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The Quintes Blog
Your employees deserve every opportunity to reach their goal of an ideal retirement – and the Quintes blog is part of our goal to inform both employers and employees of the options and choices available to make confident financial decisions for the future.
Millennials have a reputation from some people in “older” generations of being entitled and sometimes lazy. Millennials will tell you they feel independent and confident they will accomplish their goals on their own terms. So how do we design retirement plans to get younger participants to start saving and increase their savings over time to Read More…
We all know we need to be saving for retirement. The Department of Labor (DOL) says we should be saving 12-15% of our income to replace 80% of our current salary for our retirement years, that 80% income replacement ratio includes Social Security. The 12-15% savings rate is assuming we are perfect savers, meaning we Read More…
When we meet with CEOs, CFOs and HR Directors we consistently hear what is most important to them in regards to their employees. They are trying to increase productivity, attract and retain talent and improve employee engagement. Here are a few reasons why an employer should care if their employees are financially well. Productivity This Read More…
One of the hardest aspects of working with new retirement plan participants is telling them they can’t retire when they want to, but one of the best aspects is being able to tell plan participants that it is possible to meet their retirement goals. We work with both types of plan participants—those who are proactive Read More…
A person’s income need in retirement varies from person-to-person. There is no one solution that can fulfill everyone’s retirement goals. Most 401(k) participants understand that their goal in participating in an employer sponsored plan is to accumulate a balance large enough that will replace most of their working income, thus providing the opportunity for someone Read More…
When we meet with employees in our 401(k) plans and ask them, “When would you like to retire?” they often to refer to age 65 as a general targeted date of when they think retirement is supposed to happen. In order to demonstrate the reality of retirement by the age of 65, we utilize calculators, Read More…
When I meet with prospective clients, they typically view the administrative duties performed by a potential provider as a commodity, i.e. all providers are the same, when in reality this couldn’t be further from the truth. The most significant liability faced by an employer who sponsors a retirement plan is related to the administrative duties Read More…
Offering a retirement plan is a major benefit businesses can offer to their employees; yet I often come across clients who have lower-wage employees who do not participate. Most business owners assume their lower-wage employees don’t elect to participate in a 401(k) plan simply because they cannot afford to, but in reality the the lack Read More…
During a recent Plan Review with a client, we discussed all the normal aspects of their plan— design, administration, investments, employee education, etc. This client is a start-up company in the Silicon Valley that is rapidly growing and hires new employees on a weekly basis. The Problem? Part of their problem that contributed to the lack Read More…
I had an interesting experience recently. A prospective client asked me to meet with her company’s administrative support staff to go over their retirement plan management procedures. I asked each member of the staff to explain to me the various duties each performed in support of their company’s 401(k) retirement plan and the amount of Read More…