Plan Creation
If you don’t currently have a business retirement plan in place, one of the first things a HUB Southwest retirement services professional can do for you is help you build one from the bottom up. You’ll receive expert advice regarding the type of retirement strategy to choose, the process of managing employee and employer contributions, and similar details.
Employee retirement plan consultants can also improve your existing benefits programs. A common example is transitioning from traditional business pensions to popular 401(k) programs.
401(k) / 403k(b) / 457(b) / 401(a)
HUB’s retirement consulting services cover a wide range of plan options to meet the diverse needs of your workforce. We help you navigate the intricacies of each plan type, ensuring you select the best fit for your company’s goals and employee demographics.
We serve for-profit and not-for-profit organizations of all sizes, as well as government organizations, and can help structure any of the following plans:
– 401(k) Plans: These are the most popular employer-sponsored plans, allowing employees to contribute pre-tax or Roth (after-tax) dollars. Employers often match contributions, providing an additional incentive for employees to save. 401(k) plans are valuable recruiting tools, but also impose added fiduciary obligations upon employers who must maintain them.
– 403(b) Plans: A 403(b) is a retirement plan offered by public schools and certain 501(c)(3) organizations. Not subject to ERISA, a 403(b) provides greater flexibility and fewer reporting and fiduciary requirements. However, employers can have only ministerial participation and cannot select vendors or TPAs.
– 457(b) Plans: A 457(b) or Top Hat plan grants tax-advantaged treatment to certain non-qualified deferred compensation plans for government entities or an entity exempt from income tax under IRC Section 501(c). A Top Hat can only provide deferred compensation for highly compensated employees or groups of managers, executives, directors, or officers. A 457(b) is not subject to all of ERISA if handled properly, giving sponsors greater flexibility and fewer reporting and fiduciary requirements.
– 401(a) Plans: These plans are less common and typically offered to employees of government agencies or educational institutions.
Pension Plans
Also known as defined benefit plans, these plans guarantee a specific monthly benefit at retirement based on years of service and salary history.
A HUB Southwest Retirement Services professional can help structure a pension plan for your organization.
SEP IRAs and SIMPLE IRAs
These are simplified retirement plans for small businesses. SEP IRAs are for small business owners, while SIMPLE IRAs are for businesses with less than 100 employees.
A HUB Southwest Retirement Services professional can help structure a SEP IRA or SIMPLE IRA for your organization.
Profit-Sharing Plans
A profit-sharing plan allocates a percentage of company profits to eligible employees. It requires a “plan document” establishing its term, a trust for plan assets to fund it, a record-keeping system for contributions and profit distributions, and a process for offering the plan to eligible employees.
A HUB Southwest retirement services professional can help structure a profit-sharing plan for your organization.
Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP)
An ESOP is a retirement plan in which an employer contributes stock to benefit an employee. An employer can contribute stock to a trust it establishes and allocate shares based upon seniority. Or the employer can have the plan borrow money to buy stock and provide funds to repay the loan. ESOPs are considered excellent recruiting tools but are expensive to establish and may expose a company to damage claims.
A HUB Southwest retirement services professional can help structure an ESOP for your organization.
Cash Balance Plans
A hybrid plan with features of both defined benefit and defined contribution plans, these plans provide a set annual contribution that grows with interest credits.
A HUB Southwest retirement services professional can help structure a cash balance plan for your organization.
FICA Alternative Plans (3121)
This option replaces Social Security taxes with an employer-sponsored retirement plan.
A HUB Southwest retirement services professional can help structure a FICA alternative plan for your organization.
Investment Consulting & Oversight
Service we provide is this area include:
- Ability to serve as ERISA 3(21) and 3(38) Fiduciary
- Investment Policy Statement (IPS) development
- Consultation on investment structure
- Consultation on investment allocation and number of options
- Target Date Portfolios – analysis, selection and review
- Initial Manager screening, analysis and selection
- New investment manager search
- Ongoing reporting and monitoring
- Internal WPA investment committee/fi360 screens
- Ongoing watch list process
- Regular investment committee meetings
Risk Mitigation
Despite the large financial and legal risks of sponsoring a retirement plan, fiduciary risk management is often overlooked by business owners and executives. HUB offers fiduciary risk management support to businesses. Here are just some of the services we offer.
Fiduciary Investment Review
– We can serve as an ERISA 3(21) investment advisor or an ERISA 3(38) investment manager to your plan.
– Our investment selection and monitoring services include education, advice and potential management of your investment menu. We also provide a quarterly monitoring report of the funds in your plan using a documented, prudent process to select and monitor investments.
Plan Governance Consulting
– We can advise you in the creation, execution and regular review of your Investment Policy Statement.
– We test your plan and benchmark multiple data points against your plan ‘peer group,’ in order to make recommendations on best practices regarding plan design, compliance, vendor services and plan demographics.
Provider Analysis and Benchmarking
– Our provider benchmarking process assesses the quality of your service providers. We analyze the scope of services, the value delivered to you and your employees, and their impact on plan costs.
– When performing a vendor search, we evaluate and analyze your incumbent and prospective vendors and allow you to make an informed decision based on current best practices.
All retirement plans and investment programs hold a degree of risk. The key is to identify high-risk areas, mitigate potential dangers, and maximize your returns on investment. A HUB Southwest retirement services professional can customize retirement savings plans to match the level of risk tolerance participants are comfortable with.
Governance & Compliance
Retirement plans must meet federal Employee Retirement Income Security Act guidelines. A HUB Southwest retirement plan fiduciary can help your business navigate this regulatory compliance smoothly.
Service we provide is this area include:
- Establishment and education of committees
- Committee charter guidance
- Training on fiduciary duties
- Agenda and minutes documentation
- Plan design consultation
- Service provider selection and consultation
- Compliance monitoring
- Fee disclosure and benchmarking
- Service provider trouble shooting and interface
- Legislative and regulatory updates and consultation
- Qualified Default Investment Allocation (QDIA) monitoring
- Request for information (RFI) and Request for Proposal (RFP) process management
Employee Communication
Retirement plans are only a valuable perk if employees understand how to use them and manage savings wisely. We therefore take great care to develop a marketing and communication plan that will be effective in fostering desired behaviors.
We take great pains to develop beautifully designed, omni-channel communication materials, online destinations, and decision support tools. These collectively make it easier for advisors to explain both the technical and financial benefits of plan participation.
Our communication and design efforts integrate findings from the latest research in human behavior, social sciences, and behavioral economics which can lead to better retirement outcomes, providing your workers a feeling of safety, control, and financial security. Examples of this include choice architecture, and auto-enrollment and auto-escalation features, just to name a few. We also analyze participant behavior can help guide us to focus areas for improved communications, support, and counseling.
Other educational services include:
– Enrollment support
– Annual participant education strategy and planning
– 1-on-1 employee counseling
– Wealth management services for business executives
– Financial well-being counseling (401k, Social Security and other personal assets)
– Individual Retirement Guidance Program (IRG)
– On-going onsite and virtual education seminars
Get Started
Share a few details and a member of our team will contact you to schedule a free, no-obligation quote and complimentary review of your retirement services needs.