How Much Should I Contribute to Retirement?

A question I’m sure to address during employee retirement presentations is, “How Much Should I be Contributing?”.  Quick internet search led me to two popular answers.

1. Whatever you need to contribute to get the match from the employer,

2. 10-15% of your compensation.

As with most questions around financial planning, the answer should really be, “it depends”.  We all know it is important to save for retirement, but knowing how much is enough is the real issue and typically there is more work involved than saying 10-15% of your pay.

In this article, I will address some of the variables at play when coming up with your number and provide detail as to why the two answers previously mentioned are so common.

Expenses and Income Replacement

Creating a budget and tracking expenses is usually the best way to estimate what your spending needs will be in retirement.  Unfortunately, this is time-consuming and is becoming more difficult considering how easy it is to spend money these days.  Automatic payments, subscriptions, payment apps, and credit cards make it easy to purchase but also more difficult to track how much is leaving your bank accounts. 

Most financial plans we create start with the client putting together an itemized list of what they believe they spend on certain items like clothes, groceries, vacations, etc.  A copy of our expense planner template can be found here.  These are usually estimates as most people don’t track expenses in that much detail.  Since these are estimates, we will use household income, taxes, and bank/investment accounts as a check to see if expenses appear reasonable.

What do expenses have to do with contributions to your retirement account now?  Throughout your career, you receive a paycheck and use those funds to pay for the expenses you have.  At some point, you no longer have the paycheck but still have the expenses.  Most retirees will have access to social security and others may have a pension, but rarely does that income cover all your expenses.  This means that the shortfall often comes from retirement accounts and other savings.

Not taking taxes, inflation, or investment gains into account, if your expenses are $50,000 per year and Social Security income is $25,000 a year, that is a $25,000 shortfall.  20 years of retirement times a $25,000 shortfall means $500,000 you’d need saved to fund retirement.  Once we have an estimate of the coveted “What’s My Number?” question, we can create a savings plan to try and achieve that goal.

Cash Flow

As we age, some of the larger expenses we have in life go away.  Student loan debt, mortgages, and children are among those expenses that stop at some point in most people’s lives.  At the same time, your income is usually higher due to experience and raises throughout your career.  As expenses potentially go down and income is higher, there may be cash flow that frees up allowing people to save more for retirement.  The ability to save more as we get older means the contribution target amount may also change over time.

Timing of Contributions

Over time, the interest that compounds in retirement accounts often makes up most of the overall balance. 

For example, if you contribute $2,000 a year for 30 years into a retirement account, you will end up saving $60,000.  If you were able to earn an annual return of 6%, the ending balance after 30 years would be approximately $158,000.  $60,000 of contributions and $98,000 of earnings.

The sooner the contributions are in an account, the sooner interest can start compounding.  This means, that even though retirement saving is more cash flow friendly as we age, it is still important to start saving early.

Contribute Enough to Receive the Full Employer Match

Knowing the details of your company’s retirement plan is important.  Most employers that sponsor a retirement plan make contributions to eligible employees on their behalf.  These contributions often come in the form of “Non-Elective” or “Matching”.

Non-Elective – Contributions that will be made to eligible employees whether employees are contributing to the plan or not.  These types of contributions are beneficial because if a participant is not able to save for retirement from their own paycheck, the company will still contribute.  That being said, the contribution amount made by the employer, on its own, is usually not enough to achieve the level of savings needed for retirement.  Adding some personal savings in addition to the employer contribution is recommended.

Matching – Employers will contribute on behalf of the employee if the employee is contributing to the plan as well.  This means if the employee is contributing $0 to the retirement plan, the company will not contribute.  The amount of matching varies by company, so knowing “Match Formula” is important to determine how much to contribute.  For example, if the matching formula is “100% of compensation up to 4% of pay”, that means the employer will contribute a dollar-for-dollar match until they contribute 4% of your compensation.  Below is an example of an employee making $50,000 with the 4% matching contribution at different contribution rates.

As you can see, this employee could be eligible for a $2,000 contribution from the employer, if they were to save at least 4% of their pay.  That is a 100% return on your money that the company is providing.

Any contribution less than 4%, the employee would not be taking advantage of the employer contribution available to them.  I’m not a fan of the term “free money”, but that is often the reasoning behind the “Contribute Enough to Receive the Full Employer Match” response.

10%-15% of Your Compensation

As said previously, how much you should be contributing to your retirement depends on several factors and can be different for everyone.  10%-15% over a long-term period is often a contribution rate that can provide sufficient retirement savings.  Math below…

Assumptions

Age: 25

Retirement Age: 65

Current Income: $30,000

Annual Raises: 2%

Social Security @ 65: $25,000

Annualized Return: 6%

Step 1: Estimate the Target Balance to Accumulate by 65

On average, people will need an estimated 90% of their income for early retirement spending.  As we age, spending typically decreases because people are unable to do a lot of the activities we typically spend money on (i.e. travel).  For this exercise, we will assume a 65-year-old will need 80% of their income throughout retirement.

Present Salary - $30,000

Future Value After 40 Years of 2% Raises - $65,000

80% of Future Compensation - $52,000

$52,000 – income needed to replace

$25,000 – social security @ 65

$27,000 – amount needed from savings

X       20 – years of retirement (Age 85 - life expectancy)

$540,000 – target balance for retirement account

Step 2: Savings Rate Needed to Achieve $540,000 Target Balance

40 years of a 10% annual savings rate earning 6% interest per year, this person could have an estimated balance of $605,000.  $181,000 of contributions and $424,000 of compounded interest.

I hope this has helped provide a basic understanding of how you can determine an appropriate savings rate for yourself.  We recommend reaching out to an advisor who can customize your plan based on your personal needs and goals.

Rob Mangold

About Rob……...

Hi, I’m Rob Mangold, Partner at Greenbush Financial Group and a contributor to the Money Smart Board blog. We created the blog to provide strategies that will help our readers personally, professionally, and financially. Our blog is meant to be a resource. If there are questions that you need answered, please feel free to join in on the discussion or contact me directly.

