Posts about 401K Plans

If you are in start-up mode for your company, the last issue at the forefront of your mind may be looking into a 401K plan as a benefit for your employees as you grow your business. Your employees are likely younger, willing to take more risk for the potential of reward, and interested in compensation in the form of stock options, commissions, or other types of short-term, growth-related revenue. Your focus is on how to keep your company profitable, or in the case of venture funding, how to establish your business and achieve positive results in the short-term.

However, if you’re not considering a 401K plan as part of your benefits package, you should be. Why? The positives of offering a 401K far exceed any perceived drawbacks. Below are four reasons why your startup will thrive by offering a 401K plan, and how we at Richard Brothers can help:

As a business owner, you want to keep and attract the best people for your company. One way to do this is to offer your employees a quality retirement plan. But how do you determine what retirement plan to go with? And as the fiduciary for that plan, how do you know you and your employees are paying reasonable fees and expenses relative to the value received from the plan?

According to the U.S. Department of Labor’s Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA), you are responsible as your company’s fiduciary to act prudently and solely in the interest of your employees and their beneficiaries when managing a plan. This includes ensuring that service provider fees are “reasonable.” In order to do this, you must evaluate all the information in the plan regarding fees to make sure you are not overpaying for the services you are getting.

Your current 401(k) plan may be the result of simply taking the path of least resistance.

Perhaps the plan sponsors wanted to simplify the process and costs, and chose a plan based on convenience. Taking shortcuts might have seemed easier at the time, but it usually means you’ll need to switch 401(k) providers later to find the plan that actually works for your company.

If you’re not communicating well with employees about your 401(k) plan and providing the advice and guidance they need, they’ll end up seeking advice from other employees — who may not know what they are doing. Each person’s financial situation is different, so what’s right for one employee could be disastrous for another.

A construction company provides a sobering example of what could happen if you don’t make employee communication a key element of your company’s retirement plan.