Safe harbor 401(k) plans offer a streamlined path to maximizing employee and owner contributions, but specific deadlines and notice requirements apply. This expert Q&A explains who benefits most from a safe harbor design and what employers should consider before the year-end planning window closes.
Read MoreThe Internal Revenue Service has issued Revenue Procedure 2026-24, providing inflation-adjusted amounts for health savings accounts (HSAs) for calendar year 2027.
Read MoreThe Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has issued two coordinated proposed regulations that begin to define how Trump accounts will operate.
Read MoreWhile your financial organization might not offer customized advice, it’s essential to understand the basics of retirement savings and tax-advantaged accounts. By sharing general guidance about the pros and cons of popular savings accounts, you can help clients make smarter decisions about their savings options.
Read MoreSECURE 2.0 included a provision that requires most employees with annual income of $145,000 or more—indexed—to make their catch-up salary deferral contributions as Roth contributions. This was initially intended to take effect in 2024, but was temporarily delayed to 2026.
Read MoreLet’s break down some of the most common—and confusing—HSA questions that financial organizations and their clients may encounter.
Read MoreIndividuals may only use compensation earned from services rendered (earned income) to support the funding of a Roth or Traditional IRA.
Read MoreFinancial organizations field a lot of IRA questions from clients, and many of the same ones seem to come up repeatedly. Here are some common IRA contribution questions you’re likely hearing at your branch office, over the phone, or in your inbox.
Read MoreThe backdoor Roth contribution works especially well if your client doesn’t have any other pretax assets in any Traditional (including those holding SEP assets) or SIMPLE IRAs.
Read MoreThe Internal Revenue Service (IRS) recently released final regulations that provide insight on how to administer the catch-up contribution requirements under the SECURE 2.0 Act of 2022 (SECURE 2.0).
Read MoreA financial organization monitors a client’s health savings account (HSA) contributions at a broad level and not specific to each client’s eligibility or coverage. This does not prevent clients from asking for help understanding their annual maximum contribution amount and how they might be permitted to split the family level contribution between spouses.
Read MoreThe IRS has issued Revenue Procedure 2025-19, providing inflation-adjusted amounts for Health Savings Accounts (HSAs) for calendar year 2026.
Read MoreElecting a plan’s definition of compensation may be one of the most important elections in any plan document. The elections made will significantly affect the plan’s design and its operations.
Read MoreIf a client has received an extension to file his taxes, he may believe that he has an extension to make a prior-year contribution. It is important to understand that a tax filing extension is not an extension to make a prior-year IRA contribution: it is only an extension to file the tax return. But other postponements may apply to some of your clients.
Read MoreWith tax season upon us, many employers are determining when to fund and deduct the employer contributions that they’ve allocated to their retirement plans. Different contribution deadlines apply based on the type of contribution being made and the business tax return due date.
Read MoreDuring the Great Depression, a common practice among contractors bidding for federal contracts was reducing workers’ wages; and thereby, their labor costs, to win bids. While prevailing wage laws had existed on a state and local government level for more than three decades at this time, the first and most significant federal law–protecting the workers’ and their families’ welfare–was the Davis-Bacon Act of 1931.
Read MoreThe IRS has issued Notice 2024-80, which contains the 2025 cost-of-living adjustments (COLAs) for IRA and employer-sponsored retirement plan dollar limitations on benefits and contributions under the Internal Revenue Code.
Read MoreA recharacterization is a transaction that allows an IRA owner to “undo” a regular Traditional or Roth IRA contribution and to treat it as though it had been made to the opposite type of IRA.
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