How Pension Income and Retirement Account Withdrawals Can Impact Unemployment Benefits

How Pension Income and Retirement Account Withdrawals Can Impact Unemployment Benefits

As the economy continues to slow, unemployment claims continue to rise at historic rates.  Due to this expected increase in unemployment, the CARES Act included provisions for Coronavirus related distributions which give people access to retirement dollars with more favorable tax treatment.  Details on these distributions can be found here.  With retirement dollars becoming more accessible with the CARES Act, a common question we are receiving is “Will a retirement distribution impact my Unemployment Benefits?”.

Unemployment Benefits vary from state to state and therefore the answer to this question can be different depending on the state you reside in.  This article will focus on New York State Unemployment Benefits, but a lot of the items discussed may be applied similarly in other states.

The answer to this question also depends on the type of retirement account you are receiving money from so we will touch on the most common. 

Note:  Typically, to qualify for unemployment insurance benefits, you must have been paid minimum wage during the “base period”.  Base period is defined as the first four quarters of the last five calendar quarters prior to the calendar quarter which the claim is effective.  “Base period employer” is any employer that paid the claimant during the base period.

Pension Reduction

Money received from a pension that a base period employer contributed to will result in a dollar for dollar reduction in your unemployment benefit.  Even if you partially contributed to the pension, 100% of the amount received will result in an unemployment benefit reduction.

If you were the sole contributor to the pension, then the unemployment benefit should not be impacted.

Even if you are retired from a job and receiving a pension, you may still qualify for unemployment benefits if you are actively seeking employment.

Qualified Retirement Plans (examples; 401(k), 403(b))

If the account you are accessing is from a base period employer, a withdrawal from a qualified retirement plan could result in a reduction in your unemployment benefit.  It is common for retirement plans to include some type of match or profit-sharing element which would qualify as an employer contribution.  Accounts which include employer contributions may result in a reduction of your unemployment benefit.

We recommend you contact the unemployment claims center to determine how these distributions would impact your benefit amount before taking them.

IRA

No unemployment benefit rate reduction will occur if the distribution is from a qualified IRA.Knowing there is no reduction caused by qualified IRA withdrawals, a common practice is rolling money from a qualified retirement plan into an IRA and then accessing it as needed.  Once you are no longer at the employer, you are often able to take a distribution from the plan.  Rolling it into an IRA and accessing the money from that account rather than directly from the retirement plan could result in a higher unemployment benefit. 

NYS Unemployment Home Page

National Unemployment Resource Finder - careeronestop

About Rob……...

Hi, I’m Rob Mangold. I’m the Chief Operating Officer at Greenbush Financial Group and a contributor to the Money Smart Board blog. We created the blog to provide strategies that will help our readers personally, professionally, and financially. Our blog is meant to be a resource. If there are questions that you need answered, please feel free to join in on the discussion or contact me directly.

Volatility, Market Timing, and Long-Term Investing

Volatility, Market Timing, and Long-Term Investing

For many savers, the objective of a retirement account is to accumulate assets while you are working and use those assets to pay for your expenses during retirement.  While you are in the accumulation phase, assets are usually invested and hopefully earn a sufficient rate of return to meet your retirement goal.  For the majority, these accounts are long-term investments and there are certain investing ideas that should be taken into consideration when managing portfolios.  This article will discuss volatility, market timing and their role in long-term retirement accounts.

“Market timing is the act of moving in and out of the market or switching between asset classes based on using predictive methods such as technical indicators or economic data” (Investopedia).  In other words, trying to sell investments when they are near their highest and buy investments when they are near their lowest.  It is difficult, some argue impossible, to time the market successfully enough to generate higher returns.  Especially over longer periods.  That being said, by reallocating portfolios and not experiencing the full loss during market downturns, investors could see higher returns.  When managing portfolios over longer periods, this should be done without the emotion of day to day volatility but by analyzing greater economic trends.

So far, the stock market in 2018 has been volatile; particularly when compared to 2017.  Below are charts of the S&P 500 from 1/1/2018 – 10/21/2018 and the same period for 2017.

Source: Yahoo Finance. Information has been obtained from sources believed to be reliable and are subject to change without notification.

Based on the two charts above, one could conclude the majority of investors would prefer 2017 100% of the time.  In reality, the market averages a correction of over 10% each year and there are years the market goes up and there are years the market goes down.  Currently, the volatility in the market has a lot of investors on edge, but when comparing 2018 to the market historically, one could argue this year is more typical than a year like 2017 where the market had very little to no volatility.

Another note from the charts above are the red and green bars on the bottom of each year.  The red represent down days in the market and the green represent up days.  You can see that even though there is more volatility in 2018 compared to 2017 when the market just kept climbing, both years have a mixture of down days and up days.

A lot of investors become emotional when the market is volatile but even in the midst of volatility and downturns, there are days the market is up.  The chart below shows what happens to long-term portfolio performance if investors miss the best days in the market during that period.

Source: JP Morgan. Information has been obtained from sources believed to be reliable and are subject to change without notification.

Two main takeaways from the illustration above are; 1) missing the best days over a period in the market could have a significant impact on a portfolios performance, and 2) some of the best days in the market over the period analyzed came shortly after the worst days.  This means that if people reacted on the worst days and took their money from the market then they likely missed some of the best days.

Market timing is difficult over long periods of time and making drastic moves in asset allocation because of emotional reactions to volatility isn’t always the best strategy for long-term investing.  Investors should align their portfolios taking both risk tolerance and time horizon into consideration and make sure the portfolio is updated as each of these change multiple times over longer periods.

When risk tolerance or time horizon do not change, most investors should focus on macro-economic trends rather than daily/weekly/monthly volatility of the market.  Not experiencing the full weight of stock market declines could generate higher returns and if data shows the economy may be slowing, it could be a good time to take some “chips off the table”.  That being said, looking at past down markets, some of the best days occur shortly after the worst days and staying invested enough to keep in line with your risk tolerance and time horizon could be the best strategy.

