Business Planning

There are many things to consider when running a successful business such as retirement plans, insurance, and cash management.

Business Retirement Plans

A quality retirement plan ranks as a top priority when candidates are considering potential employers. In helping you select from a broad range of plans, we will tailor a strategy that matches your company size, compensation structures, and culture, reinforcing recruitment efforts and helping boost the overall satisfaction of talented employees. Plus, many employer-sponsored plans can offer significant tax advantages to the company.

We will work with you to arrange additional services, such as educational and enrollment seminars, that will help give all personnel a thorough understanding of their retirement plan.

The most frequently used retirement plans:

• SEP IRA – A simple and relatively inexpensive way for sole proprietors and small businesses to offer a retirement plan. There are no mandatory or minimum contributions, and funding is provided by the employer only. If you have employees, you may be required to contribute for them as well. As the business owner you can deduct contributions from your company’s federal taxable income.
• SIMPLE IRA – This plan offers minimal costs and administration. SIMPLE IRAs are funded by employee and mandatory employer contributions. Employers have a choice of matching dollar-for-dollar up to the first 3% of employee pre-tax contributions or matching 2% of compensation to all eligible employees. It can work well for companies with 25 or fewer employees. As a business owner you can deduct employer contributions from your company’s federal taxable income.
• Solo 401(k) - plan is designed for one-participant. It’s a traditional 401(k) plan covering a business owner with no employees, or that person and his or her spouse. This plan offers very generous annual contribution limits. You may choose to allow a Roth 401(k) salary deferral within the plan. As a business owner you can deduct contributions for yourself and your partner from your company’s federal taxable income.
• 401(k) – The 401(k) is the most commonly used employer-sponsored retirement plan, becoming increasingly more affordable and more widely used by businesses of all sizes. It’s a flexible plan offering the highest level of employee pre-tax contributions, a wide range of employer contribution options, and an optional loan provision. It works well for companies with 10 or more employees who want to start a new plan or transfer an existing plan. Employers may choose to allow Roth 401(k) salary deferrals within their plan. As a business owner you can deduct employer contributions from your company’s federal taxable income.

Additional retirement plans offered include:

• Defined Benefit 403(b) 457 Profit-Sharing Plan
• Cash Balance
• Non-Qualified Deferred Compensation (NQDC)
• Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP)

Business Insurance Planning

Most businesses utilize a range of insurance products, yet some fail to take advantage of the wide variety available to assist with business planning. Following are a few of the most common insurance products used for that purpose. As with retirement plans, we offer additional insurance services. We can create a comprehensive plan that suits your unique needs.

• Succession Planning – When a business owner retires or becomes unable to work, the future of the business and its employees can come into question. Succession planning arrangements can help ensure a smooth transition between current and new business ownership..
• Disability Insurance – When you lose the ability to work and earn an income, lost wages could result in the need to utilize investments, savings, or retirement assets to fund living expenses. For business owners, the stakes are raised because their presence may be crucial to the company’s ability to operate. Disability insurance protects business and personal assets, providing comfort that all you worked so hard to build cannot be easily erased.
• Key Person Insurance – This protects businesses from the adverse effects of losing important personnel – specifically employees with a particular expertise or who have earned credibility with customers, vendors, or creditors. At death, the life insurance policy provides funds to help recruit and train new staff, replace lost profits, and strengthen the company’s balance sheet to help assure creditors and suppliers about continuity in the firm.
• Deferred Compensation – Another tool that employers can use to attract, retain, and reward key employees is non-qualified deferred compensation. This is an employer-provided plan that can be offered to a select group of executives or employees. Simply stated, the employer and employee enter into an agreement utilizing insurance to defer a portion of the employee’s income until a future date.

Additional business planning tools offered include:

• Non-Qualified retirement plans
• Group Long-Term-Care Insurance
• 412(i) plans

Business Cash Management Services

A steady influx of cash is a byproduct of a successful business, but what you do with that cash can have a real impact on your revenue each year. We offer access to a variety of cash management services, each customized to address the individual goals of businesses of all sizes. Because no one strategy is right for every business need, we’ll take the time to carefully discuss with you the risks and advantages of each option.

• Cash Enhancement Strategy – If your time horizon is between 9 and 24 months, a cash enhancement strategy may fit your needs. Using a separately managed account constructed of short-duration, investment-grade, fixed income investments seeks to help boost yields on cash reserves while pursuing the preservation of principal and providing a high level of liquidity. In seeking to pursue optimum effectiveness, your portfolio can be customized to address the specific cyclical expenditures and cash flow requirements of your business.
• Cash Management – We can provide you with access to a complete line of fixed income strategies. We will work with you to develop a portfolio of short-term instruments designed to address your specific cash flow needs. Combining exceptional customer service with portfolio strategy, analysis, and trading recommendations, we offer access to competitive rates on a variety of money market instruments, including Treasury bills, agency discount notes, and commercial paper.

Bonds are subject to market and interest rate risk if sold prior to maturity. Bond values will decline as interest rates rise and bonds are subject to availability and change in price.

Bond yields are subject to change. Certain call or special redemption features may exist which could impact yield.

Government bonds and Treasury bills are guaranteed by the US government as to the timely payment of principal and interest and, if held to maturity, offer a fixed rate of return and fixed principal value.

No strategy assures success or protects against loss.