Three jobs for the people who run the business. One plan.

The people who drive the business are the hardest to replace. Benefits beyond the 401(k) give them a reason to stay.

• Executive benefits beyond qualified plan limits
• Non-qualified deferred compensation informally funded with company-owned permanent life insurance
• Executive life insurance with cash value that can supplement retirement income
• Vesting that rewards the key person who stays

If an owner or key person dies or is disabled, the business needs money and a plan on day one.

• Key person coverage against the loss of an owner or key employee
• Buy/sell funding so owners or heirs are paid and the business continues
• Policy review: see whether coverage bought years ago still fits
• Advanced Services: owner and key-person policies designed and compared

Owners often have the largest balances and the least room in the plan they sponsor.

• The 401(k) menu: what your plan lets you hold, and why
• The brief: Built for Everyone: Why Your 401(k) Stops at Funds
• Plan check: fees, share classes and the brokerage window
• Social Security, Medicare and care for the owner and spouse

Executive benefits

Reward and retain key people beyond qualified plan limits, with cash value that can supplement retirement income.

Non-qualified deferred compensation

Informally fund a deferred compensation promise with company-owned permanent life insurance.

Key person coverage

Protect the business against the loss of an owner or key employee, with tax-deductible or pre-tax options where available.

Buy/sell funding

Fund a buy/sell agreement so owners or heirs are paid and the business continues.

The platform is paid on pooled assets

Many recordkeepers are paid through fees built into fund expense ratios (revenue sharing) or through their own funds. An individual stock or bond held for years produces little of that ongoing revenue.

You carry the fiduciary risk

Every option on the menu is one you must choose prudently and keep monitoring. Fewer, pooled options are easier to defend, and even brokerage windows have drawn Department of Labor attention.

Defaults protect most employees

Target-date funds are offered in 96% of plans and are the default in nearly all of them. They keep most savers diversified.

What we review

• ✓Does your plan have a brokerage window, and what can it hold: funds only, ETFs, stocks, bonds?
• ✓How is the recordkeeper paid: revenue sharing inside the funds, a per-person fee or a percentage of assets? Who pays it?
• ✓Are you in the lowest-cost share class or collective trust available for your plan size?
• ✓Would a cash balance plan, non-qualified deferred compensation or executive life insurance give key people more room than the 401(k) can?