest cost, while others focus on personalization. With some retirement providers comes the option to have a financial education resource on hand, for others more of that responsibility may fall on the employees themselves. The bottom line is you should consider your priorities when it comes to expertise, cost, objectivity and communication.
Expertise: Are you acting as your own trustee? Do you know what that means in today’s world? Is it important for you to have someone to guide you in your role as fiduciary? Do you have someone in-house to provide financial education and guidance to employees? If not, is that a role you are hoping the retirement provider will provide?
Just because a company may be able to provide a retirement plan, doesn’t mean they are able to supplement it with financial education for you and your employees. So, this is important to consider.
Cost: As a business owner, working within a budget is essential. Is it a priority for you to find the cheapest possible option? Or is your goal to maximize performance balanced with expenses? Remember, if you find the cheapest option, but it also comes with even a slight decrease in performance, it may not be the appropriate way to go.
Objectivity: Would you prefer to have an independent retirement provider that isn’t connected to specific mutual funds? There are several big-name providers who offer retirement benefits but have certain requirements for the number and/or distribution of mutual funds. On the other hand, banks may want to have you open an account in addition to signing on for retirement benefits.
If objectivity is important to you, speak up. The retirement solutions at NBT Wealth Management, for example, are completely objective and have no requirements for mutual funds or other lines of business.
Communication: Think ahead to the communication regarding your plan management. When you have questions, who will you contact, a customer service line or an individual? Customer service lines may leave you repeating information and committing time to getting to the right person or the answer you need. If you can find an individual who will serve as your primary contact, he or she often becomes an extension of your own team and is familiar with you and your plans.
5. Don’t forget room to grow.
It is important to get a plan that works for your current situation, but it is equally as important to consider the future. Do you anticipate company growth? What are your business goals and how might they affect the type of retirement benefit you offer in the future? These are essential discussions to have with your sponsoring company to ensure that you not only make a plan that fits where you are now, but also leaves room to grow.