ACG Blog

Taking too long to deposit an employee’s salary deferral contributions into a 401(k) plan is a big no-no. We hear all kinds of excuses why plan sponsors take too long to make their deposits. Reasonable as they may sound to the person making them, the...

Our firm provides third party administrative services for both defined benefit (DB) and defined contribution (DC) plans. There is a type of plan called “cash balance” that sort of falls in between. While they are technically DB plans, they have some ...

There was a time when a good friend convinced me to go with a car lease instead of a purchase. I never had leased a car, but she pointed out all of the great reasons why leasing was better. I ran out and leased a high-end SUV for three years. When my...

This is the first in a two-part series about deductible contribution limits to qualified retirement plans. The second part next week will cover arrangements that include defined benefit plans. Contributions made by a business to a qualified retiremen...

Most qualified retirement plans need a fidelity bond. This has been the rule for more than 40 years. Even so, it is not the kind of thing the typical plan sponsor spends a lot of time focusing on. A what bond? Fidelity who? We run across a number of ...

The ADP test for 401(k) plans is like a mosquito: it is annoying and has no known benefit to society. The worst outcome of a failed ADP test is you have to refund excess contributions to Highly Compensated Employees. At a minimum, you’ve wasted time ...

Here’s a public service announcement for all plan sponsors of 401(k)s. Remember the quote from "Jerry Maguire," “Help me help you?” It’s been 22 years since that movie, but it still holds true today. Third party administrators (TPAs) are the people w...

When an employee contributes too much to a 401(k) plan, a common fix is for the excess amount to be refunded to the employee. The technical term for this kind of refund is “corrective distribution.” At this time of year, plan sponsors may be scrambli...

With the new year having just begun, our retirement plan clients are busily working on compiling the information we need to do their year-end calculations. One of the most critical pieces of data we need is compensation paid to each employee for the ...

Cash balance plans have gained in popularity over the last number of years because of the tax savings opportunities available to high-earning business owners and executives. Cash balance plans offer characteristics of both defined contribution plans,...