Sunday, June 16, 2013

Retirement Planning: Easy To Apply Methods

By Rich Regalas


The US Small Business Administration (SBA) reports that 72 percent of employees in small companies do not have any retirement plans offered to them. Consequently, many companies believe they cannot afford to provide this type of plan to their workforce members. Additionally,owners would rather not have the extra role of managing such a plan.

Luckily, over the years there have been a variety of government programs that have set up ways to simplify retirement plans. Business owners, who do not have a plan in place, are encouraged to consider Simplified Employee Pension Plans (SEPs), Savings Incentive Match Plans (SIMPLEs), or profit-sharing plans. These programs are cost-friendly and relatively easy to arrange.

SEPs are IRA-type plans that are financed solely by the employer. A payout is required for all permanent workers who have a minimum of $550 of income in the last year, are over 21 years old, and have been employed for at least three of the prior five years. Generally, disbursements must be an equal percentage of each employee's salary. Workforce members need to be completely vested in their plan.

Owners are provided the choice to change the contributions put into an SEP each year. Businesses are not obligated to make any contributions at all unless the plan is considered "top-heavy", which depends on how the contributions are allocated between key and non-key employees. The most that can be contributed is 25% of an employee's pay, or $51,000 (the lesser amount) for 2013. SEPs may be a good choice for businesses that have fluctuating assets.

A SIMPLE is an IRA-type plan offered to small businesses with 100 or fewer staff members. An employer must either match the contribution for the first 3% of pay contributed by eligible employees through salary reduction, or they must put in 2% of each worker's compensation, regardless of whether or not the employee participates.

Since employers have to make contributions annually, a SIMPLE may be suitable for companies in a good financial position with predictable assets. A worker is presently sanctioned to defer up to $12,000 per year (in 2013) in the SIMPLE IRA, and those individuals who are over 50 years old can contribute an additional $2,500 yearly.

Profit-sharing plans are also easy retirement plans to set up, and are a popular choice among small companies. These plans are paid for solely by the company on a pre-tax basis, and the contributions are optional. Many small businesses also require employees to be with the company for a certain amount of time before they become fully vested.

Retirement plans typically allow staff members to draw loans against their savings, subject to legal stipulations. They are much like SEPs, in that the maximum contribution is 25% of a participant's salary or $51,000 per year (for 2013).

By establishing a retirement plan, your family organization increases the chances of attracting and retaining workers, while making it easier for you to reserve funds for your own retirement. The plans that were discussed in this article are all worth pondering, if you have no plan in place right now. Talk to your professionals and have them help you in acquiring the most suitable plan for your business.




About the Author:



No comments:

Post a Comment