It is difficult to take the emotion out of investing when the money is meant to fund your future needs so speaking with your financial consultant to review your situation may be beneficial.

About Rob……...

Hi, I’m Rob Mangold. I’m the Chief Operating Officer at Greenbush Financial Group and a contributor to the Money Smart Board blog. We created the blog to provide strategies that will help our readers personally, professionally, and financially. Our blog is meant to be a resource. If there are questions that you need answered, please feel free to join in on the discussion or contact me directly.

Target Date Funds: A Public Service Announcement

Target Date Funds:  A Public Service Announcement

Before getting into the main objective of this article, let me briefly explain a Target Date Fund.  Investopedia defines a target date fund as “a fund offered by an investment company that seeks to grow assets over a specified period of time for a targeted goal”.  The specified period of time is typically the period until the date you “target” for retirement or to start withdrawing assets.  For this article, I will refer to the target date as the “retirement date” because that is how Target Date Funds are typically used.

Target Date Funds are continuing to grow in popularity as Defined Contribution Plans (i.e. 401(k)’s) become the primary savings vehicle for retirement.  Per the Investment Company Institute, as of March 31, 2018, there was $1.1 trillion invested in Target Date Mutual Funds.  Defined Contribution Plans made up 67 percent of that total.

Target Date Funds are often coined as the “set it and forget it” of investments for participants in retirement plans.  Target Date Funds that are farther from the retirement date will be invested more aggressively than target date funds closer to the retirement date.  Below is a chart showing the “Glide Path” of the Vanguard Target Date Funds.  The horizontal access shows how far someone is from retirement and the vertical access shows the percentage of stocks in the investment.  In general, more stock means more aggressive.  The “40” in the bottom left indicates someone that is 40 years from their retirement date.  A common investment strategy in retirement accounts is to be more aggressive when you’re younger and become more conservative as you approach your retirement age.  Following this strategy, someone with 40 years until retirement is more aggressive which is why at this point the Glide Path shows an allocation of approximately 90% stocks and 10% fixed income.  When the fund is at “0”, this is the retirement date and the fund is more conservative with an allocation of approximately 50% stocks and 50% fixed income.  Using a Target Date Fund, a person can become more conservative over time without manually making any changes.

Note:  Not every fund family (i.e. Vanguard, American Funds, T. Rowe Price, etc.) has the same strategy on how they manage the investments inside the Target Date Funds, but each of them follows a Glide Path like the one shown below.

The Public Service Announcement

The public service announcement is to remind investors they should take both time horizon and risk tolerance into consideration when creating a portfolio for themselves.  The Target Date Fund solution focuses on time horizon but how does it factor in risk tolerance?Target Date Funds combine time horizon and risk tolerance as if they are the same for each investor with the same amount of time before retirement.  In other words, each person 30 years from retirement that is using the Target Date strategy as it was intended will have the same stock to bond allocation.This is one of the ways the Target Date Fund solution can fall short as it is likely not possible to truly know somebody’s risk tolerance without knowing them.  In my experience, not every investor 30 years from retirement is comfortable with their biggest retirement asset being allocated to 90% stock.  For various reasons, some people are more conservative, and the Target Date Fund solution may not be appropriate for their risk tolerance.The “set it and forget it” phrase is often used because Target Date Funds automatically become more conservative for investors as they approach their Target Date.  This is a strategy that does work and is appropriate for a lot of investors which is why the strategy is continuing to increase in popularity.  The takeaway from this article is to think about your risk tolerance and to be educated on the way Target Date Funds work as it is important to make sure both are in line with each other.For a more information on Target Date Funds please visit https://www.greenbushfinancial.com/target-date-funds-and-their-role-in-the-401k-space/

About Rob……...

Hi, I’m Rob Mangold. I’m the Chief Operating Officer at Greenbush Financial Group and a contributor to the Money Smart Board blog. We created the blog to provide strategies that will help our readers personally, professionally, and financially. Our blog is meant to be a resource. If there are questions that you need answered, please feel free to join in on the discussion or contact me directly.

How Pass-Through Income Will Be Taxed For Small Business Owners

While one of the most significant changes incorporated in the new legislation was reducing the corporate tax rate from the current 35% rate to a 21% rate in 2018, the tax bill also contains a big tax break for small business owners. Unlike large corporations that are taxed at a flat rate, most small businesses, are "pass-through" entities, meaning that the profits from the business flow through to the business owner's personal tax return and then are taxed at ordinary income tax rates.While pass-through income will continue to be taxed at ordinary income tax rates, many small business owners will be eligible to deduct 20% of their "qualified business income" (QBI) starting in 2018. In other words, some pass-through entities will only be taxes on 80% of their pass-through income.

Pass-through entities include

Sole proprietorships

Partnerships

LLCs

S-Corps

Unanswered Questions

I wanted to write this article to give our readers the framework of what we know at this point about the treatment of the pass-through income in 2018. However, as many accountants will acknowledge, there seems to be more questions at this point then there are answers. The IRS will need to begin issuing guidance at the beginning of 2018 to clear up many of the unanswered questions as to who will be eligible and not eligible for the new 20% deduction.

Above or Below "The Line"

This 20% deduction will be a below-the-line deduction which is an important piece to understand. Tax lingo makes my head spin as well, so let's pause for a second to understand the difference between an "above-the-line deduction" and a "below-the-line deduction".The "line" refers to the AGI line on your tax return which is the bottom line on the first page of your Form 1040. While both above-the-line and below-the-line deductions reduce your taxable income, it's important to understand the difference between the two.

Above-The-Line Deductions

Above-the-line deductions happen on the first page of your tax return. These deductions reduce your gross income to eventually reach your AGI (adjusted gross income) for the year. Above-the-line deductions include:

• Contributions to health savings accounts

• Contributions to retirement plans

• Deduction for one-half of the self-employment taxes

• Health insurance premiums paid

• Alimony paid, student loan interest, and a few others

The AGI is important because the AGI is used to determine your eligibility for certain tax credits and it will also have an impact on which below-the-line deductions you are eligible for. In general, the lower your AGI is, the more deductions and credits you are eligible to receive.

