The Associated Builders and Contractors 401 K Plan, which had previously been available only to chapters and employees of ABC, is now available to ABC member firms.
This is an example of how ABC can use its national resources to help individual member companies in our chapter and other chapters around the county, according to ABC MA President Greg Beeman. “As the laws and regulations around multi-employer 401 K plans have evolved, ABC National has been working to see how this can benefit ABC members,” he said.
Beeman said the ABC 401 K Plan could be a good option for a number of ABC member contractors, particularly for smaller and mid-sized firms, whether they currently have a plan or not. The ABC 401 K plan pools and leverages the scale of ABC member contractors from across the association under the umbrella of ABC. ABC, not the individual company, is the plan sponsor.
According to Doug DiCerbo of Sentry Hill Financial Advisors - Northwestern Mutual, who is an active ABC MA member, there are a number of good reasons for member firms to consider the ABC 401 K Plan. “The decision to join the ABC multi-employer plan, instead of maintaining a stand-alone plan, eliminates your company’s responsibilities as a plan sponsor and transfers the plan management and fiduciary compliance responsibilities to ABC and their team of experienced retirement plan professionals,” he said.
DiCerbo noted that partners of Northwestern Mutual are among the 401k professionals overseeing the ABC plan and he knows their capabilities. “ABC has put together a top-notch team,” he said.
Benefits of the ABC 401K plan include:
Eliminate your company’s responsibilities as a plan sponsor, including:
- Responsibility to review, approve, sign, and file an annual Form 5500
- Plan governance, administration, reporting, regulatory and operational compliance responsibilities
- Committee meetings, prudence documentation, ongoing investment due diligence and analysis, etc.
- Ongoing service provider due diligence and oversight, cybersecurity reviews, benchmarking, etc.
- ERISA bond requirement
Transfer your plan management and compliance responsibilities
Save money by greatly reducing audit expenses (for currently audited plans)
Simplicity in payroll processing of plan contributions and year-end data reconciliation Payroll and data scrubbing completed each pay period
Improve productivity
- Joining our Plan allows staff to focus on what is most important your business. Executives in HR, finance, payroll, and benefits are free to focus their time and energy in the positions for which they were hired. This improves staff productivity which can lead to increased profitability.
Robust flexibility in plan design
- As a participating employer, you have the flexibility to tailor Plan provisions to meet the needs of your company. A few examples of flexibility includes the choice of definition of compensation, traditional and Roth 401(k) contributions, safe harbor choices, auto enrollment, and profit-sharing choices. You may update plan provisions as goals and benefit needs change.
Effective employee communications, education, and resources
Independent Fiduciary managing plan operations, compliance, and oversight of service providers
More information on the National ABC 401K Plan can be found here. Doug DiCerbo of Sentry Hill/Northwestern Mutual can be reached at [email protected] or 617-531-9525.