Suzanna de Baca

Is Time Getting in the Way of Your Retirement Plan?
January 19, 2007

Recently while helping the owner of a trucking company set up a retirement plan for his business, I was reminded that time pressures are the biggest reality in a business owner’s or employee’s day.With the phone ringing and clients waiting, how do you find and make time to think about and actually set up retirement vehicles?

If you’ve been contemplating setting up a retirement plan for your business but have been procrastinating, there is no best time, so just getting it done is my professional advice.

A Simple Plan

The CEO was starting a SIMPLE IRA for one of his companies.Selecting the most appropriate plan for his business and picking the right investments had been done in advance, so all we had to do was enroll the employees.Sensitive to his work flow schedule, I suggested arriving at his firm at 8 am to sign up the workers so that they could get on with their workday.He appreciatively agreed.

Best Laid Plans

I had made out a lovely agenda for the meeting, which started out with a thorough discussion of importance of saving in a tax-deferred retirement plan, how to think about risk and return, asset allocation, and the proper selection of funds.When I finally located the office, tucked away in a corner of the warehouse below a highway underpass, the drivers and movers were waiting impatiently and not all that eagerly for me.They worked hourly, and this was taking away from their wages.Plus, who wants to fill out paperwork at 8 am – or anytime for that matter?

The CEO, too, was eager to get his workers out the door, to the jobs planned for the day.I had four fairly lengthy forms for them to fill out, all boring, complicated, and repetitive, and six men at this location who really just wanted to get back to work.

The Reality – Just Get It Done

I sped through the discussion, making recommendations based on what I could quickly ask and observe of them, such as age, income, and net worth. Instead of my lengthy and thorough discussions of various aspects of financial planning, we just focused on getting finished.

When the last paper had been handed in, the employer said, “Okay, let’s get back to work.”

Normally, in a situation like this, I would have felt that I had not done a comprehensive enough job, but in the end, I felt that simply getting the employees enrolled was a victory. The contributions would start in January, and each person there would clearly would benefit from having retirement savings.We could work on perfecting things later if necessary.

That’s the reality of small to medium sized businesses – no time for luxurious and lengthy employee meetings.We set it up in a hurry, but now it’s set up.

If you’ve been putting off establishing the retirement plan for your company, you might consider just doing it and getting it done.

PAS is a member NASD, SIPC.

Material discussed is meant for general illustration and/or informational purposes only and it is not to be construed as tax, legal or investment advice. Although the information has been gathered from sources believed reliable, please note that individual situations can vary, therefore the information should be relied upon when coordinated with individual professional advice.

Posted by Suzanna de Baca on January 19, 2007 | Comments (4)