What to do if you don’t like the retirement plan you offer your employees?

Written by The Peppermint Team

Peppermint was created by a group of business owners, entrepreneurs, and benefits experts who have been on both sides of the table as employees and employers.

May 11, 2022

 

Retirement planning is not easy, and the current economic downturn and global pandemic did not make it any easier. As a small-medium business owner with existing retirement plans, we applaud you for providing retirement benefits for your employees. However, sometimes the retirement plan you started with might not really fit in with your company’s and employees’ current needs, or it could be that your employees have their own plans that don’t maximize their retirement savings.

Whichever situation you’re in, we at peppermint know all the ins and outs of retirement benefits and can help you get better plans. We’ll first explain what you should start looking for in retirement plans to get  the most out of it for you and your employees. Then, we’ll cover how peppermint helps small businesses offer retirement plans as a pooled plan provider. 

 

Your employee’s plan won’t allow you to match

There’s a chance that some of your employees got their own retirement plans like a Traditional or Roth IRA prior to entering your company. In these cases, employees might have decided to do this on their own or may have had former employers who availed one for them.

While IRAs are flexible enough to allow both non-employers and small businesses to open one, it’s still restrictive in the sense that they won’t allow employers like you to match contributions made by employees to their retirement accounts. Matching is an important aspect that allows employers like you to attract or retain talent, as it shows your commitment to employees’ growth and financial future.

Fortunately, there are some other retirement benefits, like 401ks and 401k pooled employer plans that allow you to match your employees’ contributions.

You don’t want the admin hassle

We understand that as a small-medium business owner, there are a lot of things on your plate. If you’ve decided to get a 401k for your business, you might have found that you’re bogged down with a lot of administrative responsibility in terms of maintaining the plan and ensuring its compliance with IRS laws. 

 The good news is that it’s possible to free up your time from all the retirement benefit hassle and have more time to focus on growing and improving your business.

Now, there are many other retirement plans and benefits that offer easier administration and fewer compliance checks. However, one thing to note is that these options may offer trade-offs that affect contribution limit, loanability, and the employees’ control over their money.

You want to have vesting term options

Retaining employees can be much harder to do now, especially in this very competitive world. Some business owners (like you!) may decide to offer retirement plans to their employees in order to improve their engagement and loyalty to your company. 

Vesting terms are the schedule in which you are going to vest to your employees the contributions you’ve made to their accounts. Most vesting options ask for 3 years of tenure before they can be credited to the employee account. With the huge amounts of profit loss that can be accredited to the costs of replacing a lost employee, it’s important for your company’s bottom line to make sure you’re keeping employees both happy and loyal to your business.

You don’t want fiduciary risk

If you already have a retirement plan that you’ve setup yourself, chances are you’ve also potentially become the source of fiduciary risk as the plan sponsor.

A fiduciary is a person or an entity that acts on behalf of another person. A fiduciary is expected to act in the best interest of the person they are representing. With this in mind, a fiduciary risk is the risk shouldered by your employee, trusting that the fiduciary – you, will act in their best interests. This means it’s your responsibility to make sure that your employees are able to maximize their retirement plans.

As a plan sponsor, you are required to stay on top of administrative and financial updates in order to make sure that you’re able to maximize your employees retirement plans for them. This may mean needing to hire or assign specific personnel to keep abreast of retirement plan updates or spend hours and hours of your own time to do so–precious hours and hours you could be using to grow your business.

How can peppermint help?

Peppermint is a pooled plan provider that can help you set up a 401k that will allow you more freedom in terms of how you can provide amazing retirement benefits to your employees.

We’re here to help businesses of all shapes and sizes in any industry set up 401k benefits that align with their individual needs and financial capabilities. The beauty of peppermint’s pooled employer plan (PEP) is that it greatly reduces the capital needed to start a 401k plan because you pool your resources with other business owners that are also looking to offer retirement benefits or change their existing plan.

In addition to the reduction of upfront costs, you’ll also have the ability to choose exactly how your retirement benefits will look like. Peppermint will be able to help you create benefits based on your contribution matching appetite, vesting term preferences, and other features.

With a pooled employer plan, you’ll also reduce fiduciary risks as the pooled plan provider ( peppermint!) will take on the fiduciary risks that come with a 401k plan. 

Still finding it daunting to get started on a new retirement plan and the many factors involved with 401k planning? Peppermint has a team of retirement planning specialists who will be able to help you create the right plan based on your financial capacity and preferences. When coming up with a solution for you and your business, our specialists will take into account your:

 

  • Matching preference
  • Vesting options
  • Threshold for compliance testing
  • Risk appetite

We understand that each business is unique and has their own needs. Our401k specialists are here to make sure you have the best retirement plan solution for your business.

To get started on changing your retirement plans for the better, simply fill out our contact form here.

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