Corporate Retirement Plan Services and Succession Planning for Hard-Working Small Business Owners Download our brochure here Small business owners in the Silicon Valley invest a lot of time and energy in making their companies successful. They put off their personal retirement planning as well as the retirement planning of their employees. About half of employees are financially stressed. Stressed out employees are often less productive, tend to take more time off, and have more health issues.
More and more, corporations are realizing that there is a direct correlation between their employees’ financial well-being and the company’s bottom line. Most employees have a majority of their assets in their retirement plans. Therefore, helping employees understand the benefits of their retirement plan and encouraging them to grow their funds is very important. At Vibrance Wealth Management, we encourage business owners to make financial education and coaching part of their HR benefits. This allows employees to become happier, more productive, and more confident about their retirement planning.
Corporate Retirement Plan Services
With the Department of Labor’s spotlight on fiduciary responsibilities, small business owners who sponsor the company’s retirement plans are required to fulfill their responsibilities to their participants. However, most business owners are not aware of their responsibilities or that they are subject to regulatory compliance. We help business owners fulfill their fiduciary responsibilities to mitigate their fiduciary risks and ensure that they are compliant by managing their company’s retirement plan.
Meeting Your Fiduciary Responsibilities
As employers or plan sponsors, you act as fiduciaries. This means that you are subject to the standards of conduct set by the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA). Fiduciaries have important responsibilities including:
Acting solely in the interest of plan participants and their beneficiaries and with the exclusive purpose of providing benefits to them;
Carrying out your duties prudently;
Following the plan documents
Diversifying plan investments;
Selecting the investment providers and the investment options while monitoring their performance;
Paying only reasonable expenses for administering the plan and investing its assets;
And avoiding conflicts of interest.
Employers can hire service providers when they do not have competence or resources to carry out certain tasks, such as providing investment advice and education about the plan to participants. Nevertheless, you still bear the fiduciary responsibilities.
When fiduciaries fail to follow the required standards of conduct, they may be held liable. Ever since the US Department of Labor began placing the spotlight on these fiduciary responsibilities, retirement plan litigation has been on the rise. Most lawsuits fall into the following areas
Inappropriate investment choices
Excessive fees
Self-dealing
At Vibrance Wealth Management, our goal is to help plan sponsors and trustees to fulfill their fiduciary responsibilities and make sure that their retirement plans are healthy and compliant. We highly encourage trustees to regularly review their plan so that they can keep up with current regulations, monitor the service standard of the service providers, and benchmark the health of the plan compared with the plans of their peers.
Vibrance Wealth Management’s services include:
Fiduciary and compliance support
Investment management
Participant education in group and one-on-one settings
As your business grows, the goals of having a retirement plan change from when you first started your company. A retirement plan stops being a recruitment tool, and business owners begin to use it to help their employees get ready for retirement. At Vibrance Wealth Management, we help you review your company’s retirement plan periodically to ensure that it is aligned with your current business goals and that any fees are reasonable and transparent. Our goal is to free up more time for you so that you can focus on building your business.
Financial Coaching
Employees living in the Silicon Valley are financially stressed because of the high cost of living. Also, due to a lack of knowledge about the benefits of retirement plans, most employees do not participate or maximize the contributions to their company’s sponsored retirement plan. Therefore, they are delaying saving and feeling stressed about their retirement. Vibrance Wealth Management works with business owners and HR managers to offer a series of educational programs tailored to the needs of their employees that include budgeting, debt management, retirement planning, risk management, etc. With the proper education, employees become empowered to take control of their own finances.
Business Succession Planning
As your business grows and becomes a valuable asset, you need sophisticated financial planning techniques to protect and preserve what you have and to generate lifetime income so that you can enjoy your retirement life. Vibrance Wealth Management helps you navigate any what-if scenarios that may happen to you or your business partners, such as disability or premature death. We help you create planning strategies according to your wishes so that you can leave a legacy, minimize potential estate taxes, and provide liquidity to your heirs so they can pay for potential taxes. Also we strategically convert your assets into a guaranteed retirement income stream so you can continue to maintain the lifestyle that you want. Our goal is to give you peace of mind in knowing that your personal and business assets are protected so that you can feel free.
How Do You Know If Your Company’s Retirement Plan Is Healthy and Compliant?
Most plans do not receive much attention and are not reviewed after inception. Many participants are usually in the dark about high hidden fees and their other options. However, thanks to the awareness raised by the Department of Labor, participants are becoming aware of their rights. It is extremely important for trustees to conduct regular reviews that are the best interests of their participants.
Benefits of Conducting a Plan Review
Just like a physical checkup, retirement plans also need regular checkups. The benefits of conducting a comprehensive review include:
Ensuring the plan is in line with the current company’s objectives and the provisions of the plan document
Comparing different elements of the plan, such as participation rate, contribution rate, savings rate, investment return, etc., against the benchmark
Keeping up with current rules and regulations
Fulfilling your fiduciary responsibilities
Mitigating audit and legal risks
At Vibrance Wealth Management, we specialize in managing corporate retirement plans for private sectors. We have reviewed numerous retirement plans and can quickly identify areas that you need to pay attention to in order to make the plan more cost-effective, healthy, and compliant. Simply answer the following five questions ,and we will deliver recommendations to you.
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