ACG Blog

Note: This article was published in 2016. The SECURE 2.0 Act of 2022 made changes to certain rules relating to family attribution. As such, some information in this article may be outdated. When you own a business and sponsor a qualified retirement p...

Under the controlled group rules, two or more business entities with common ownership are to be treated as a single employer for qualified retirement plan purposes. A company sponsoring a retirement plan may need to provide those same benefits for em...

Autumn is here, which means leaves are changing color, football season is in full swing, and it’s time for government agencies to release new retirement plan limits for the upcoming year.

If you were to receive a notice from the Social Security Administration saying you might be owed some money from a long-ago former employer’s retirement plan, you would probably think, “Cool. I’m owed some money from a long-ago former employer’s reti...

You can’t have the TV on very long before one of those ads for the latest prescription drug comes on. “Ask your doctor whether Incredipill is right for you.” Why would a commercial tell me to ask my doctor about a drug? If the medicine is right for m...

Did your parents or a teacher ever threaten you with dire consequences in order to correct an undesirable behavior? “If you cross your eyes, they’ll get stuck that way.” “Young man, this will go on your permanent record!”

Right now, I am loving me some IRS. The agency everyone loves to hate each April 15 has been on quite a roll lately with some really great news for those of us in the 401(k) and pension world. Here’s what they’ve done this year:

Mutual funds. ETFs. Treasury notes. Stocks. Bonds. All of these are investments commonly found inside qualified retirement plans. How about real estate? Is that permitted? I am not talking about REITs or a real estate mutual fund. I mean, can a retir...

There is some confusion in Retirement Plan Land about who needs to file Form 5500-EZ and who doesn’t, according to an IRS compliance project. Some plan sponsors are turning to the wrong people for advice, not reading the form’s instructions, or both.

While requests for proposal (RFPs) are a common practice among large companies and government organizations, very few small businesses use them, especially for a 401(k) plan. However, much can be learned from the process of an RFP and what questions ...