A growing number of wage-earners will have to create investment alternatives to build up their retirement nest eggs, AIP says. According to this week’s 401(k) Performance Survey, approximately 5% of 401(k) plans, or 13,811 plans, stopped matching in 2010, and an additional 2% halted the employer match in 2011.

Click to continue reading at Employee Benefit News.

Defined Contribution Plan Deadlines

May 15

• Forms 990 and 8868
• Quarterly Benefit Statements

Defined Benefit Plan Deadlines

May 15

• PBGC Form 10

Please contact Jay Beltz for information on retirement plan administration or testing, or Kelly Parker for 401(k) audits.

Quite a few retirement plan experts have recently said that 401(k) retirement plans have been a huge mistake for most Americans. As evidence they point to many studies that have been published which show that none of us are saving anything near what is necessary to fund our retirements. How can our 401(k) plans be improved so that there is a better chance we are able to retire and receive reasonable benefits someday? Consider the following:

• Mandatory employee contributions. Studies have shown that more than 80% of participants who are auto-enrolled (typically at a 3% contribution rate) in 401(k) plans do not opt out. Using employee inertia in a positive way by auto-enrolling all employees (existing and new) is one way to boost contributions quickly.

Continue reading at Employee Benefit News.

Andrea Murad (Fox Business) was also on this week’s show. Andrea is the owner at A.M. Media Works in New York City, and is a writer/editor who was with Fitch for 10 years. She has a very high level of expertise in student loans and mortgage backed securities. She is also a Finance reporter for Fox Business. Andrea is a previous guest of Financial Friday’s.

Dr. Michael Mantell, Phd and Senior Fitness Consultant for Behavioral Sciences at American Council on Exercise joined us again this week. You may recall that he was on the show last week, discussing the tragic shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut. Dr. Mantell specializes in helping people use the latest findings in fitness psychology to optimize clients well being and enhancing, preserving fitness/health & preventing illness so they can live healthier better lives, fit and happy.

Our last guest was seasoned luxury real estate authority Rob Jensen, president and broker/owner at Rob Jensen Company, Las Vegas’ premier real estate brokerage agency specializing in Guard-Gated Real Estate. With a breadth of luxury sector real estate experience to his credit, Rob oversees his carefully curated team of knowledgeable and dedicated licensed agents each expert in the specialized nuances of Las Vegas’ high end residential real estate marketplace. In addition to agent oversight, Rob is charged with strategic corporate planning and is responsible for overseeing all daily operations and client relations initiatives.

Tune in live every Friday on KLAV 1230 Las Vegas online, on your radio dial or load the application (free) for your I-phone/smart phone “Tunein Radio”, which easily coordinates all AM radio stations nationwide.

If you miss the live show, you can listen to the show when it is posted to PBTK’s website on Monday as a podcast.

Scott Taylor (PBTK Shareholder & CPA), Jason Thomas (CPA & partner with a Las Vegas CPA firm) and Leonard Wright, (CPA & AICPA Money Doctor) are the regular hosts for Financial Fridays.

Jay Beltz, Pension Plan Services Director

Much like the seemingly unlimited number of ways one can order a Starbucks drink, there are a high number of options available in designing a Section 401(k) plan.  The variables can be seen in which employers can adopt such a plan, who must be covered by the plan, the available contribution sources, and the options to meet the required nondiscrimination tests.First, any sole proprietorship, partnership, LLC or Corporation can adopt a 40(k) plan; certain tax-exempt employers and state and local governments can too.  When an individual, operating as a sole proprietorship adopts a plan, it is sometimes referred to as an individual or a solo 401(k) plan.

Only 70 percent of the non-excludable employees of an employer need to be covered by a plan.  Further reduction is available if not all of the Highly Compensated Employees (HCEs) are covered (more than 5 percent owners and those with more than $115,000 of compensation in 2012).  If no HCEs are covered, even fewer Non-Highly Compensated Employees (NHCEs) need to be covered.  For example, division A employees could be covered and division B employees could be excluded.

401(k) plans are funded by both employee and employer contributions.  Employee contributions include pre-tax salary deferrals, post-tax Roth salary deferrals, and both direct and indirect rollovers from other employer-sponsored qualified plans.  Employer contributions include matching contributions, profit sharing contributions, top-heavy contributions, and those contributions needed to pass nondiscrimination testing:  safe harbor contributions and qualified non-elective contributions and qualified matching contributions.

