April 03 2023

Contribution Options for Small Cash Balance and Defined Benefit Plans

At the end of the plan year, some of our small cash balance (CB) and traditional defined benefit (DB) clients will contact us wanting to know what “the” contribution is for the previous year, as though there was a single option for what they are requ...

January 20 2023

SECURE 2.0: Lots (and Lots) of New Retirement Plan Rules

By now, you have likely heard of the new law called SECURE 2.0. It was passed at the end of 2022 as part of the big omnibus spending bill and contains numerous provisions relating to qualified retirement plans and IRAs. It is a follow-up of sorts to ...

October 28 2022

Qualified Plan and Social Security Limits to Rise by Record Amounts in 2023

When the new Social Security benefit amounts and qualified retirement plan limits are announced in early fall each year, usually not all of them will rise in any given year because of how the limits are rounded down to the next lower multiple. Due to...

February 25 2022

Buying the Dip: Making Qualified Plan Contributions Early

The stock market has been up and down throughout 2022 so far – more down than up. A number of qualified retirement plan clients have asked us about making their 2022 plan year contributions early, the goal being to “buy the dip.”

November 05 2021

Big Jump for Qualified Plan Limits and Social Security in 2022

As a result of higher increases to the Consumer Price Index in 2021 than have been seen in recent years, Social Security benefits and qualified retirement plan limits will rise significantly in 2022, according to recent announcements from the IRS and...

October 28 2021

Ten Pension Terms That Make You Go Hmmmm...

All industries have their own lingo. The pension industry is no different. No one would expect someone who doesn’t work in the field to readily know what “AFTAP,” “SB,” “11(g),” or “rate group” mean.

August 12 2021

No 2020 Form 5500 Needed for Retroactive Qualified Plans

The IRS has announced that, for qualified retirement plans adopted in 2021 retroactive to the 2020 plan year, a 2020 Form 5500 will not be required.

November 20 2020

When It’s a Mistake to Call Something a “Mistake of Fact”

“You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.” So goes the internet meme based on Inigo Montoya’s complaint to Vizzini about his use of the word "inconceivable" in The Princess Bride movie. In the pension business, there...

October 29 2020

Out with 2020, In with the 2021 Retirement Plan Rates and Limits

As we head toward the close of this turbulent year, we have learned that most IRS limits related to qualified retirement plans will hold steady in 2021. Retirees receiving Social Security benefits will receive another modest increase, while PBGC prem...

April 22 2020

Coronavirus and Defined Benefit Plan Funding

This article is part of our continuing series on the coronavirus and its effects on qualified retirement plans. Recently, we wrote about ways employees affected by the coronavirus could access money from their retirement plans. Today, we are discussi...