Below-The-Line Deductions

Below-the-line deductions are reported on lines that come after the AGI calculation. They are comprised mainly of your “standard deduction” or “itemized deductions” and “personal exemptions” (most of which will be gone starting in 2018). The 20% deduction for qualified business income will fall into this below-the-line category. It will lower the income of small business owners but it will not lower their AGI.

However, it was stated in the tax legislation that even though the 20% qualified business deduction will be a below –the-line deduction it will not be considered an “itemized deduction”. This is a huge win!!! Why? If it’s not an itemized deduction, then small business owners can claim the 20% qualified business income deduction and still claim the standard deduction. This is an important note because many small business owners may end up taking the standard deduction for the first time in 2018 due to all of the deductions and tax exemptions that were eliminated in the new tax bill. The tax bill took away a lot of big deductions:

• Capped state and local taxes at $10,000 (this includes state income taxes and property taxes)

• Eliminated personal exemptions ($4,050 for each individual) (Eliminated in 2018)

  • Family of 4 = $4,050 x 4 = $16,200 (Eliminated in 2018)

• Miscellaneous itemized deductions subject to 2% of AGI floor (Eliminated in 2018)

Restrictions On The 20% Deduction

If life were easy, you could just assume that I'm a sole proprietor, I make $100,000 all in pass-through income, so I will get a $20,000 deduction and only have to pay tax on $80,000 of my income. For many small business owners it may be that easy but what's a tax law without a list of restrictions.The restriction were put in place to prevent business owners from reclassifying their W2 wages into 100% pass-through income to take advantage of the 20% deduction . They also wanted to restrict employees from leaving their company as a W2 employee, starting a sole proprietorship, and entering into a sub-contractor relationship with their old employer just to reclassify their W2 wages into 100% pass-through income.

S-Corps

Qualified business income will specifically exclude "reasonable compensation" paid to the owner-employee of an S-corp. While it would seem like an obvious reaction by S-corp owners to reduce their W2 wages in 2018 to create more pass through income, they will still have to adhere to the "reasonable compensation" restriction that exists today.

Partnerships & LLCs

Qualified business income will specifically exclude guaranteed payments associated with partnerships and LLCs. This creates a grey area for these entities. Partnerships do not have a “reasonable compensation” requirement like S-corps since companies taxed as partnerships are not allowed to pay W2 wages to the owners. Also the owners of partnerships are not required to take guaranteed payments. My guess is, and this is only a guess, that as we get further into 2018, the IRS may require partnerships to classify a percentage of a owners total compensation as a “guaranteed payment” similar to the “reasonable compensation” restriction that S-corps currently adhere too. Otherwise, partnerships can voluntarily eliminate guaranteed payments and take the 20% deduction on 100% of the pass-through income.

This may also prompt some S-corps to look at changing their structure to a partnership or LLC. For high income earners, S-corps have an advantage over the partnership structure in that the owners do not pay self-employment tax on the pass-through income that is distribution to the owner over and above their W2 wages. However, S-corp owners will have to weigh the self-employment tax benefit against the option of changing their corporate structure to a partnership and potentially receiving a 20% deduction on 100% of their income.

Sole Proprietors

Sole proprietors do not have "reasonable compensation" requirement or "guaranteed payments" so it would seem that 100% of the income generated by sole proprietors will count as qualified business income. Unless the IRS decides to enact a "reasonable compensation" requirement for sole proprietors in 2018, similar to S-corps. Before everyone runs from a single member LLC to a sole proprietorship, remember, a sole proprietorship offers no liability barrier between the owner and liabilities that could arise from the business.

Income Restrictions

There are limits that are imposed on the 20% deduction based on how much the owner makes in “taxable income”. The thresholds are set at the following amounts:

Individual: $157,500

Married: $315,000

The thresholds are based on each business owner’s income level, not on the total taxable income of the business. We need help from the IRS to better define what is considered “taxable income” for purposes of this phase out threshold. As of right now, it seems that “taxable income” will be defined as the taxpayer’s own taxable income (not AGI) less deductions.

If the owner’s taxable income is below this threshold, then the calculation is a simple 20% deduction of the pass-through income. If the owner’s taxable income exceeds the threshold, the qualified business deduction is calculated as follows:

The LESSER of:

20% of its business income OR 50% of the total wages paid by the business to its employees

Let’s look at this in a real life situation. A manufacturing company has a net profit of $2M in 2018 and pays $500,000 in wages to its employees during the year. That company would only be able to take the qualified business income deduction for $250,000 since 50% of the total employee wages ($500,000 x 50% = $250,000) are less than 20% of the net income of the business ($2M x 20% = $400,000).

This creates another grey area because it seems that the additional calculation is triggered by the taxable income of each individual owner but the calculation is based on the total profitability and wages paid by the company. For the owners that required this special calculation for exceeding the threshold, how is their portion of the lower deduction amount allocated? Multiplying the lower total deduction amount by the percent of their ownership? Just more unanswered questions.:

Restrictions For "Service Business"

There will be restrictions on the 20% deduction for pass-through entities that are considered a "service business" under IRC Section 1202(e)(3)(A). The businesses specifically included in this definition as a services business are:

• Health

• Law

• Accounting

• Actuarial Sciences

• Performing Arts

• Consulting

• Athletics

• Financial Services

• Any other trade or business where the principal asset of the business is the reputation or skill of 1 or more of its employees

In a last minute change to the regulations, to their favor, engineers and architects were excluded from the definition of “service businesses”.

This is another grey area. Many small businesses that fall outside of the categories listed above will undoubtedly be asking the question: “Am I considered a service business or not?” Outside of the industries specifically listed in the tax bill, we really need more guidance from the IRS.

If you are a “services business”, when the tax reform was being negotiated it looked like service businesses were going to be completely excluded from the 20% deduction. However, the final regulations were more kind and instead implemented a phase out of the 20% deduction for owners of service businesses over a specified income threshold. The restriction will only apply to those whose “taxable income” exceeds the following thresholds:

Individual: $157,500

Married: $315,000

If you are a consultant or owner of a services business and your taxable income is below these thresholds, it would seem at this point that you will be able to capture the 20% deduction for your pass-through income. As mentioned above, we need help from the IRS to clarify the definition of “taxable income”.

