Business Succession

Give Your Top Employees another Way to Save for Retirement

Even if you already offer a traditional 401(k) plan, you may want to give your key employees a little more incentive to stay with your business. A supplemental retirement plan gives your top employees a chance to save more once they’ve maxed out their contribution to a qualified plan, which can increase engagement and retention.

Consider a supplemental retirement plan for retention of these employees. You can even match employee contributions for additional tax breaks and more of a reward.

There are many strategies to help you offer supplemental retirement to your employees.

Nonqualified deferred compensation plans

Nonqualified deferred compensation plans let your key employees defer more current compensation until retirement.

Executive bonus plans

Executive bonus plans are an additional way for businesses to recruit, reward and retain key employees.

Insuance-based retirement plans

An insurance-based retirement plan, or IBRP, can offer employees of your small business additional retirement income and death benefit protection

Help your Employees Save for Retirement

If you offer a 401(k) to your employees but it isn’t meeting all their retirement planning needs, a nonqualified deferred compensation plan (NQDC) may be the solution. NQDC plans give key employees the ability to defer more of their salary and bonuses on a pretax basis.

There are no formal funding vehicles required for these type plans, but for the example below we’ll assume corporate-owned life insurance (COLI) is the funding vehicle because of the tax advantages it can offer.

The business purchases life insurance policies on each key employee, and the employee defers money into the plan. The employee chooses how the funds in the plan are invested from a menu of investment options, and the gains in the account grow tax deferred until they are withdrawn from the plan.

The employer can make additional contributions into the account but is not required to do so. The employee is immediately 100% vested in his or her own contributions and earnings, but the employer may make company contributions subject to a vesting schedule to add a “golden handcuffs” element to the plan.

Potential employer benefits

  • Serves as both a recruiting and retention tool for valued employees
  • Requires less administration and fewer funding requirements than qualified plans
  • Enables the business to select who receives benefits, when they receive them and how much they receive, unlike qualified plans
  • The death benefit from the insurance funding can allow the business to recover costs
  • Provides a tax deduction when employee receives compensation from the plan

 

Potential employee benefits

  • Recognition of key employees’ contributions to your business
  • Tax deferral of earnings until employee receives compensation under terms of the plan
  • Source of supplemental retirement income
  • Unlimited employer and employee deferrals, plan permitting