3rd Quarter 2009
Get More from Your Business Retirement Plan
As your business changes, it’s a good idea to ensure your retirement plan is helping you achieve your business goals. Whether you have a business with one employee or a company with 100 employees, your retirement plan provides value for your business and for each person participating in the plan. So it's important to make the most of it.
Analyze the Options for Your Plan
The benefits of a business retirement plan can change over time, just as your business changes. A retirement plan allows you to reduce your tax liability and increase your retirement savings. So a regular review of your business needs and the available retirement plan options can help ensure you offer a competitive plan that meets your needs. It also can prompt participation among any eligible employees, helping them build toward a secure retirement. As a plan participant, you too may want to review your contribution levels to ensure you are accelerating your personal retirement savings.
As you review your retirement plan, there are options that may add value for you and any employees you may have:
- Review Your Contribution Percentage
Tax-deferred growth and time in the plan are a powerful combination for building the value of investments. By increasing your contributions, you’ll save more in current taxes as well as build your retirement savings. And a small increase in personal retirement savings now could help make sure you don’t outlive your retirement investments in the future. - Evaluate Your Mutual Fund Offerings
By including a variety of investment choices in your plan, you have the opportunity to diversify retirement investments among different types of securities. An individual portfolio generally should include investments that are expected to perform differently during particular economic conditions. With diversification, a decline in any single investment has less impact on your overall portfolio and may be offset by increases in other investments. So select the mutual funds that allow you to build a diversified retirement portfolio within your plan. While diversification can help reduce portfolio risk, it cannot ensure against loss.
Match Your Plan to Business Goals
It’s important that your plan complements your business goals and helps provide you and any employees you may have with a means to save for a secure retirement. Once your plan is in place, reassess it periodically as you analyze your business.
For example, you may have grown faster than expected or acquired another business. You may be considering adding employees or moving into new markets. Perhaps changes in your personal life — a marriage, divorce, birth or death — have affected your business or retirement plans. So you may want to consider adjusting your plan to ensure it still matches your current business goals.
Get More than Tax Benefits
Retirement plans offer significant tax advantages. Your company gets an immediate tax deduction for the amount it contributes to the plan each year, and those who participate in the plan benefit from the tax-deferred growth of their contributions. But a retirement plan provides other benefits for your business if you have employees or plan to recruit employees:
- Boost Morale and Productivity
A retirement plan shows your employees that you are concerned about their futures. It can give them another reason to remain committed to your business and its success. - Retain Great Employees and Save on Training Costs
Hiring and training a new employee is costly. According to the American Management Association, those costs can be more than $75,000 for a top executive. A plan with a vesting schedule provides an incentive for your employees to stay with your company. - Recruit High-Quality Employees
Your people are your most important asset. A comprehensive benefits package that includes a retirement plan may give you an edge over your competitors.
Providing for a secure retirement is one more way to build a strong business. As you analyze your business retirement plan, take steps to ensure it meets your business goals and the needs of the participants—even if that’s only you.
Contact The Standard Today
You might know The Standard just as a provider of employee benefits. But for more than 75 years, we also have helped people achieve financial security through prudent retirement planning.
The Standard’s retirement plans offer:
- rigorous fund selection and monitoring programs, to ensure a stable of solid investment offerings;
- a wide array of plans for every type of workplace investor, from new entrants to the nearly retired;
- locally based client service consultants, so that help is always close at hand;
- online tools, research capabilities and real-time account information.
How can The Standard’s retirement plans benefit you, both as a broker and a business owner?
- Added value for your accounts.
Add The Standard’s retirement plans to your client offerings. Current and prospective clients will appreciate your expanded benefits mix. Plus, they will associate you with The Standard, a company known for sound financial management. - Added value for yourself.
Offer The Standard’s retirement plans to your own employees. Our retirement specialists can create the right plan for your personal needs... whether you’re a one-person shop or a nationwide firm.
Take advantage of this tremendous opportunity for your clients and your brokerage. Find out more by contacting The Standard at 800.858.5420.