Phase Out For Service Businesses

The amounts listed above: $157,500 for individual and $315,000 for a married couple filing joint, are where the thresholds for the phase out begins. The service business owners whose income rises above those thresholds will phase out of the 20% deduction over the next $50,000 of taxable income for individual filers and $100,000 of taxable income for married filing joint. This means that the 20% pass-through deduction is completely gone by the following income levels:

Individual: $207,500

Married: $415,000

Any taxpayer’s falling in between the threshold and the phase out limit will receive a portion of the 20% deduction.

Since the thresholds are assessed based on the taxpayer’s own taxable income and not the total income of the business, a service business could be in a situation, like in an accounting firm, where the partners with the largest ownership percentage may not qualify for 20% deduction but the younger partners may qualify for the deduction because their income is lower.

Tax Planning For 2018

It's an understatement to say that most small business owners will need to spend a lot of time with their accountant in the first quarter of 2018 to determine the best of course of action for their company and their personal tax situation.While we are still waiting for clarification on a number of very important items associated with the 20% deduction for qualified business income, hopefully this article has provided our small business owners with a preview of things to come in 2018.

Disclosure: I'm a Certified Financial Planner® but not an accountant. The information contained in this article was generated from hours and hours of personal research on the topic. I advise each of our readers to consult with your personal tax advisor for tax advice.

About Michael.........

Hi, I’m Michael Ruger. I’m the managing partner of Greenbush Financial Group and the creator of the nationally recognized Money Smart Board blog . I created the blog because there are a lot of events in life that require important financial decisions. The goal is to help our readers avoid big financial missteps, discover financial solutions that they were not aware of, and to optimize their financial future.

Tax Reform: Your Company May Voluntarily Terminate Your Retirement Plan

Make no mistake, your company retirement plan is at risk if the proposed tax reform is passed.  But wait…..didn’t Trump tweet on October 23, 2017 that “there will be NO change to your 401(k)”?  He did tweet that, however, while the tax reform might not directly alter the contribution limits to employer sponsored retirement plans, the new tax rates will produce a “disincentive” for companies to sponsor and make employer contributions to their plans.

What Are Pre-Tax Contributions Worth?

Remember, the main incentive of making contributions to employer sponsored retirement plans is moving income that would have been taxed now at a higher tax rate into the retirement years, when for most individuals, their income will be lower and that income will be taxed at a lower rate.   If you have a business owner or executive that is paying 45% in taxes on the upper end of the income, there is a large incentive for that business owner to sponsor a retirement plan.  They can take that income off of the table now and then realize that income in retirement at a lower rate.

This situation also benefits the employees of these companies.  Due to non-discrimination rules, if the owner or executives are receiving contributions from the company to their retirement accounts, the company is required to make employer contributions to the rest of the employees to pass testing. This is why safe harbor plans have become so popular in the 401(k) market.

But what happens if the tax reform is passed and the business owners tax rate drops from 45% to 25%?  You would have to make the case that when the business owner retires 5+ years from now that their tax rate will be below 25%.  That is a very difficult case to make.

An Incentive NOT To Contribute To Retirement Plans

This creates an incentive for business owners NOT to contribution to employer sponsored retirement plans.  Just doing the simple math, it would make sense for the business owner to stop contributing to their company sponsored retirement plan, pay tax on the income at a lower rate, and then accumulate those assets in a taxable account.  When they withdraw the money from that taxable account in retirement, they will realize most of that income as long term capital gains which are more favorable than ordinary income tax rates. 

If the owner is not contributing to the plan, here are the questions they are going to ask themselves: 

• Why am I paying to sponsor this plan for the company if I’m not using it?

• Why make an employer contribution to the plan if I don’t have to?

This does not just impact 401(k) plans. This impacts all employer sponsored retirement plans: Simple IRA’s, SEP IRA’s, Solo(k) Plans, Pension Plans, 457 Plans, etc.

Where Does That Leave Employees?

For these reasons, as soon as tax reform is passed, in a very short time period, you will most likely see companies terminate their retirement plans or at a minimum, lower or stop the employer contributions to the plan.  That leaves the employees in a boat, in the middle of the ocean, without a paddle.  Without a 401(k) plan, how are employees expected to save enough to retire?  They would be forced to use IRA’s which have much lower contribution limits and IRA’s don’t have employer contributions.

Employees all over the United States will become the unintended victim of tax reform.  While the tax reform may not specifically place limitations on 401(k) plans, I’m sure they are aware that just by lowering the corporate tax rate from 35% to 20% and allowing all pass through business income to be taxes at a flat 25% tax rate, the pre-tax contributions to retirement plans will automatically go down dramatically by creating an environment that deters high income earners from deferring income into retirement plans.   This is a complete bomb in the making for the middle class.

About Michael……...

Hi, I’m Michael Ruger. I’m the managing partner of Greenbush Financial Group and the creator of the nationally recognized Money Smart Board blog . I created the blog because there are a lot of events in life that require important financial decisions. The goal is to help our readers avoid big financial missteps, discover financial solutions that they were not aware of, and to optimize their financial future.

How Does A Simple IRA Plan Work?

Not every company with employees should have a 401(k) plan. In many cases, a Simple IRA plan may be the best fit for a small business. These plans carry the following benefits

• No TPA fees

• Easy to setup & operate

• Employee attraction and retention tool

• Pre-tax contributions for the owners to lower their tax liability

Your company

To be eligible to sponsor a Simple IRA, your company must have less than 100 employees. The contribution limits to these plans are about half that of a 401(k) plan but it still may be the right fit for you company. Here are some of the most common statements that we hear from the owners of the business that would lead you to considering a Simple IRA plan over a 401(k) plan:

"I want to put a retirement plans in place for my employees that has very low fees and is easy to operate."

