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For
over 35 years, FBA had built its reputation by consistently
providing its clients with competent, timely, and cost-effective
retirement plan services. Here’s
what FBA provides:
Planning
and Design
- Analysis of objectives and data
- Personalized plan design alternatives
- Preliminary compliance testing
- Review with client and advisors
A properly designed plan should include all tax
benefits and business efficiency benefits available
to a Retirement Plan. The Planning and Design phase
involves meetings, conference calls and informal
discussions with Company management and/or advisors
to identify specific objectives, budgeting restraints
and basic provisions for the Company's Plan. FBA's
staff can then assist in designing a new plan or
redesigning your existing plan by making suggestions
that are tailored to your particular situation.
Steps taken in this initial development phase may
include:
- Review of the Company's history, nature of business,
management objectives, employee demographics and
plan budgetary constraints.
- Projections of contributions and benefits under
various plan design alternatives.
- Testing of allocations under various formulas
and projections of benefits for defined contribution
plans.
- Preliminary testing to determine governmental
compliance of the plan.
- Development of plan design specifications, including
such factors as eligibility, vesting, contribution
formula or allocation formula, retirement dates,
loans and distribution methods.
- Consultation with Company management and advisors,
outlining the recommended plan specifications and
contribution and/or allocation amounts.
- For Existing Plans, we will review the plan provisions
and recommend changes to fully meet the company’s
goals and objectives.
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Installation and Qualification
- Flexible pre-approved plan documents
- Summary Plan Description
- Customized Administrative Manual
- IRS submission (if requested)
Before a new plan can begin to operate or when an
existing plan is amended, a number of tasks must be
completed. Tax
benefits are assured only after your plan is "approved" (qualified)
by the IRS. FBA handles the complete installation
of the plan, in accordance with current IRS and DOL
regulations, including the preparation of specimen
plan documents or plan amendments.
The Installation and Qualification phase involves all
steps required to make the plan and trust operative
and to assure initial qualification under the appropriate
Internal Revenue Code Sections. Steps taken in
this phase may include:
- Preparation of a pre-approved volume submitter
or prototype plan document for the company, to
be submitted to the Company's tax and legal advisors
for review and approval. This is followed
by the adoption of the plan with the appropriate
company resolution.
- Preparation of the Summary Plan Description (SPD),
a simple, non-technical explanation of the major
provisions of the plan, for distribution to employees.
- Preparation of the request for IRS qualification
and DOL approval (Form 5300 series, Form 5302,
Form 2848, Form SS-4) and consultation with the
IRS and DOL, if requested.
- Preparation of an Administrative Manual, including
copies of the Plan Document, SPD, IRS & DOL
Forms and a set of Administrative Forms.
- Conversion assistance in transferring an existing
plan to FBA.
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Employee Communication
- Customized Enrollment kits
- Employee Enrollment meetings
- Visually appealing educational materials
- Multimedia - Print, video and live presentation
An important key in establishing a successful plan
is a good communication campaign. It is essential
that each employee know what the company is doing to
provide for their future and the future of their family.
Your employees must be informed of the basic plan provisions,
and given enough information to make an intelligent
decision regarding plan participation.
Experience has shown that the primary reason an employee
elects not to participate in a retirement plan is that
he just does not understand it or is skeptical about
it. The plan's communication campaign should
ensure that every employee who says "no" to
the program does so out of an understanding of the
plan and not a misunderstanding.
Steps taken in this phase may include:
- Preparation of Enrollment Kits including highlights
of key plan provisions, retirement planning information,
risk tolerance quiz and the plan’s investment
alternatives.
- Conduct or assist with Enrollment meetings for
employees, to announce the plan and to review major
plan provisions. Employees will be asked to complete
an Application for Plan Membership acknowledging
that they are becoming Plan Participants, to elect
the amount of their Employee Deferrals, if any,
to designate their Beneficiary and to select their
Investment direction. A video or slide presentation
that explains the highlights of the plan may also
be shown.
- Follow up Enrollment Meetings can be conducted
for those Employees who did not enroll at the initial
meeting or decided later to become Plan Participants.
- Assistance with establishing an Automatic Enrollment
plan.
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Plan Administration & Compliance
- State-of-the-art record-keeping (balance forward, unit or daily)
- Consolidated participant statements (annual, semi-annual, quarterly, monthly)
- Employer Reports (available on CD-ROM or PDF)
- Discrimination and compliance testing
After installation, a plan needs continuous supervision. FBA
will provide the annual administration of the plan,
determining newly eligible participants, additional
benefits, allocation of contributions, compliance testing,
maintenance of plan records and communication with
your accountant and trustee.
The Plan Valuation reports, which can be produced
annually, semi-annually or quarterly, may include the
following:
- Preparation and distribution to the Company of
data collection forms, which will conveniently
enable the Company to furnish or update Employee
Census and other pertinent plan information. This
data may be provided electronically on diskette,
via e-mail or through our website.
- Reconciliation of Employee Census Information
to verify eligibility, plan entry dates, and to
determine Highly Compensated Employees and Key
Employees.
- Reconcile plan activity and plan asset accounts
- Maintenance of individual participant benefit
records, including the allocation of contributions,
earnings, forfeitures, distributions and vested
percentage records.
