A Safe-Harbor 401(k) retirement plan provides the most flexibility and benefit for business owners.

A Safe-Harbor allows owners, and participants alike, to defer the maximum IRS limit to a 401(k) without being dependent on the deferrals of other employees. Furthermore, without a Safe-Harbor in place, owners can be limited to the amount of income that can be saved in their personal 401(k) account per year. Here are some government-mandated deadlines to keep in mind when reviewing retirement benefits. 

Over the past few years, under the pretext of making your life easier, some of the largest payroll providers have been aggressively obtaining the administration portion of 401(k) plans.

As the last quarter is starting, now is an ideal time to conduct an annual check-up and review on your current Pharmacy’s 401(k) retirement plan. A quick annual look of a few simple things can dramatically impact your ability to retire on your terms. A well-constructed 401(k) will also ensure the viability of your community pharmacy after you have retired. As time moves forward, goals and objectives change as well. It is important to take these changes into account when developing a strategy for retirement.  The following is a list of 3 critical areas that pharmacy owners should review in their 401(k) retirement plan.

Not happy with the performance of your current 401(k)? Is it the investment choices? Is it the economy? Is it the plan design? Is it the advisor? Is it due to fees?

Some decisions on who to call or get advice from are easy, while others can take some time to figure out.

Around this time of year, independent community pharmacy owners and small business owners alike start evaluating their retirement plan.  Wait... What? You don't do this?  Well don't worry, you are not alone.  In fact, you are in the majority.  The first sentence should read, "This is the time of year for business owners to start evaluating their retirement plan."

Working with independent community pharmacy owners, we see one type of retirement plan that is very popular, the SIMPLE IRA.  Its all in the name, simple to start and simple to maintain.  What pharmacy owners have found, however, is that when using a SIMPLE IRA, even when maxing out contributions, saving enough money to reach their retirement goals is not likely.  For that reason, many pharmacy owners have now started looking into moving to a 401(k).

The following is a simplified rundown of what you need to know about switching from a SIMPLE IRA to a 401(k).

The Cardinal Show was a great place to debut Pharmacy401k!  We were able to talk and show thousands of independent pharmacy owners how to maximize saving for retirement and how to attract, retain, and reward their most valuable employees. 

If you were there, thank you for stopping by.  If you missed us or were not able to attend, here are a few things we learned from pharmacy owners regarding retirement plans.

Recently, I had a pharmacy owner ask me what he could do to improve the specific financial/retirement outcomes for the employees in his company sponsored retirement plan. He asked because he really cares about his employees being successful and he wants to offer them a benefit he feels they will not be able to get somewhere else.

This led to a discussion amongst our team members about the services we provide and a personal journey to determine what retirement plan participants want for service and advice. The following are things that we decided pharmacy 401k plan participants (or retirement plan participants if you don't have a 401k) want in the service and solutions provided in a retirement program. We have decided recently that we are going to start offering all these services to all Waypoint 401k and Pharmacy 401k plans.

Welcome to Fiduciary 101 for community pharmacy owners.  This series of blogs will focus on the fiduciary responsibility you assume by sponsoring a pharmacy 401k and/or profit sharing plan.  The goal of this series is to fully explain what it means to be a fiduciary and to bring to your attention the things that must be completed to satisfy this responsibility. Part 1 will help give you a broad overview of what it means to be a fiduciary.  The subsequent parts will drill down into specific areas of fiduciary responsibility.  So, let's get started with the broad overview of fiduciary responsibility.

I recently had a conversation with a pharmacy owner and I asked him the question, "Is your pharmacy 401k perceived by your employees as a benefit?"  He responded like most pharmacy owners would and said that the 401k is part of a comprehensive benefit package for his full time employees.  I then followed up with another question.  Do your employees understand how to use your retirement plan to achieve their retirement goals? He responded by saying, "I have no idea, but I need that to be a resounding yes."