Our Clients’ Stories
By always putting our customers' interests first, we have been able to help many businesses work towards resolving a variety of common problems.The next few pages tell just a few of their real stories, of course, all names have been changed to protect their identities.
Case studies may not be representative of the results of all clients and are not indicative of future performance or success.
Driving Employee Participation
HPS's Story
The Business: Healthy Patient Services (HPS) was started in 1956 with one nursing center and has grown into a thriving family run business of 12 nursing centers and over 1,200 employees. They pride themselves on their culture of treating their employees like family.
The Problem: The owners were really concerned about low employee participation in their retirement plan. Primarily they were concerned about their employees' futures and their ability to retire. But they also understood that it would likely be good for their bottom line by reducing their health insurance premiums over time. And they also understood that having employees understand and use their benefits could help to reduce turnover, a real problem in the nursing facility industry.
The Solution: Focus 401(k) worked with HPS to help them amend their retirement plan to include an automatic enrollment provision for all current and future employees and set up bi-annual employee education at all 12 of their facilities. This helped promote more participation by simplifying the enrollment process and increasing awareness of the plan's benefits.
Reducing Administration Time
Tasty Beverages
The Business: FalliBeer was started in 1926 as a bottling company producing Smile soda. It has grown into a 3rd generation family owned business distributing products from more than 30 suppliers, offering some of the best malt beverages available in the world.
The Problem: The controller was spending too much time on plan administration. Specifically, getting 401(k) enrollment forms back from new employees and submitting monthly contributions to the retirement plan. In addition, the plan fiduciary didn't want the added risk of employee's who never returned their enrollment forms to opt in or opt out of the 401(k), sometime in the future claiming that it was never offered to them.
The Solution: Focus 401(k) worked with Falli to help themimplement automatic enrollment and 180 degree integration between their 401(k) and their payroll providers. Auto enrollment allows them to enter new employees into the retirement plan without having to wait for signed forms to be returned. 180 degree payroll integration allows them to upload payroll data to their 401(k) provider from their payroll provider, rather than having to type out each participations contributions into a spreadsheet each month.
Aiming to Improve Administration and Avoid Fines
Sandy Materials
The Business: G & G Materials is a sand & gravel producer that has serviced the tri-state area for over 30 years.
The Problem: The controller had fallen behind in his 5500 filings exposing the company to potential fines of up to $15,000 per missing year.* They had 4 missing years which meant a potential fine of up to $60,000. He had tried to work with his plan provider/administrator to submit the late 5500's but after several attempts over the years, had not succeeded due to the complexities of looking through paper files and trying to work with an administrator via the phone/computer who was located in another state.
The Solution: After hearing the problem, we suggested unbundling the services and using a local third party administrator (TPA) to prepare and submit the late 5500s. Three months later, after the new local TPA made several on site visits to assist G & G in preparing the documents, the late 5500's had all been filed with the IRS. Voluntary penalties were paid that were a fraction of what fines could have been. In addition, going forward G & G will have local support from someone they know for future filings.
*The IRS penalty for late filing of a 5500-series return is $25 per day, up to a maximum of $15,000. The DOL penalty for late filing can run up to $1,100 per day, with no maximum.
For Plan Sponsor Use Only – Not for Use with Participants or the General Public.
This information is not intended as authoritative guidance or tax or legal advice. You should consult your attorney or tax advisor for guidance on your specific situation. In no way does the advisor assure that, by using the information provided a plan sponsor will be in compliance with ERISA regulations.
Securities and advisory services offered through LPL Financial, a registered investment advisor. Member FINRA/SIPC.
These are the views of a group of Focus 401(k) brokerage clients. Their views may not be representative of the views of other clients and are not indicative of future performance or success.