Plan for Performance with a Suite of Solutions

Plan for Performance with a Suite of Solutions

Whether you are actively looking ahead by six months, a year, or five years, it’s imperative to review, analyze, and update your compensation and benefit plans. You’ll need options, solutions, and a trusted advisor with a solid track record and a team of experts who keep up with the rapidly changing economic, hiring, and benefit planning environments.

There are choices that can help you meet the demands of top executives, upcoming young talent, hard-to-fill professional roles, the C-suite of the future, and succession planning – the whole workforce. It gets complicated quickly and one size doesn’t fit all.

The Plan Sponsor Attitudes Study done in March 2023 by Fidelity found that retirement plan sponsors who were actively searching for a new advisor wanted more services offered, someone who was more involved with servicing issues, and an advisor who offered better educational programs and communications with employees.

Those three points – more services, better customer service, and improved communication – are consistently delivered by Newcleus retirement plan advisors, as well as our compensation and benefit planning experts.

“The idea is that you have some existing benefit programs for top executives where you need to fulfill a certain retirement benefit, a percentage of income so they can live a similar lifestyle through retirement,” Fabrizio D’Uva, Newcleus Regional Managing Director said. “A new idea we are bringing to the table is to use those traditional deferred compensation plans and make them more available to some of your younger talent where retirement isn’t the only objective and take into account other life decisions such as college, tuition repayment, mortgage payoffs, and child and parent care which are equally important.”

 

Offering a Diverse Suite of Solutions

“There is still a need for non-qualified benefit plans but ultimately we help develop an analysis to show you what your plan could look like using a suite of solutions that are available. A review of your current plans will uncover any shortfalls,” D’Uva said. “With a suite of solutions, a broad spectrum of benefit options is available.” Working with a team of experts opens the door to resources, innovative thinking, and cross-pollination of ideas. D’Uva said this suite of solutions adds definable value to what he provides as an advisor:

• Compensation Consulting

Newcleus Compensation Advisors are experts in designing comprehensive compensation plans that address not only executive benefit and compensation plans but can also generate cost savings for an organization. A strategic compensation plan is the result of a complete review and analysis of executive and director compensation portfolios.

• Non-Qualified Deferred Compensation

Non-qualified compensation planning can thoughtfully include retirement, as well as the life events that occur before retirement, helping retain top talent while significantly offsetting their future tax burden. Newcleus’ well-defined benefit and contribution plans give employees confidence in their financial present and future.

• • SERP+: A supplemental executive retirement plan (SERP) is additional compensation offered to qualified employees as part of their total benefits package to encourage them to stay with your organization. SERPs are typically offered in tandem with other retirement savings options.
  • LINQS+: Unique to Newcleus, our proprietary LINQS+ platform combines the best elements of a traditional SERP with a lifetime benefit payment program, guaranteeing your executives will never outlive their stated retirement income.  Thus, LINQS+ enhances executive retention by guaranteeing lifelong income and reduces benefits costs to your organization.
• BOLI/CUOLI/COLI

Strategies like bank-owned, credit union-owned, and corporate-owned life insurance leverage tax‑favored assets with higher returns that build your balance sheet and fund benefit opportunities. BOLI, CUOLI, and COLI can offset the expenses associated with providing the competitive benefits necessary in today’s aggressive job market.

• No-Cost 401(k) Review

A free audit of a 401(k) plan by Newcleus Retirement Advisors includes a review of fees, investment offerings, fiduciary documentation, and your employee education program to ensure the plan design, investment policy, and ongoing servicing are sound and aligned with the unique needs of your organization and employees.

With a full suite of solutions, a Newcleus advisor can address the diverse needs of your current and future workforce while delivering strategies and results for better-informed and better-retained employees at all levels of leadership and compensation.

 

Navigating Fiduciary Responsibility and Maximizing Your 401(k) Plan

Recent changes in the federal laws that apply to creation of retirement plans has put a spotlight on how plan sponsors must stay informed and up to date on changes to the plans they are responsible for managing. The Secure 2.0 Act of 2022, designed to encourage more employers to offer retirement benefits, includes changes like automatically enrolling eligible contributions and changes in catch-up contributions.

Newcleus Retirement Advisors stay on top of updates and understand the importance of educational opportunities needed to keep employees informed and ensure that all fiduciary responsibilities are met.

Four recommendations stand out when reviewing a 401(k) plan:

• Offer diverse investment options. Include a range of investment options and the proper share classes. It’s the plan sponsor’s responsibility to offer a variety of suitable investment options.
• Keep fees reasonable. Benchmark your plan fees to reduce your fiduciary risk and liability. High fees eat into employees’ retirement so ensure that the fees charged to the plan are reasonable.
• Monitor the plan continuously to ensure it meets the needs of employees. Failure to do so could result in legal and financial consequences for you personally and for your company.
• Get support from a qualified plan expert to ensure proper fiduciary oversight and support to manage your company’s 401(k) plan.

Supporting plan sponsors and their employees has become more complex than ever before. An informed advisor makes all the difference.

 

Finding Out What People Value

“The first step in designing any compensation plan is finding out what people value – then providing enough of it to influence decision making,” said Flynt Gallagher, President, Newcleus Compensation Advisors. With “value as a core tenant,” Gallagher said the three greatest challenges companies face are:

• significant increase in the cost of compensation and benefits
• difficulty in attracting and retaining the top talent
• efficient use of your company’s dollars

In this year’s Bank Director 2023 Compensation Survey managing compensation and benefits costs and retaining key people were spotlighted as important compensation-related challenges. The survey’s executive summary said that with a tough hiring environment and climbing compensation costs, bank leaders “renewed their focus on aligning pay with performance as succession planning concerns edged up.” Hiring pressure eased a bit from 2021, but banks are still seeing fewer qualified applicants as wages continue to increase. Over 40% of the bankers surveyed said they would consider hiring from other industries.

Being able to offer a diverse selection of solutions, a complete suite of solutions combined with a team of experts in all aspects of compensation and benefit planning, Newcleus streamlines the process, making it more efficient and compliant for you by having all the needed expertise under one umbrella.

 

 

About Newcleus:  Newcleus powers organizations and their employees by designing and administering secure compensation, benefit, investment, and finance strategies. We have created a team, a culture, and technology that ensures all clients receive exceptional service and a greater return on their investment. We’ve designed software that is customizable and secure to successfully manage client investments. We produce, research, and share thought leadership with our client base and community. We analyze trending information and survey experts in our field to provide our 750+ clients with the most cutting-edge financial solutions in the marketplace.

For more information visit: https://newcleus.com/