"We are a start-up, we don't have a lot of money to contribute to the plan as the owners, but we want to put a plan in place to attract and retain employees."

"I plan on contributing $15,000 per year to the plan, even if I sponsored a plan that allowed me to contribute more I wouldn't because I'm socking all of the profits back into the business"

"I have a SEP IRA now but I just hired my first employee. I need to setup a different type of plan since SEP IRA's are 100% employer funded"

Establishment Deadline

The deadline to establish a Simple IRA plan is October 1st. Once you have cross over that date, you would have to wait until the following calendar year to set the plan.

Eligibility

The eligibility requirements for a Simple IRA are different than a SEP IRA or 401(k) plans. Unlike these other plan "1 Year of Service" = $5,000 of compensation earned in a calendar year. If you want to only cover "full-time" employees with your retirement plan, you may need to consider a 401(k) plan which has the 1 year and 1000 hours requirement to obtain a year of service. The most restrictive "wait time" that you can put into place is 2 years. Meaning an employee must obtain 2 years of service before they are eligible to start contributing to the plan. You can also be more lenient that 2 years, such as immediate entry or a 1-year wait, but 2 years is the most restrictive it can be.

Types of Contributions

Like a 401(k) plan, Simple IRA have both employee deferral contributions and employer contributions.

Employee Deferrals

Eligible employees are allowed to make pre-tax contributions to their Simple IRA accounts. The contribution limits are less than a traditional 401(k). Below is a tale comparing the 2021 contribution limits of a Simple IRA vs a 401(k) Plan:

There are not Roth deferrals allows in Simple IRA plans.

Employer Contributions

Unlike other employer sponsored retirement plans, employer contributions are mandatory each year to a Simple IRA plan. The company must choose between two pre-set employer contribution formulas:

• 2% Non-elective

• 3$ Matching contribution

With the 2% non-elective contribution, the company must contribute 2% of each eligible employee’s compensation to the plan whether they contribute to the plan or not.

For the 3% matching contribution, it’s a dollar for dollar match up to 3% of compensation that they employee contributes to the plan. The match formula is more popular than the 2% non-elective contribution because the company only must contribute if the employee contributes.

Special 1% Rule

With the employer matching contribution there is also a special rule. In 2 out of any 5 consecutive years, the company can lower the employer match to as low as 1% of pay. We will often see start-up company's take advantage of this rule by putting a 1% employer match in place for the first 2 years of the plan to minimize costs and then they are committed to making the 3% match for years 3, 4, and 5.

100% Vesting

All employer contributions to Simple IRA plans are 100% vested. The company is not allowed to attach a "vesting schedule" to the contributions.

Important Compliance Requirements

Make sure you have a 5304 Simple Form in your files for each year you sponsor the Simple IRA plan. If you are audited by the IRS or DOL, they will ask for these forms. You need to distribute this form to all of your employee each year between Nov 1st and Dec 1st for the upcoming plan year. The documents notifies your employees that:

• A retirement plan exists

• Plan eligibility requirement

• Employer contribution formula

• Who they submit their deferral elections to within the company

If you do not have this form on file, the IRS will assume that you have immediate eligibility for your Simple IRA plan, meaning that all of your employees are due employer contributions since day one of employment. Even employee that used to work for you and have since terminated employment. It’s an ugly situation.

Make sure the company is timely when submitting the employee deferrals to the Simple IRA plan. Since you are withholding money from employees pay for the salary deferrals the IRS want you to send that money to their Simple IRA accounts “as soon as administratively feasible”. The suggested time phrase is within a week of the deduction in payroll. But you must be consistent with the timing of your remittances to your Simple IRA plan. If you typically submit contributions to your Simple IRA provider 5 days after a payroll run but one week you randomly submit it 2 days after the payroll run, 2 days just became the rule and all of the other deferral remittances are “late”. The company will be assessed penalties for all of the late deferral remittances. So be consistent.

Cannot Terminate Mid-Year

Unlike other retirement plans, you cannot terminate a Simple IRA plan mid-year. Simple IRA plan termination are most common when a company started with a Simple IRA, has grown in employee head count, and now wishes to put a 401(k) plan in place. You must wait until after December 31st to terminate the Simple IRA plan and implement the new 401(k) plan.

Special 2 Year Rule

If you replace your Simple IRA with a 401(k) plan, the balances in the Simple IRA can usually be rolled over into the new 401(k) if the employee elects to do so. However, be very careful of the special Simple IRA 2 Year Distribution Rule. If you process any type of distribution from a Simple IRA, within a two-year period of the employee depositing their first dollar to the account, and the employee is under 59½, they are hit with a 25% IRS penalty. THIS ALSO APPLIES TO DIRECT ROLLOVERS. Normally when you process a direct rollover from one retirement plan to another, no taxes or penalties are assessed. That is not the case in Simple IRA plan so be care of this rule. If you decide to switch from a Simple IRA to a 401(k), make sure you run a list of all the employees that maintain a balance in the Simple IRA plan to determine which employees are subject to the 2-year withdrawal restriction.

About Michael.........

Hi, I’m Michael Ruger. I’m the managing partner of Greenbush Financial Group and the creator of the nationally recognized Money Smart Board blog . I created the blog because there are a lot of events in life that require important financial decisions. The goal is to help our readers avoid big financial missteps, discover financial solutions that they were not aware of, and to optimize their financial future.

How Does A SEP IRA Work?

 What is a SEP?

SEP stands for “Simplified Employee Pension”.  The SEP IRA is one of the most common employer sponsored retirement plans used by sole proprietors and small businesses.

Special Establishment Deadline

SEP are one of the few retirement plans that can be established after December 31st which make them a powerful tax tool.  For example, it’s March, you are meeting with your accountant and they deliver the bad news that you have a big tax bill that is due.  You can setup the SEP IRA any time to your tax filing date PLUS extension, fund it, and capture the tax deduction.

Easy to Setup & Low Plan Fees

The other advantage of SEP IRA’s is they are easy to setup and you do not have a third-party administrator to run the plan, so the costs are a lot lower than a traditional 401(k) plans.  These plans can typically be setup with 24 hours.

