Due in part to the housing crisis, high unemployment and the general economic downturn, many American workers are under a considerable amount of financial stress. The question for the small business owner is, “Does my employee’s financial health and related stress impact my company’s net income?”

This quiz will help you determine whether or not you are on the right track as a retirement plan fiduciary. It is not meant to be an all-inclusive, exhaustive review of every aspect of a sound fiduciary process for a qualified plan sponsor. This quiz does however cover a number of issues that retirement plan sponsors should consider and may help indicate whether further review of your internal procedures is warranted.

Below please find HBK Sorce Financial LLC’s market commentary.  This commentary is not prepared by me directly but is rather a collaborative effort of my firm prepared by our Asset Management Unit and approved by our firm’s Investment Policy Committee.  I hope you find this information useful.
Another Positive Month on Low Volume
Equity markets were [...]

The domestic equity markets surged higher in July, continuing the rally that began in early March. Through July 31, the S&P 500 index appreciated by nearly 50% from its intraday low on March 6. The index generated positive returns for five consecutive months after losing ground in January and February.

The equity freight train continued to chug along this week, pushing the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) to a close above 9,000 for the first time since early January and propelling the S&P 500 Index higher by another 4.1%.

Currently, for Americans living on $45,000 or more per year during retirement, 18% of that income is generated from personal savings and investments1. For millions of Americans, the personal savings and investments component of our income consists largely of Individual Retirement Accounts (IRA). IRAs are tax deferred personal retirement funds that allow you to save up to $5,000 per year ($6,000 if you’re age 50 or older).

Have you ever been to an unfamiliar city and stopped for directions on how to get to your final destination? If you were to ask several local citizens, you would likely receive multiple and even different detailed expressions of these directions. The difficulty then becomes deciphering which “direction” will get us there quickly and with a minimal number of “wrong” turns. As investors your destinations are slightly different yet you commonly use similar investment vehicles (mutual funds) to travel this path. Each of you plan and hope to reach your goals quickly and with minimal risk.

As the number of small businesses in the U.S. grows, the number of retirement plan choices seems to grow as well. Two popular retirement plan options for smaller businesses seek to avoid the complexities that go along with establishing a qualified retirement plan such as the 401(k). These two options are the SEP IRA (Simplified Employee Pension) and the SIMPLE IRA (Savings Incentive Match Plan for Employees).

How then can companies give key employees such as corporate officers an opportunity to contribute more dollars on a pretax basis? One alternative is for the employer to establish a non-qualified deferred compensation plan. Such plans give employers a tool that enables them to legally discriminate against non-highly compensated staff. As a matter for fact, in non-qualified deferred compensation plans, employers are required to discriminate at some level.

In this article we will explore how to select a long-term care policy that will meet your needs at a reasonable cost. In future articles, we will spend some time reviewing how business owners can purchase long-term care in a tax advantage manner.