Options available to a plan sponsor for nondiscrimination testing include prior year versus current year testing, use of the otherwise excludable group (those that enter the plan earlier than one year of service), the use of the previously mention safe harbor contributions:  either matching or non-elective, and the somewhat new Qualified Automatic Contribution Arrangement, or QACA.

While it is true that one size does not fit all in retirement plan design, there seems to be something for everyone. The large number of options available makes such a plan possible for almost all types of employers.  Furthermore, the ability to revise a plan by adopting different options in the future makes 401(k) plans adaptable and flexible, leading to a healthy retirement program.

Women are closing the gap in saving rates for retirement compared to their male counterparts, according to fourth quarter 2012 data for defined contribution plans administered by MassMutual.

Since the third quarter of 2010, when the average account balance among female participants trailed that of men by 40.49%, the gap has been gradually closing. The average account balance among females was 38.25% in the fourth quarter behind their male counterparts, an improvement of 5.6%.

MassMutual’s fourth quarter data shows that the average deferral rate for female participants was 5.38%, an increase of 1.6% for the quarter. In comparison, male participants are saving at 5.81% on average, an increase of 1.2% from the previous quarter.

Continue reading at Employee Benefit News.

The number of employers offering a sponsored retirement plan slightly increased in 2012 from four years prior, while matches and employer contributions remained near constant, according to a survey released today by WorldatWork and the American Benefits Institute.

While the number of companies offering plans is high, participation remains high as well. Seventy-three percent of the respondents say that greater than 70% of their eligible employees participate in the employer-sponsored plan. And of those participating, 77% say the average employee contribution was greater than 5% of salary per paycheck, with 53% of companies reporting an average contribution of 5-7%.

Continue reading at Employee Benefit News.

April 1

• Benefit restrictions commence if 3/31/13 AFTAP trigger is less than 80%
• Required minimum distribution
• Form W-2 (electronic)
• form 1099-R (electronic)

April 15

• PBGC Form 4010
• Quarterly contribution

April 25

• PBGC Form 200

April 30

• Annual funding notice
• Notice of funding-based limitation
• Comprehensive premium filing

Please contact Jay Beltz for information on plan administration or testing, or Kelly Parker for 401(k) audits.

Beltz says he was pleased to be invited, and that with more than 4,500 plans in Nevada there is a real need for financial professionals to understand the pros and cons of each type of retirement plan as they are advising their clients. “My remarks will focus on the flexible plan design options available with a 401(k) plan, a look at cross-testing in profit sharing plans, and recommendations for utilizing cash balance plans,” Beltz said.

Held at the office of Jeffrey Burr, the luncheon will go from 11:30 am to 1:30 pm. For more information, contact Beltz.

Beltz is Piercy Bowler Taylor & Kern’s Pension Plan Services Practice Leader. Jay is a pension consultant with more than 25 years designing, administering and consulting on tax-qualified retirement programs like defined benefit plans and Section 401(k) plans. He has been involved in establishing and terminating more than 5,000 plans and continues to advise all sizes of employers about the tax and savings benefit of such programs for their employee’s financial well-being.

About Piercy Bowler Taylor & Kern

Piercy Bowler Taylor & Kern is a full-service accounting and business advisory firm that provides accounting and auditing, tax, consulting, valuation and litigation support services. Founded locally in 1990, the firm specializes in the casino gaming and leisure time industries, governmental and not-for-profit organizations, real estate development and construction industries and the legal and general business communities. Now with offices in Sandy, Utah, and Las Vegas, Nevada, PBTK is one of the few independent accounting firms in its local markets that performs SEC audits. For more information on PBTK, visit pbtk.com or call Shannon Hiller at 702.384.1120.

When workers finally received a statement explaining their 401(k) plan fees last year, plan sponsors were geared up for a deluge of questions.

But, in fact, call centers were not ringing off the hook and the long-awaited fee disclosure statements seem to have been a non-event.

“We’re seeing very little reaction overall,” says Alison Salka, director of retirement research at LIMRA, an industry-sponsored group.

Even though workers received detailed information about the cost of their 401(k) plan, half of them still do not know how much they pay in plan fees and expenses, according to findings that will be released next week by LIMRA.

Continue reading at USA Today.