At Benedetti, Gucer and Associates, we believe that everyone who works for a living deserves a decent retirement when that work is done.
Not surprisingly, most of our business and corporate clients share that belief.
Maybe that’s because the great majority are small-to-medium sized businesses. Owners of businesses like these tend to have a closer relationship with their employees than would likely be the case in larger companies. They feel they have a special obligation to the people who work for them.
And that means providing them with a safe and healthy work environment … fair compensation … opportunities for professional growth … and the benefits they value. Paramount among those benefits is a first-rate retirement plan.
Of course, a superior retirement plan isn’t only about doing right by your employees. Your business benefits as well.
It’s no secret that companies with better retirement plans generally attract better candidates for employment. They also retain their best of their current employees.
Companies with subpar plans find themselves at a distinct disadvantage in recruiting and retaining the most desirable employees. And as the quality of their workforce diminishes, the company finds it increasingly difficult to compete.
Bottom line: Offering a superior retirement plan benefits both potential and present employees. Not to mention the company that offers it.
Which raises the question
How well is your company’s plan working?
Probably not as well as you think.
Here are some of the telltale signs:
Your workforce is getting grayer
Some of your employees have been with you for years. Many well past the time most people retire.
Of course, there’s nothing wrong with having some seasoned veterans around. And you certainly aren’t going to reward years of faithful service with a pink slip.
But consider this. Even though they obviously like working for you, maybe there’s another reason your older employees are sticking around.
Maybe they can’t afford to retire.
You aren’t getting the brightest and the best
Hiring new people … the kind of employees you want … is getting tougher all the time.
Yet your biggest competitor doesn’t seem to have a problem recruiting new people. And you know for a fact they’re not paying more than you.
What you don’t know, of course, is how good your competitor’s retirement plan might be.
Could it be better than yours?
Chances are your plan was designed by a firm of financial advisors.
We’ve got nothing against financial advisors, of course. It’s just that most of them concentrate on working with individuals – not companies.
And while they might create an excellent retirement plan for an individual client, they simply don’t have experience in doing so for a company or a business.
As a result of that inexperience, you likely end up with an off-the-shelf product your advisor bought from one of the big financial firms as your company’s retirement plan.
Too often such a plan is overpriced, has poor to mediocre investment choices and isn’t really appropriate for your business.
But once the plan is in place, the tendency is to leave it alone. Unfortunately, that means little or no monitoring. Poor investments don’t get dropped from the portfolio. Nothing is being properly documented.
But that’s not the worst of it.
With the plan on auto-pilot, the business owner or the company’s senior executives aren’t performing their government-mandated fiduciary responsibilities.
And that can be a serious problem.
Because as a fiduciary of your company’s retirement plan, you are personally at risk when deficiencies show up in your plan.
Scary, right? Next question.
How can I get a plan that works?
You’ve already on your way. Because BGA has the experience, expertise and resources to help your company create a retirement plan that gives it an edge in the competition for top talent – while providing your current employees with a solid foundation for a secure and successful retirement.
And unlike most financial advisory firms, we are fiduciaries. Which means that we are legally bound to always act in the best interest of our clients and put that client’s interests above our own.
Our obligation to hold ourselves to a higher standard ensures that the plan we create for your company will be expertly designed to meet its unique needs, competitively priced and, of course, compliant with all existing regulations. Here’s how we go about it.
Planning the plan
The first step is to thoroughly understand what you want your plan to accomplish. Once that’s determined, we conduct a fiduciary review of your current plan to identify deficiencies – which involves benchmarking your plan against all available options and obtaining proposals from a number of vendors.
We then leverage our extensive financial experience to utilize these proposals in designing a new plan for your company. This plan will be crafted to lower costs while providing the best possible investment choices for your employees.
The plan we recommend will also be designed to obtain the maximum tax benefits for your business while adhering to applicable regulations. And to ensure that a process is established to ensure that the plan is properly monitored, we assist you in establishing an investment committee.
We will document the entire process to help you construct a fiduciary file. This file will serve as protection for you in the unlikely event of a lawsuit by a participant or an audit by the Department of Labor. And… We’ll guide you through all of your fiduciary responsibilities.
- We’ll provide fiduciary training to your investment committee members.
- We’ll help educate your employees about the plan and its benefits to help them keep on the right track for their retirement.
- We’ll develop a menu of investment choices and explain them to your employees.
- We’ll make sure all investments are monitored.
- We’ll also monitor all provider fees and renegotiate as necessary.
- We’ll make sure all fiduciary processes are followed and are well documented.
- And we’ll be with you every step of the way. Without getting in your way.
There’s more. But we realize you’ve probably got one more question. A rather big question.
What would a new plan cost?
Probably a lot less than you’d expect. We can design a plan for your company that’s well within any reasonable budget.
Besides you’re probably paying too much for your current plan. Chances are rather good the new plan will actually save your company a significant amount of money.
So wouldn’t it make sense to find out more about such a plan? Especially since you can…
Find out for free
That’s right. Free. We’ll perform a thorough examination of your current plan at no cost or obligation. And at your convenience.
If you want your company’s retirement plan to actually work for your employees by helping them get the income they need to retire properly … if you want a plan that gives your company a competitive edge in recruiting the best candidates … if you want a retirement plan that works… let’s talk.
To make that happen, just say the word. Or call us at 404-602-0034.
After all, you’ve worked hard to build your business. Shouldn’t your retirement plan do the same?