Benetech Inc
Specializing in Retirement Plans for Small to Medium-Sized Businesses (SMBs)

Benetech provides a platform of design, consulting and administrative services for businesses that want or already have a retirement plan.

Often, companies will set up a plan directly with a large financial institution that takes a basic “onesize- fits-all” approach. There are times when a basic 401(k) plan will be a great fit for a company. But without expert consultation and design, a company could be missing a great opportunity to optimize the retirement plan for owner-employees, senior management, and other key employees.

Benetech specializes in retirement plans for SMBs. Such businesses find value in the expertise and support that Benetech offers. But, just as important, such businesses have plan design opportunities that are often overlooked by largescale 401(k) service providers.

Following is the conversation that we had with Benetech’s President, Amy Brandon.

Presenting the Best Retirement Plan Options to Meet the Business’s Unique Needs

In today’s world, employees expect a retirement plan. So, a successful business needs a retirement plan to attract and retain the high-quality employees it needs to stay competitive.

Furthermore, many states are now requiring companies to sponsor a retirement savings program for their employees, so it’s more important than ever for businesses to review all of their retirement plan options and select the one that best fits the business’s unique needs.

Most company decision-makers know that there are rules that apply to retirement plans. Benetech’s ongoing job is to provide the administrative support a business needs to help ensure that the plan stays compliant with these rules.

Taking a “Team” Approach

Benetech makes it simple for such businesses by taking a “team” approach. We partner with a company’s financial and tax advisors, and we bring value to the table by presenting the best retirement plan options to meet the business’s unique needs.

With any new client, we start by interviewing company management to determine what their goals are for their retirement plan and how much – if anything – the company would be willing to contribute, keeping in mind the employer contribution is a tax deduction to the company and those company contributions could be optimized for owneremployees and other key employees.

Benetech works closely with financial advisors, CPAs and tax advisors across the country, supporting their efforts to provide the broadest range of services to their business owning clients. We become part of their team: their retirement plan specialists. This allows them to confidently include business retirement plans within their practice, while maintaining their primary focus on their core areas of expertise.

We apply this team approach when designing a retirement plan for any new client because partnering with the company’s financial and tax advisors optimizes the discovery process and simplifies the company’s decision-making process. Bringing all parties to the table from the beginning helps ensure that the proposed retirement plan design is the right one, which saves everyone valuable time and money.

Functioning as One of the Largest, Privately Held Third-Party Administrators in the Nation

We are one of the largest, privately held third-party administrators in the nation. Our staff of actuaries and retirement plan professionals are experts in plan design, annual administration services, and consulting. Our clients are busy professionals—so we take pride in making the complex seem simple.

Many of our clients have one HR generalist in charge of all of the HR functions. The business and the person charged with its HR responsibilities are busy running the core operations that have made the business a success. Many of these companies do not have the time to also become 401(k) Plan specialists as well.

This is where Benetech’s history as a privately held thirdparty administration company shows itself. Our primary focus is to provide our clients with excellent customer service. Benetech provides one retirement plan specialist as the company’s principal point of contact, and we encourage our clients to contact us if they have any questions about how to properly operate their retirement plan.

Offering Creative Solutions to Anti- Discrimination Testing Problems

Businesses with 401(k) Plans often come to Benetech looking for creative solutions to anti-discrimination testing problems they’ve been having. We review their situation and show them their plan design options, some of which are overlooked by large-scale 401(k) service providers.

In some cases, a business may want to make a company profit-sharing contribution to a 401(k) plan if it could be used to reward those employees who have been critical to the success of the business. This can be achieved with a 401(k) plan using the Tiered profit-sharing allocation method, in which each eligible employee may be given a different contribution amount.

In a recent case, the employee demographics of a business allowed the owner to target five important employees with a higher level of profit-sharing contribution than the rest of the employees. This made the 401(k) Plan more than just a basic employee benefit. It also became an important tool for the owner to reward and retain key staff. This plan design also allowed the owner to bring his total contributions to the $67,500 maximum, which made the decision to adopt the plan that much easier.

Where Benetech uniquely excels is in designing retirement plans that act as a tax-planning tool for the owner of a small, closely-held business.

A successful small-business owner’s greatest tax-planning opportunity in the retirement plan space is with a Cash Balance Pension Plan. An owner may be able to receive contributions under a Cash Balance Pension Plan of up to $300,000 a year in exchange for a reasonable contribution to the other eligible employees. In many cases, up to 90 percent or more of the Cash Balance contribution may go towards funding the owner’s benefit at retirement. For a successful company with no employees other than the owner, a Cash Balance Pension Plan may be particularly effective.

Committed to Always Keeping the Business Owners’ Objectives in Mind

Business owners may hesitate to establish and maintain a retirement plan because they think it will be too complex and because they aren’t sure which plan is right for them. We provide expert plan design and consultation to make sure that the plan fits the business needs and that any employer contributions are allocated to maximize contributions to the business owners or select key personnel if that is part of the plan objective for the company.

Not all contributions need to be allocated in an “across the board fashion” to all employees. We believe that all business owners should know all of their options when it comes to selecting a retirement plan and not leave any money on the table. There are often plan designs options that maximize employer contributions in a manner that favors business owners and key personnel all the while adhering to the rules.

An Essential Part of the Retirement Plan Industry’s Growth

Benetech was started in 1974 when ERISA, the rules that apply to retirement plans, was first passed into law. Benetech began as a family business and remains family-owned. We have clients and employees all across the country, and we maintain our original commitment to providing high-quality plan design and ongoing service to small and medium-sized businesses at reasonable costs.

Benetech has been part of the growth of the retirement plan industry since the start and is now one of the largest independently owned retirement plan service providers in the country. We do not sell or recommend investments: we focus exclusively on designing and administering retirement plans customized to meet the needs of companies that need to attract and retain the best talent.

Since we are a closely held business ourselves, we understand that successful business owners are those who have worked hard to make their business a success. We view our job as building retirement plans that not only provide a benefit to employees but that also reward successful owner-employees and other key employees to the greatest extent possible.

Organizational Work Culture inside Benetech

Benetech’s work processes combine “high touch” with “high tech.” In most cases a company will provide “high tech” without the “high touch,” personalized service.

Some professionals outside our industry believe that retirement plan administration could be completely automated. In fact, some people may believe that just “pushing a button” should be sufficient to provide plan administration because it’s governed by IRS and Department of Labor regulations. This is, of course, an overly simplistic view.

We encourage our clients to contact us if they have any questions because it’s been our experience that time spent consulting with a client before they take an action on something they are not confident about, reduces the possibility of time spent helping a client correct a problem after it’s been discovered. SMBs who team with Benetech for their retirement plan administration can count on us to guide them through the annual administrative process and to provide them with timely and accurate service as it relates to their retirement plan.