Baden Retirement Plan Services is not licensed to provide investment advice. However, once you've decided which funds you want to invest in, the Baden Call Center staff can speak with you over the telephone to walk you through the processes on the Baden website for making your investment elections. Be sure you have access to the Baden website when you call the Baden Call Center. The Baden Call Center's telephone number is 1-866-915-2040. The Baden website is www.badenrps.com .
[permalink] Baden Retirement Plan Services specializes in the consultation, implementation, and administration of tax-qualified retirement plans for companies. We have clients ranging in size from 1 employee to 5,000 employees in 46 states of the United States, but many of our clients are in the Midwest. As an independent third party administrator (TPA), we help companies implement the type of retirement plan that best serves their needs. In addition, we help them operate the plan in compliance with the many Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and Department of Labor (DOL) rules and regulations that must be followed.
[permalink]If you are unsure of what fund(s) to invest in, contact your Human Resource department for the name and contact information for your company's Plan Investment Advisor. Contact the Plan Investment Advisor with your questions about your current investment elections and when you're considering making new investment elections.
[permalink]401(k) has become a generic term for employer-sponsored retirement plans in which employees share some of the responsibility for their retirement by contributing to their own retirement account through payroll deductions. But, depending on the type of company sponsoring the plan and specific plan design considerations, other types of plans might be more appropriate. Other options would be a retirement plan with only employer contributions such as a defined benefit or profit sharing plan, but these are not as prevalent.
[permalink]We meet with the business owner or a company’s benefits committee and ask them why they are choosing to implement a plan. Many businesses implement a plan to compete with other companies that provide this benefit, or to help the business owners maximize their retirement benefit, or simply to provide a way to help the employees save for retirement. We also ask about employee demographics, financial resources that would be available to provide profit sharing or to match employee contributions, and their commitment to financing and administering the plan. Based on their answers, we can recommend the type of plan that fits best. In many cases, we work with businesses that are referred to us by financial advisors who are looking for a TPA to help them set up plans for their clients.
[permalink]A TPA, or Third Party Administrator, is a company that administers of employee benefit plans for employers (plan sponsors). “Third party” indicates that the TPA is independent from any particular investment fund or other products or services related to employee retirement plans. A TPA’s purpose is to serve clients by assisting with the design of an employee retirement plan that best fits and employer’s/employees’ needs, to prepare the plan document and make amendments to the plan as necessary, to gather information (census data) from the plan sponsor in order to prepare reports required by the Federal Government (Form 5500), to administer loans and distributions from the retirement plan and to provide consultation as needed to keep the plan in compliance with Department of Labor regulations and Internal Revenue Service codes.
[permalink]An investment election is the fund(s) you have chosen to invest in.
[permalink]When you change your investment election, your account balance will remain in the current investment funds, but your future contributions will be invested according to your newly elected investment funds.
[permalink]The Department of Labor’s Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA) is the federal law that sets minimum standards for operating most voluntarily established tax qualified retirement plans to provide protection for individuals who participate in the plans. ERISA law is continually changing to address issues related to protect employees.
[permalink]The worst mistake a business can make is to try to implement an employee retirement plan on its own. To function properly, a 401(k) plan requires a team that works together. This team includes the employer (plan sponsor), a financial advisor, an asset provider, and a TPA. Financial advisors help determine a plan’s asset providers (investment choices) and educate the employees on the importance of retirement savings and diversifying investments. It is important to rely on a team of experienced professionals because the consequences for a plan sponsor who does not comply with the laws and regulations are severe and could include heavy civil or criminal penalties.
[permalink]Business owners are eligible for tax deductions and tax credits. They get company tax deductions for the contributions to the plan for the employees and for the business expense of engaging a TPA firm to administer the plan. Depending on the amount that the employer contributes, the deduction can be worth thousands of dollars. Tax credits are available for companies with a new plan and fewer than 100 employees. The credit is equal to 50% of the first $1,000 of administrative and retirement-education expenses they incur for each of the first three years after the adoption of a new plan. The biggest benefit, however, is providing a vehicle for the retirement of the employees, as well as maximizing the business owner’s retirement benefit.
[permalink]A future contribution is the next contribution (deposit) to your account effective the next payroll period. And, your future contributions will continue to be deposited to your new fund elections until you change your investment elections again.
[permalink]Plan sponsors are required to file an annual return, or report, with the Federal government called a Department of Labor (DOL) Form 5500 Annual Return/Report of Employee Benefit Plan. The DOL Form 5500 is designed to disclose information about the plan and its operation to the Department of Labor (DOL), the plan’s participants, and to the public.
[permalink]No. Investment funds are not insured or guaranteed by the FDIC, NDUA, or any other government agency; are not deposits or other obligations of, or guaranteed by, any bank or any affiliate, or credit union; and are subject to investment risks, including possible loss of principal amount invested.
[permalink]Depending on the type of plan, it is not always necessary for the employer/plan sponsor to provide a match for employee’s contributions. Contact your TPA or financial advisor for information on specific plan types that do not require the employer/plan sponsor to provide a match.
[permalink]"Conform my balance in all sources to match my new allocation percentage" means you will move (reinvest) your existing account balance to match your new investment elections (allocation percentages).
[permalink]Off-the-shelf or prototype plans and plan documents are available and approved by the Internal Revenue Service. While these types of plans cost less to implement and administer, they do not allow the employer flexibility to change any aspects of the plan.
[permalink]"Transfer between investments" means that you will move your existing account balance for a particular fund according to your selected percentage or selected dollar amount. For example, if you have 45% of your account balance in one mutual fund and want to move 100% of the fund's value into another mutual fund, you will need to enter 100% in the "from" column, not 45%. If you enter 45%, you will move only 45% of the fund's value in that mutual fund.
[permalink]A census is a report prepared by a plan sponsor that provides the data that the plan’s third party administrator (TPA) or internal plan administrator needs to perform required testing to ensure that the plan is in compliance with Department of Labor laws and Internal Revenue Codes. The report includes the following data for each employee in the company that is eligible to participate in the company’s defined contribution employee retirement plan: name, gender, birth date, hire date, hours worked, date of termination, social security number, annual salary, employee contribution, and the company’s matching contribution.
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An ERISA fiduciary is determined by function rather than by title. Any person with discretionary authority or control over the management of the employee retirement plan is a fiduciary. Further, any person who exercises any authority or control with respect to management or disposition of the plan’s assets is a fiduciary.
An ERISA fiduciary must discharge all duties with respect to the employee retirement plan solely in the interest of the plan’s participants and beneficiaries and for the exclusive purposes of: 1) providing benefits to plan participants and their beneficiaries; and 2) defraying reasonable expenses of administering the plan
Persons performing only administrative duties within guidelines established by others who are fiduciaries, are not themselves plan fiduciaries. Administrative duties are those that process information and forms but do not involve making any decisions about plan policy.
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