Risks

If retirement plans are haphazardly designed, structured and managed, the risks include:

• Fines, penalties, even jail time for ultimately failing to fully protect the financial interests of participants. Responsible parties set plans up agreeing to abide by rules and regulations designed to ensure that participants are treated fairly and that the money they’ve sheltered is adequately protected
  
• Undermining efforts to retain and attract employees.
• Hurting your chances, as a busy and distracted entrepreneur or business founder, to retire when you want to.
• Exposing your business and your key employees to more growth-compromising taxes that undermine efforts to accumulate wealth.
• Overpaying for an underperforming plan.

Opportunities

By taking time to formulate retirement plans that are a good fit and being careful to follow the prescribed rules, opportunities include:

• Taking full advantage of the one-two punch of sheltering income from taxes while building assets.
• Providing a great incentive of matching contributions for key employees.
• Being able to single out those key, higher-paid employees who deserve special consideration, while also taking care of others.
• Helping your workforce accumulate a nest egg that for most people ends up consisting primarily of  meager after-tax savings and home equity.
• Being able to concentrate more on running a business without the nagging worries over compliance, administration, retirement savings accumulation and legal action.