Stephen Dobrow
- 35 years focused on retirement benefits and management with an expertise is in converting tax dollars into employee benefits.
- Specialties: 401(k), retirement plans, ERISA, taxation, fiduciary
- Former President of ASPPA
- Former Special Director, American Academy of Actuaries
- President, National Pension Study Group
- All 6 Best Practices
- Pre-Meeting Discovery Process
- One-on-One Call with Expert
- Meeting Summary Report
- Post-Meeting Engagement
401(k) and Pension Plan Design and Compliance
Defined Terms
- 401(k) plan
- Savings program where an employee can make contributions from his or her paycheck either before or after-tax, depending on the options offered in the plan. The contributions go into a 401(k) account, with the employee often choosing the investments based on options provided under the plan. In some plans, the employer also makes contributions such as matching the employee’s contributions up to a certain percentage.
- Actuary
- An actuary is a licensed professional who analyzes the financial consequences of risk. Actuaries use mathematics, statistics, and financial theory to study uncertain future events, especially those of concern to insurance and pension programs
- Bundled provider
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Typically an insurance company, mutual fund company, bank, or other financial institution that will perform plan administration, plan design, recordkeeping, and asset management as a single, combined product.
- ERISA
- The Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA) is a federal law that sets minimum standards for pension plans in private industry. ERISA does not require any employer to establish a pension plan. It only requires that those who establish plans must meet certain minimum standards.
- IRS Form 5500
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The Department of Labor, Internal Revenue Service, and the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. jointly developed Form 5500 for employee benefit plans' annual reporting requirements under ERISA and under the Internal Revenue Code. This Form is open to public inspection.
- Non-discrimination testing
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Retirement plans must not overly discriminate in favor of highly compensated employees. A set of mathematical tests determine the amount of discrimination that is allowed.
- Optimized tax deduction and contribution
- Calculations are needed if a company is trying to provide large benefits to executives and owners at the lowest possible cost for all other employees, while not exceeding any legal limitations
- Plan administrator
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The person who is identified in the plan document as having responsibility for running the plan. It could be the employer, a committee of employees, a company executive, or someone hired for that purpose.
- Plan fiduciary
- Anyone who exercises discretionary authority or discretionary control over management or administration of the plan, exercises any authority or control over management or disposition of plan assets, or gives investment advice for a fee or other compensation with respect to assets of the plan.
- QDRO
- A qualified domestic relations order or QDRO is a legal order subsequent to a divorce or legal separation that splits and changes ownership of a retirement plan to give the divorced spouse their share of the asset or pension plan.
- Third-party administrator, or TPA
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A third-party administrator is an outside party that provides record-keeping, statement production, plan design, and other administrative services for employee benefit plans.