- Process payrolls, allocating contributions and
loan payments in accordance with trustee or participant
investment elections.
- Process fund transfers in accordance with trustee
or participant directions.
- Calculations of Company minimum and maximum contributions. Calculation
of Company Matching or Safe Harbor contributions
- Preparation of Company Valuation Reports summarizing
the plan activity and assets for the respective
reporting period. (Available in hardcopy,
CD-ROM or PDF format)
- Preparation of Participant Statements for each
plan participant containing a recap of the employee
census data, a recap of individual plan activity,
and a summary of the participant's total account
balances under the plan, including accrued and
vested amounts. (Available in hardcopy, CD-ROM
or PDF format)
- Calculation of Distribution & Withdrawal
amounts resulting from an employee’s retirement,
termination, disability, death, hardship withdrawal
or 70-1/2 RMD. FBA will calculate the required
distribution amounts and provide necessary disclosure
forms to the Company for transmittal to the participants. A
distribution statement and a Form 1099-R will be
completed for each benefit distribution.
- Processing of Participant Loans, including preparation
of the promissory note and the truth in lending
statement.
- Preparation of Annual Compliance Testing – IRC
415 Annual Additions test, ADP and ACP tests, IRC
410(b) Coverage test, IRC 416 Top Heavy test,
Maximum Deductible Contributions test and 70-1/2
Required Minimum Distributions (RMD).
- An annual plan compliance review to compare the
written plan with actual plan operation and with
the plan's original goals and specific objectives.
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Account Access Systems & Help Line
- Participant Website
- Plan Sponsor & Advisor Website
- Participant VRU & Help Line
- 24 / 7 Account Access
The FBA Participant website provides secure, password
protected, online access to a participant’s personal
retirement plan account information.
- Account Balance Information
- Review Plan Balance by Fund and/or by Source
- Access Number of Shares/Units Held
- Obtain Current Share/Unit Prices
- View / Download Online Participant Statements
- Investment Fund Direction
- Review / Change Current Investment Direction
- Obtain Current Share/Unit Values
- Investment Transfers / Reallocations
- Transfer Money Between Funds
- Re-Balance Your Investment Portfolio
- Access Historical Fund Performance
- Loan Transaction (optional)
- Current Loan Balances
- Loan Modeling & Request New Loan
- Change Personal Identification Number (PIN)
FBA also provides toll free, 24-hour English/Spanish
automated telephone information system (VRU) for participants. Participants
may call in to the automated telephone system to access
the same type of information that is available online. There
is also a Fax-Back service to receive account balance
information, current share/unit prices and historical
fund performance. The FBA Help Line is available to
participants 24/7, with a service representative available
during normal business hours.
The FBA Plan Sponsor / Advisor website was designed
with professionals in mind, providing secure, password
protected, access for plan sponsors and/or financial
advisors to essential retirement plan data.
- Participant Information
- Review Participant Balances by Fund and/or
by Source
- Administrative Changes – Name & Address
- Review/ Change Employee Census
- Review Current Loan Balances
- Loan Modeling & Request New Loan
- Plan Information
- Review Plan Balances by Fund and/or by Source
- Upload Payroll Data
- Access Number of Shares/Units Held
- Obtain Current Share/Unit Prices
- Obtain Outstanding / Delinquent Loan Report
- Management Reports
- Participant Diversification
- Average Balance
- Fund / Asset Utilization
- Funds & Models
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Government Reporting
- Required IRS and DOL Reports
The Internal Revenue Service, Department of Labor,
and Employee Benefits Security Administration are government
agencies, which assume major regulatory roles in all
employee benefit plans. Reporting and/or disclosure
forms must be filed every year at specific times. The
forms are complex and require a considerable investment
of time to complete. FBA will prepare the following
required IRS & DOL reporting and disclosure forms:
- Preparation of signature ready IRS Form 5500,
Schedule A, C, D, E, G, H, I, P, R & SSA, as
required. (Excludes Accountant's Statement
on Form 5500)
- Preparation of the Summary Annual Report for
participants.
- Updated Summary Plan Description - provided to
plan participants once every five years if a plan
is modified, or at least once every ten years.
Special Administration Services
- Takeover of Existing Plan – FBA's staff
will review the Plan Documents and Participant
Communication materials and prior Administration
Reports to interpret Plan provisions and determine
if any amendments are required for plan compliance
with current regulations or make recommendations
regarding improvements.
- Consultation regarding plan design changes
- Preparation of Plan Amendments
- Assistance with Plan Terminations and Mergers
- IRS & DOL Audit Assistance
- Review / Consultation and Calculations of the
division of accounts regarding Qualified Domestic
Relation Orders (QDRO)
- Participant & Plan Sponsor Newsletters
- Consulting - extraordinary consultation or services
that are not required in the normal course of the
plan administration.
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Who To Call
To learn more about the services FBA has to offer
or to obtain a customized proposal request form, please
call, fax or E-mail:
Richard (Dick) Watson
Direct Line: (504) 849-1030
Fax: (504) 835-9296
E-mail: dick@fbanet.com
He will be happy to assist you or schedule an appointment
to discuss how FBA can be your Retirement Plan Resource.
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