When you start fixing up the house (for me, a never-ending battle) and replacing appliances or items like the front door or the roof, you realize that the replacements are more energy-efficient. Replacing that old refrigerator or that washing machine can lead to some savings in your energy bills. I was always amazed at how much my heating bill went down with a more efficient furnace, some plywood, and new windows.
When it comes to retirement plans, there are so many of them that are inefficient in either their cost structure or plan design. While cost structure will be all disclosed to plan sponsors (who have the duty as fiduciaries to determine their reasonableness), plan design inefficiency is something that won’t be discovered until the plan goes through an independent review (like my Retirement Plan Tune-Up) or takes the plan to another third party administrator (TPA). Inefficient plan designs come in all sorts, but it wastes money like that 40-year-old furnace I replaced when I bought the house.
An inefficient plan design wastes money because it either makes less cost-effective contributions or it doesn’t maximize tax-deductible contributions to highly compensated employees. So it either wastes money in unnecessary contributions or is inefficient for tax savings.
In terms of wasting money, it could be a defined benefit plan that has outlived its usefulness or it could be a 401(k) plan with a new comparability plan design and a safe harbor matching contribution (because unlike a safe harbor 3% profit sharing contribution, you cannot use the safe harbor matching to offset any new comparability contributions to non-highly compensated employees like you could with the safe harbor 3% profit sharing contribution). A plan that doesn’t maximize contributions could be a 401(k) plan that consistently fails discrimination testing and doesn’t implement a safe harbor plan design or a plan that doesn’t offer a new comparability profit sharing allocation to highly compensated employees when the plan sponsor can afford it.
Retirement plans are a great employee benefit for retirement savings, but you should never forget the tax savings component it has.
So when I consistently state the claim that plan sponsors need to find a quality TPA that is not predicated on price, but predicated on its competency and knowledge of cost-effective, retirement plan design.
When you look for new appliances, you always look for those with an Energy Star sticker. When shopping for TPAs, look for those who would deserve a Tax Star sticker (if one existed, don’t steal my idea!).
