I know, we're focused on retirement plans here at Retirement Planology, but I have to write about this. Having seen first hand where a payroll company really botched things up and caused a lot of problems, I feel it's important to share what I know and pull some info from our friends in the payroll world.

I am often asked what it is that a Retirement Plan Advisor does (we call them Retirement Planologists™ at our company). First, it's important to know that a retirement plan advisor works with a company to help them build and manage their company's retirement plan for their employees. (That's a very different thing than helping an individual plan for their retirement, which is what a financial planner/financial advisor does.) A Retirement Plan Advisor probably specializes in pensions, 401k, 403b, 457 and other plans provided by employers, and they may even have certain designations or credentials specific to employee retirement plans, such as the Accredited Investment Fiduciary or the Chartered Retirement Plan Specialist.

It's important that your company's internal procedures actually reflect those of the retirement plan document! Here are some examples.

Searching for a new vendor to handle your retirement plan is a pain. Here’s some unsolicited advice.

This is a question we receive frequently when meeting with employees about their 401k plan. Hopefully this guide will help you know better where to go and what to do to retrieve your old 401k account or provide guidance to employees who are asking for your help in finding their old account.

A company match is a fantastic thing to offer your employees in a defined contribution (like 401k or 403b) plan. There are numerous studies that have shown that participation increases significantly when a match is offered, which will eventually turn into more people getting on the right track to be able to retire someday.

One of the perils of making “too much” money, or rather, hitting the IRS’s ceiling for the 401(a)(17)/404(l) compensation limit, is that you likely won’t be able to put enough money in your company’s retirement plan to fully fund your retirement.  (In other words, if you make more than $250,000, this generally applies to you.)  Discrimination testing in 401k plans often leads to the highly compensated employees being limited to how much they can contribute, so in addition to already being mathematically unable to save enough even if they max out (2013 max is $17,500 or $22,500 if you’re 50+), now they’re even more behind.  What to do?