Case Studies

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Here are a few examples of how we helped clients recently. We'd love to add another example of how we helped your company.

Case Studies

Case Study 1

Fixing what had gone horribly wrong.

Case Study 2

Designing a plan that works.

Case Study 3

Actuarial audit.

A client came to us with a problem: their current advisor had performed the allocation of employer contributions under their profit sharing plan incorrectly for the last 6 years.

If this was discovered under audit, the client was looking at fines, taxes and penalties in the hundreds of thousands of dollars.

We were able to reconstruct what should have been done and filed on behalf of the client a suggested "correction" with the IRS using Form 8950.

Filing with the IRS using Form 8950 allows the client to suggest the terms of correction rather than having an IRS auditor suggest the terms. That gives clients an opportunity to manage the correction process so that it can serve a dual purpose: not only eliminate the potential threat of disqualification and the associated costs involved, which can be in the hundreds of thousands of dollars, but also assist the client with respect to future planning.

Feel free to contact us if you would like to discuss how judicious use of the IRS correction program - the IRS's Voluntary Compliance Program (VCP) - can be a helpful tool.

A potential client was referred to us to see whether we could design a qualified plan to allow the principals of the firm to fund a substantial retirement benefit without incurring excessive costs for other employees.

In fact, we were told, that they had been to numerous advisors before us and nobody had been able to design a plan for the principals that met their needs.

Of the many questions we asked, this was one: had there been any qualified plans sponsored by the firm in the past; and this was another: if there were, whether the other advisors had inquired about them?

There were, in fact, other plans. Everybody had assumed that since the plans were terminated they should be ignored.

We were able to design a plan that took into account the terminated plans and by combining the terminated plans with the newly established plan the plan design now met the client's needs.

A defined benefit plan sponsor was referred to us. Things are more complex in the defined benefit world than in the world of defined contribution plans (such as 401(k) plans).

Due to the many changes brought about by new laws and regulations that have impacted defined benefit plans over the last 5 or so years, especially given the complex nature of the defined benefit world in general, this plan sponsor thought it would be a good idea to have an independent review of the operation of their plan from an actuarial point of view.

We were able to review the records of the plan, discuss the issues we thought might need some attention directly witih the plan actuary and report to the plan sponsor that, with very minior exceptions that could easily be corrected, things were in fine shape.

Clients are often amazed at the level of professional cooperation that actuaries exhibit. And this client was no exception. In fact, one of their concerns was that their current actuary might not cooperate with a third party, whether that third party was an actuary or not. I assured the client that actuaries agree to abide by certain standards of conduct and one of them specifically requires cooperation in circumstances such as this. We were not expecting anything other than the full professional cooperation we received.