As an employer, there are two general goals attempting to be met when starting a retirement plan.  Either to retain and recruit high quality employees, or to save money on taxes while saving for your own retirement. For most, the Safe Harbor 401k is an easy way to...

As an employer, making the decision whether you should choose a 401k plan or a group health plan can be a difficult one. Employees have similar characteristics like consumers, and they value benefits from the company they choose to work for.  Before accepting a job,...

The number of self-employed Americans is rising by the day. According to Gallup, 30% of American workers were self-employed.  Being self-employed doesn't mean you'll fail to benefit from the tax benefits that formal employees get as conventional retirement plans....

401k's are a great way for employees to save up for retirement, and part of being a successful business owner is to understand how they work.  One aspect of 401k's you should be familiar with is "vesting".  This article will give a brief outline of vesting and its...

If some of your employees are receiving refunds from your company’s 401k plan, chances are your plan failed the annual IRS required compliance (nondiscrimination) tests. Although 401k plans have emerged as one of the most popular retirement plans in the US, they still...

For many small business owners, establishing a Safe Harbor 401k plan is beneficial and is a choice worth looking at as it provides excellent tax and retirement benefits for both the employer and employee.  By having a great retirement plan for your employees, you...

To attract the best employees, you need to have a great benefits package.  Besides offering insurance, having an employee retirement plan is an excellent incentive for retaining top talent.  Having a retirement plan with auto-enrollment provides great benefits to both...

When it comes to offering retirement benefits to your employees, you have more options than just offering a 401k.  So, how does profit sharing work? Profit sharing can be a great option for employers who want to give their employees a little extra towards retirement,...

In 1921, William and Salie Utz began selling potato chips, hand-cooked in their home kitchen, packaged in brown paper bags. Today, Utz Potato Chips is the leading conglomerate in the snack food industry.  In today's market, about 90% of American businesses are...

Yes, 401(k)s can be audited.  But, before you race to your file cabinet to find your records, let us explain what this means and we'll dive into what happens in a 401(k) audit. Federal law requires that 401(k)s and other types of retirement plans to be audited.  The...

"Let’s be honest.  If you’re a business owner, you’ve probably thought of how to become an absentee owner one day.   The notion that your company cannot operate without you forces you to assume a few mundane tasks from each department, and you become the...

If you make contributions to your employee's 401k plan, you may have built up amounts called forfeitures.   What is a forfeiture account?  A forfeiture is the non-vested portion of an employee's account balance.  For example, if an employee is 40% vested in your...