Our Services

Retirement readiness is essential, so we don’t subscribe to the “one-size fits all” approach. Our plans are tailored to meet the goals of your business and employees.  Our personalized approach starts with evaluating your retirement plan objectives, employee demographics, benefit levels and funding objectives.  This analysis enables us to custom design your retirement plan and incorporates options and features that match your desired objectives. The types of plans we design and administer are:

Defined Contribution Plans:

• 401(k) Plans
• 403(b) Plans
• Profit Sharing Plans
• Money Purchase Pension

Pension Plans:

• Defined Benefit Plans
• Cash Balance Plans

Defined Contribution plans is a retirement plan where both employers and employees can contribute to an individual account. Benefits are based on how much is contributed and the plan’s investment performance.  Employer contributions are tax deductible and contributions and investment earnings grow tax deferred.

Defined Benefit plans offer a stream of monthly income consisting of its benefit payable upon retirement.  These plans are written with provisions defining the benefit that will be paid, the form(s) of payment in which the benefit can be paid, retirement age and many other factors.  An actuary determines the annual contribution to the plan to ensure there is sufficient money at retirement age to pay for the monthly benefits.

Cash Balance plans provide a pay formula that determines the amount of money credited to an employee’s account each year. The pay formula consists of an employer contribution and a guaranteed rate of return.

After the planning and design process, we prepare all the necessary plan documentation to install the plan. Our implementation team navigates the entire installation process to ensure a smooth transition.  This includes but is not limited to collaborating and working cohesively with your accountant, investment advisor, custodian of plan assets and record-keeper to ensure the plan is successfully installed.  Our team also spearheads the onboarding process: employee communication, plan materials and education, participant enrollment meetings and we assist your internal staff and/or payroll company with any payroll set up for employee contributions.

Pension Architects is a full-service Third-Party Administrator (TPA) for company retirement plans. We also provide certain limited services for other TPAs and their clients on the East and West coast.

As a full-service TPA, we manage the on-going administration of the plan. We not only crunch numbers, but we also perform the on-going consulting, compliance testing, administration and prepare the annual government reports for your company’s retirement plan. We calculate employer discretionary, required and matching contributions.  We calculate retirement plan vesting, loans and participant distributions.  For pension plans, our actuary calculates and sets funding targets, calculates and prepares PBGC filings, and certifies Schedule SB and AFTAP.  Our services include:

Plan Administration & Consulting Services:

• Eligibility Determination
• Annual Plan Valuation
• Consulting
• Calculation of Matching Contributions
• Calcualtion of Discretionary Contributions
• Determination of contribution amount
• Plan Distributions
• Participant Loan Calculations with Promissory Note & Amortization Schedule
• Reconciliation of Plan Assets

Documentation & Reporting:

• Preparation of plan documents
• Summary Plan Description
• Plan Amendments
• Plan Restatements
• Request IRS letter of determination
• Preparation of participant benefit statements
• Prepare Form 5500 and related schedules
• Preparation of Schedule SB, AFTAP, Forms PBGC, 1099R and Schedule 8955-SSA
• 5500 Audit Support

Compliance:

• Annual compliance testing
• Audit Representation (Internal Revenue Service & Department of Labor)
• Voluntary Correction Program (VCP) support