Retirement Income Planning Services

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If you want to make sure that you and your family have financial security throughout your golden years, it’s helpful to start the retirement planning process as early as possible. But, even if you got a late start on planning for retirement, it’s still possible to reach your financial goals with the help of our financial advisors. 

At Abacus Group, our retirement planning services begin with a holistic retirement planning assessment. By taking into account your current retirement savings and retirement income goals, we can devise a wealth management retirement plan that will provide you with sufficient income to enjoy your golden years with peace of mind.

There are four different kinds of plans we will take into consideration when planning for your retirement accounts; a defined benefit plan, qualified benefit plan, non-qualified benefit plan, and/or an annuity.

Defined-benefit plans, like 401(k)s, facilitate retirement planning because they provide fixed, pre-established benefits for employees upon retirement. The specific amount individuals receive varies according to their employment income and the length of their employment. 

These kinds of retirement plans offer either annuity or lump-sum payment options. Through annuity payments, individuals receive consistent, monthly payments for the rest of their lives. In a lump-sum payout, the entire value of the plan is given out in a one-time payment. 

Although many people choose regular payments because of the security and consistency they provide, lump-sum payments also offer advantages. When you cash out your plan in a lump-sum payment, you can use these funds to leverage other investment vehicles to help reach your retirement objectives.

There are a variety of tax-deferred, employer-sponsored retirement savings plans that fall outside Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) guidelines, including deferred compensation plans, executive bonus plans, group carve-out plans, and split-dollar life insurance plans.

Through an executive bonus plan, companies offer high-level executives employer-paid premiums for life insurance as additional compensation. These kinds of bonus payments are considered compensation and, therefore, taxable. Employers sometimes offer further compensation, in addition to the insurance premiums, so that executives are not impacted by additional tax obligations, but this practice is not set in stone. If you want to manage the tax implications of your bonus plan, speak with a retirement financial advisor.

Both deferred compensation plans and salary-continuation plans provide executives with additional retirement income, but each one has a different source of funding. 

Deferred compensation plans are true to their name because the executive postpones part of his or her compensation, which is then provided after retirement. With salary continuation, employers fund retirement benefits for the executive. 

In either case, the accumulated earnings can be tax deferred until retirement, at which point, the income from these plans are taxed as normal income. 

These plans are another type of insurance compensation, where an employer “carves out” an employee’s life insurance from the company group policy and establishes an individual policy, thereby saving the individual from certain income tax implications.

Sharing certain similarities with carve-out plans, a split-dollar plan also offers key employees with additional life insurance coverage. With a split-dollar setup, the employer purchases the policy, and ownership is split between the employer and the employee. These arrangements offer benefits for both employers and employees, as the employee’s beneficiaries receive the death benefit and the employer receives a portion equal to its investment in the plan. 

Life annuities and term-certain annuities provide a steady stream of payments to the individual during retirement. There are several different kinds, and they can be structured in a variety of ways to suit individual needs and retirement goals. 

The various structures of life annuities mean that the amount and length of monthly payments can vary significantly, so they will factor differently into each individual’s retirement income planning.

At Abacus Group, we offer a full array of accounting, financial, taxation, investment and estate planning services. When nearing retirement age, it’s normal to question whether or not your asset allocation and investments will lead to enough income throughout your retirement years. 

Whether you already have an advanced retirement planning strategy, or simply want to learn more about mutual funds, benefit plans and various investment vehicles, you can get your retirement planning on track with a tax planning and investment strategy to meet your retirement objectives with the help of a financial planner.