Contributions limits

SEP IRA contributions are expressed as a percentage of compensation.  The maximum contribution is either 20% of the owners “net earned income” or 25% of the owners W2 wages.  It all depends on how your business is incorporated.  You have the option to contribution any amount less than the maximum contribution.

100% Employer Funded

SEP IRA plans are 100% employer funded meaning there is no employee deferral piece.  Which makes them expense plans to sponsor for a company that eligible employees because the employer contribution is uniform for all employees.  Meaning if the owner contributes 20% of their compensation to the plan for themselves they must also make a contribution equal to 20% of compensation for each eligible employee.  Typically, once employees begin becoming eligible for the plan, a company will terminate the SEP IRA and replace it with either a Simple IRA or 401(k) plans.

Employee Eligibility Requirements

An employee earns a “year of service” for each calendar year that they earn $500 in compensation.  You can see how easy it is to earn a “year of service” in these types of plans.  This is where a lot of companies make an error because they only look at their “full time employees” as eligible.  The good news for business owners is you can keep employees out of the plan for 3 years and then they become eligible in the 4th year of employment.  For example, I am a sole proprietor and I hire my first employee, if my plan document is written correctly, I can keep that employee out of the SEP IRA for 3 years and then they will not be eligible for the employer contribution until the 4th year of employment.

Read This……..Very Important…..

There is a plan document called a 5305 SEP form that is required to sponsor a SEP IRA plan.  This form can be printed off the IRS website or is sometimes provide by the investment platform for your plan.   Remember, SEP IRA plans are “self-administered” meaning that you as the business owner are responsible for keeping the plan in compliance.  Do cannot always rely on your investment advisor or accountant to help you with your SEP IRA plan. You should have a 5305 SEP for in your employer files for each year you have sponsored the plan.   This form does not get filed with the IRS or DOL but rather is just kept in your employer files in the case of an audit. You are required to give this form to all employees of the company each year.  It’s a way of notifying your employees that the plan exists and it lists the eligibility requirements.

Compliance Issues

The main compliance issues to watch out for with these plan is not having that 5305 SEP Form for each year the plan has been sponsored, not accurately identifying eligible employees, and miscalculating your “net earned income” for the max SEP IRA contribution. 

About Michael……...

Hi, I’m Michael Ruger. I’m the managing partner of Greenbush Financial Group and the creator of the nationally recognized Money Smart Board blog . I created the blog because there are a lot of events in life that require important financial decisions. The goal is to help our readers avoid big financial missteps, discover financial solutions that they were not aware of, and to optimize their financial future.

The Fiduciary Rule: Exposing Your 401(K) Advisor’s Secrets

It’s here.  On June 9, 2017, the long awaited Fiduciary Rule for 401(k) plans will arrive.  The wirehouse and broker-dealer community within the investment industry has fought this new rule every step of the way.  Why? Because their secrets are about to be exposed.  Fee gouging in these 401(k) plans has spiraled out of control and it has gone on for way too long.  While the Fiduciary Rule was designed to better protect plan participants within these employer sponsored retirement plans, the response from the broker-dealer community, in an effort to protect themselves, may actually drive the fees in 401(k) plans higher than they are now.

If your company sponsors an employer sponsored retirement plan and your investment advisor is a broker with one of the main stream wirehouse or broker dealers then they may be approaching you within the next few months regarding a “platform change” for your 401(k) plan.  Best advice, start asking questions before you sign anything!!  The brokerage community is going to try to gift wrap this change and present this as a value added service to their current 401(k) clients when the reality is this change is being forced onto the brokerage community and they are at great risk at losing their 401(k) clients to independent registered investment advisory firms that have served as co-fiduciaries to their plans along.

The Fiduciary Rule requires all investment advisors that handle 401(k) plans to act in the best interest of their clients.  Up until now may brokers were not held to this standard. As long as they delivered the appropriate disclosure documents to the client, the regulations did not require them to act in their client’s best interest. Crazy right?  Well that’s all about to change and the response of the brokerage community will shock you.

I will preface this article by stating that there have been a variety of responses by the broker-dealer community to this new regulation.  While we cannot reasonably gather information on every broker-dealers response to the Fiduciary Rule, this article will provide information on how many of the brokerage firms are responding to the new legislation given our independent research.

SECRET #1:

Many of the brokerage dealers are restricting what 401(k) platforms their brokers can use.  If the broker currently has 401(k) clients that maintain a plan with a 401(k) platform outside of their new “approved list”, they are forcing them to move the plan to a pre-approved platform or the broker will be required to resign as the advisor to the plan.  Even though your current 401(k) platform may be better than the new proposed platform, the broker may attempt to move your plan so they can keep the plan assets.  How is this remotely in your employee’s best interest? But it’s happening.  We have been told that some of these 401(k) providers end up on the “pre-approve list” because they are willing to share fees with the broker dealer. If you don’t share fees, you don’t make the list.  Really ugly stuff!!

SECRET #2:

Because these wirehouses and broker-dealers know that their brokers are not “experts” in 401(k) plans, many of the brokerage firms are requiring their 401(k) plans to add a third-party fiduciary service which usually results in higher plan fees.  The question to ask is “if you were so concerned about our fiduciary liability why did you wait until now to present this third party fiduciary service?”  They are doing this to protect themselves, not the client.   Also, many of these third party fiduciary services could standardize the investment menu and take the control of the investment menu away from the broker.  Which begs the question, what are you paying the broker for?

SECRET #3:

Some broker-dealers are responding to the Fiduciary Rule by forcing their brokers to move all their 401(k) plans to a “fee based platform” versus a commission based platform.  The plan participants may have paid commissions on investments when they were purchased within their 401(k) account and now could be forced out of those investments and locked into a fee based fee structure after they already paid a commission on their balance.  This situation will be common for 401(k) plans that are comprised primarily of self-directed brokerage accounts.  Make sure you ask the advisor about the impact of the fee structure change and any deferred sales charges that may be imposed due to the platform change.

