Retirement Plans for Employers
Providing a Better Retirement Plan to Your Employees is Simpler with LT Trust.
We do the heavy lifting, acting as your 401(k) back office and freeing up more of your time to focus on your business.
Unlike expensive insurance-based platforms, our low-cost product lets your employees keep more of their hard-earned retirement savings.
Our team has decades of experience — so you don’t have to be a 401(k) expert.
With our dynamic reporting and email notifications, we will assist you in keeping your plan compliant.
Plan Design Options That LT Trust Supports
We offer customized 401(k) plans, and don’t believe in a one-size-fits all retirement plan.
Integrated Profit Sharing Plan
An integrated allocation retirement plan combines the benefits paid to Social Security with those provided by the plan to determine the total contribution.
For lower-paid employees, Social Security benefits represent a greater percentage of their salary.
Therefore, the IRS allows a retirement plan to increase the contributions to those employees who are making more than a threshold determined by the employer, up to the Social Security wage base.
Age-Weighted Profit Sharing Plan
This option allocates contributions based on both the age and compensation of eligible employees. Since age is factored into the formula, a higher percentage of employer contributions may be allocated to older employees.
The rationale behind this is that older employees have less time before they retire, and consequently less time to accumulate retirement savings. However, the employer’s contributions may be allocated to provide an equal assumed retirement benefit at normal retirement age for all participants in the plan.
Safe Harbor Plan
Like a traditional 401(k) plan, the Safe Harbor 401(k) plan must provide for either matching or non-elective employer contributions that are fully vested when made.
A Safe Harbor 401(k) Plan is not subject to the annual compliance testing that is required under a traditional 401(k) plan, and may not be subject to the top-heavy rules.
This essentially allows the higher compensated employees of the plan to defer up to the IRS limit without worrying about having contributions refunded due to failed nondiscrimination testing.
Qualified Automatic Contribution Enrollment Arrangement
A Qualified Automatic Contribution Enrollment Arrangement (QACA) is commonly referred to as Safe Harbor Automatic Enrollment.
This plan design allows eligible employees to be automatically enrolled at a minimum initial deferral of 3% in the first year, increasing annually until the deferral reaches 6% of pay.
Additionally, a QACA requires a minimum employer contribution that can be in the form of a match or non-elective contribution; employer contributions must be 100% vested within two years.
New Comparability Plan
A New Comparability Plan (NCP) provides greater flexibility in making employer contributions based on non-discriminatory categories that you select, such as ownership, title, hourly vs. salaried employees etc.
This allocation works best when the employer wants to maximize contributions for a specific group of employees while minimizing contributions for all other employees.
These plans are tested by projecting benefits to retirement age as opposed to simply providing contribution amounts. Additional nondiscrimination testing is required to ensure compliance with IRS regulations.
How Does Open Architecture Benefit Your Team?
To illustrate, let’s rewind 25 years to the days of pension plans.
Pension plans were managed by a team of professionals and served in the best interests of the plan sponsor and participants.
As 401(k) plans began to dominate the retirement landscape, insurance and mutual fund companies became the primary service providers. These providers have the singular goal of raising assets in all of the style of running a warehouse. Who became secondary to this new arena? Participants and Plan Sponsors – especially for small businesses.
Working with our open architecture platform means that you’re no longer restricted to the use of proprietary investment options meant only to fill investment company’s coffers.
We offer a true open-architecture 401(k) platform, which means we hold no stake in the funds we offer and receive no incentive when you pick one fund over another. In addition, even the smallest of small businesses have access to institutional-level investments through the LT Trust platform. This leaves you free to choose the funds that will truly be the best fit for your employees.
We provide a low-cost, high-value 401(k) solution for small businesses that doesn’t compromise on quality. All fees are fully transparent, and with our balanced high-tech, high-touch approach, we marry the best of customer service and technology.