PLAN DESIGN AND DOCUMENTATION
Creative Plan Design
Designing the right plan for a business or professional practice begins with the plan sponsor answering the question, what is the purpose of the plan. Some examples of plan purpose might be:
- To help employees save for their retirement
- Part of a cultural system to attract, reward, retain and retire employees
- Part of a tax planning strategy
- A tool to help retire key employees or owners
- Part of a solution for a key employee to buy-out an owner
- Part of a system to protect assets from claims against creditors
Our consultants will ask the right questions, listen to the answers and develop a retirement plan design that meets your objectives. Objectives will change over the life of a business or professional practice; we will continue to ask these questions to ensure that your plan continues to meet your goals.
ACI designs, documents, implements and administers the following types of plans:
401(k) Plans, including Safe Harbor and Automatic Contribution Arrangements
Profit Sharing Plans including Tiered Allocations
Traditional Defined Benefit Plans
Defined Contribution Plans
Defined Contribution plans are also known as account balance plans; participants bear the investment risk for the plan investments, whether or not they are given investment elections. The typical Defined Contribution plans that are being used in today’s market are:
Defined Benefit Plan
Defined Benefit plans are designed to provide benefits to participants at retirement. Investment risk is born by the plan sponsor, such that if the assets in the plan earn less than assumed, plan contributions will likely be increased to “make up” the lost earnings, and if the return on assets exceeds plan assumptions, contributions will likely decrease. However, several other factors influence the level of required contributions. Dependent upon the age of the plan participants, Defined Benefit plans offer plan sponsors significantly higher plan contributions than do Defined Contribution plans. There are typically two types of Defined Benefit plans:
Traditional Defined Benefit Plans
Comprehensive Documentation
ACI consultants can draft plan documents and supporting materials for review by your attorney and can submit them to the IRS for a Favorable Determination Letter (FDL). We also provide you with a Summary Plan Description (SPD) for your participants, which summarize your plan provisions in everyday terms.
On an ongoing basis, ACI can prepare amendments to your plan to conform to changes in the law or to modify the plan to meet your evolving needs.