SECRET #4:

The plan fees are often times buried.  The 401(k) industry has gotten very good at hiding fees.  They talk in percentages and basis points but rarely talk in hard dollars.  One percent does not sound like a lot but if you have a $2 million dollar 401(k) plan that equals $20,000 in fees coming out of the plans assets every year.  Most of the fees are buried in the mutual fund expense ratios and you basically have to be an investment expert to figure out how much you are paying.  This has continued to go on because very rarely do companies write a check for their 401(k) fees. Most plans debit plan assets for their plan fees but the fees are real.

With all of these changes taking place, now is the perfect time to take a good hard look at your company’s employer sponsored retirement plan.  If your current investment advisor approaches you with a recommended “platform change” that is a red flag.  Start asking a lot of questions and it may be a good time to put your plan out to bid to see if you can negotiate a better overall solution for you and your employees.

About Michael……...

Hi, I’m Michael Ruger. I’m the managing partner of Greenbush Financial Group and the creator of the nationally recognized Money Smart Board blog . I created the blog because there are a lot of events in life that require important financial decisions. The goal is to help our readers avoid big financial missteps, discover financial solutions that they were not aware of, and to optimize their financial future.

Planning for Long Term Care

The number of conversations that we are having with our clients about planning for long term care is increasing exponentially.  Whether it’s planning for their parents, planning for themselves, or planning for a relative, our clients are largely initiating these conversations as a result of their own personal experiences.

The baby-boomer generation is the first generation that on a large scale is seeing the ugly aftermath of not having a plan in place to address a long term care event because they are now caring for their aging parents that are in their 80’s and 90’s.  Advances in healthcare have allowed us to live longer but the longer we live the more frail we become later in life.

Our clients typically present the following scenario to us: “I have been taking care of my parents for the past three years and we just had to move my dad into the nursing home.  What an awful process.  How can I make sure that my kids don’t have to go through that same awful experience when I’m my parents age?”

“Planning for long term care is not just about money…….it’s about having a plan”

If there are no plans, your kids or family members are now responsible for trying to figure out “what mom or dad would have wanted”.   Now tough decisions need to be made that can poison a relationship between siblings or family members.

Some individuals never create a plan because it involves tough personal decisions.  We have to face the reality that at some point in our lives we are going to get older and later in life we may reach a threshold that we may need help from someone else to care for ourselves or our spouse.  It’s a tough reality to  face but not facing this reality will most likely result in the worst possible outcome if it happens.

Ask yourself this question: “You worked hard all of your life to buy a house, accumulate assets in retirement accounts, etc. If there are assets left over upon your death, would you prefer that those assets go to your kids or to the nursing home?”  With some advance planning, you can make sure that your assets are preserved for your heirs.

The most common reason that causes individuals to avoid putting a plan in place is: “I have heard that long term care insurance is too expensive.”  I have good news.  First, there are other ways to plan for the cost of a long term care event besides using long term care insurance.  Second, there are ways to significantly reduce the cost of these policies if designed correctly.

The most common solution is to buy a long term care insurance policy.  The way these policies work is if you can no longer perform certain daily functions, the policy pays a set daily benefit.  Now a big mistake many people make is when they hear “long term care” they think “nursing home”.  In reality, about 80% of long term care is provided right in the home via home health aids and nurses.  Most LTC policies cover both types of care.   Buying a LTC policy is one of the most effective ways to address this risk but it’s not the only one.

Why does long term care insurance cost more than term life insurance or disability insurance? The answer, most insurance policies insure you against risks that have a low probability of happening but has a high financial impact.  Similar to a life insurance policy. There is a very low probability that a 25 year old will die before the age of 60.  However, the risk of long term care has a high probability of happening and a high financial impact.  According to a study conducted by the U.S Department of Human Health and Services, “more than 70% of Americans over the age of 65 will need long-term care services at some point in their lives”.  Meaning, there is a high probability that at some point that insurance policy is going to pay out and the dollars are large.  The average daily rate of a nursing home in upstate New York is around $325 per day ($118,625 per year). The cost of home health care ranges greatly but is probably around half that amount.

So what are some of the alternatives besides using long term care insurance?  The strategy here is to protect your assets from Medicaid.  If you have a long term care event you will be required to spend down all of your assets until you reach the Medicaid asset allowance threshold (approx. $13,000 in assets) before Medicaid will start picking up the tab for your care.  Often times we will advise clients to use trusts or gifting strategies to assist them in protecting their assets but this has to be done well in advance of the long term care event.  Medicaid has a 5 year look back period which looks at your full 5 year financial history which includes tax returns, bank statements, retirement accounts, etc, to determine if any assets were “given away” within the last 5 years that would need to come back on the table before Medicaid will begin picking up the cost of an individuals long term care costs.  A big myth is that Medicare covers the cost of long term care.  False, Medicare only covers 100 days following a hospitalization.  There are a lot of ins and outs associated with buildings a plan to address the risk of long term care outside of using insurance so it is strongly advised that individuals work with professionals that are well versed in this subject matter when drafting a plan.

An option that is rising in popularity is “semi self-insuring”.  Instead of buying a long term care policy that has a $325 per day benefit, an individual can obtain a policy that covers $200 per day.  This can dramatically reduce the cost of the LTC policy because it represents less financial risk to the insurance company.  You have essentially self insured for a portion of that future risk.  The policy will still payout $73,000 per year and the individual will be on the line for $45,625 out of pocket.  Versus not having a policy at all and the individual is out of pocket $118,000 in a single year to cover that $325 per day cost.

As you can see there are a number of different options when it come to planning for long term care.  It’s about understanding your options and determining which solution is right for your personal financial situation.

About Michael……...

Hi, I’m Michael Ruger. I’m the managing partner of Greenbush Financial Group and the creator of the nationally recognized Money Smart Board blog . I created the blog because there are a lot of events in life that require important financial decisions. The goal is to help our readers avoid big financial missteps, discover financial solutions that they were not aware of, and to optimize their financial future.