Category: Retirement Benefits

Most Americans Report Feeling Financial Stress, But It’s a Solvable Problem

Posted on September 23, 2022 by Laurie Rowley - Retirement Benefits

Much has been written about the financial stress and anxiety the Covid-19 pandemic caused amongst the US workforce. And a recent study conducted by the Icon Retirement Innovation Research Center confirms that most Americans (63%) still feel stressed about their finances. But this phenomenon is not new. It was not created by the pandemic, just exacerbated by it. Instead, a lack of financial literacy and a workforce that largely lacks access to workplace retirement plans has steadily built the wave of financial stress Americans are experiencing today. Luckily, there is something employers can do about it, and Icon is here to help.

The Data

In 2021, FINRA (the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority) published a report on financial anxiety, stress and literacy in American workers. It collected its data between 2018 and 2020, when the economy was in expansion and the U.S. was experiencing record-low unemployment. Despite these favorable economic conditions, the study found results similar to Icon’s: that 60% of respondents felt anxious when thinking about their finances. More than half weren’t saving money and 20% had accumulated debt.

So during a period when individuals should have been able to improve their financial situation, more than half were not able to do so. Why? There are many factors that both FINRA and Icon found that correlated with problematic financial behaviors like lack of savings. But it’s a lack of financial literacy and access to a workplace retirement plan that are the two hurdles most people couldn’t overcome despite being completely solvable.

In terms of financial literacy, FINRA defined financial literacy as being able to demonstrate a basic understanding of financial terms like interest rates, inflation, and risk diversification. In their study, they found that 63% of financially illiterate people reported feeling financially anxious vs. 51% of financially literate respondents that reported feeling that way.

The FINRA study also found a link between low financial literacy and problematic financial behaviors like overdrawing their checking account and accruing expensive credit card debt.

What can Employers Do?

Employers can provide workers opportunities to save, starting with a retirement plan, and increase workers’ financial knowledge and awareness in the process. Why start with a retirement plan? Those feeling financially anxious are less likely to plan for retirement and need access to a plan through work. And retirement planning is a strong indicator of wealth and a good indicator of how savvy people are about how to use their resources.

Icon found that ⅔ of workers don’t trust their own financial decision making. So they look to their employers to help them save for retirement. If these workers are among the 81 million who lack access to a workplace retirement plan, they’re not likely to feel comfortable investing on their own.

The current 401k-dominant retirement system has created a wealth gap between those whose employer offers this benefit and encourages saving, and those who don’t have access to a retirement plan. The result is generational financial stress and illiteracy get passed down, making it very difficult for people to improve their financial situation.

How Icon can Help

The retirement system as it exists today is broken. It only covers W2 workers who have been at their company for a certain period of time and each 401k plan is an island unto its own. Meaning, 401ks can’t be connected even if they’re owned by the same person. The results are:

An estimated 80 million American workers don’t have access to a retirement plan.
There’s more than $1 trillion sitting in abandoned 401ks.
Over 20% of all 401ks are lost or forgotten.
There’s an estimated $3.68 trillion gap between what Americans will need in retirement and what they have saved.
Two classes of savers. Plans with larger asset balances pay lower fees than smaller plans, which means it takes employees of smaller companies longer to reach their financial goals than their counterparts at larger employers.

We need a new system to save for retirement and that’s exactly what Icon has built. Icon’s plan is a retirement savings benefit that enables employers to offer every worker, regardless of classification, a way to achieve financial stability. Our fees are transparent and the same whether you have five employees or 500. Our plans are also portable. This means workers never lose access to their retirement savings. When they leave your company, we simply “unplug” them from your system and “plug” them back into that of their next employer.

Employees want to save. They want to feel like they have more control over their finances and their future. Most also need their employer’s help in doing so.

What employees don’t want is to navigate a complicated and expensive system. They don’t want to have to read (and understand) complicated plan documents in order to discern how much they’re paying in fees and how they’re supposed to roll old accounts into new ones (or if they’re even allowed to do it). They want saving for retirement to be easy so they can focus on their actual job.

We’ve created a retirement benefit that allows them to do just that. Changing the tide of financial anxiety and illiteracy and lack of savings will take time and continuous effort. But with Icon, employers can help their workers invest in their futures and by doing so, show their workers the company is invested in them.

If you’re interested in learning more about Icon and how we can help you reduce your employees’ financial stress, reach out to a retirement specialist today.

The CalSavers Deadline Has Passed… What Happens Next?

Posted on August 10, 2022 by Laurie Rowley - Retirement Benefits

Whether you’re a California-based company with 5 or more eligible employees, or you’re a company with 5 or more California-based eligible employees, June 30th was an important deadline for you. By this date, by law, you were supposed to have either enrolled your eligible employees in the CalSavers retirement plan or sponsored your own plan.

If you didn’t, you might be subject to fines. If you did, and you went the CalSavers route, you might be running into some user-satisfaction issues. Icon can help you deal with both.

I Missed the June 30 Deadline, Now What?

If you missed the June 30 deadline and didn’t set up your eligible employees with a retirement plan, we have two pieces of good news. First, you still have time before fines are assessed. In fact, you have 90 days from the deadline (September 28th) to get your retirement plan up and running before you’ll have to pay any fines.

Second, Icon is an easy and cost-effective way to comply with the CalSavers mandate, we can get you signed up and onboarded in minutes. We are a payroll IRA that links with your payroll provider to take employees’ contributions directly from their paychecks. Since we’re an automatic enrollment payroll deduct IRA and not a 401k, there’s no financial reporting or fiduciary responsibility on your part and we take on the administrative duties of employee onboarding and communication and plan maintenance and administration. All you need to do is provide your payroll information and approve employees’ contributions.

If you choose not to sign your employees up for a retirement plan within 90 days of the June 30 deadline, you will be subject to fines of $250/eligible employee. If, at 180 days after the June 30 deadline, you still haven’t provided your employees with a way to save for retirement, fines of $500/eligible employee will be levied against your company.

Beyond the financial penalties, you might find it difficult to attract and retain employees unless you can offer them a retirement savings benefit. The consultancy firm, WTW, recently surveyed employers of various sizes, across several industries, and found that 55% of the companies expected to have retention issues in the next two years. And 36% were planning to use their retirement benefits package as a way to attract and retain talent. So if you want to compete, you will need a retirement plan that employees will actually want to use.

Icon is that plan. With low fees, and easy plan management, Icon’s retirement plan is user friendly and customizable so every worker can find what they’re looking for. On top of that, employees own their Icon plan and can take it with them wherever they go. They never lose access to it, retaining the ability to both contribute to and manage their retirement savings plan no matter where they work.

I Signed up for CalSavers Before June 30, am I Stuck with It?

CalSavers has helped get more California workers saving for retirement, and that’s a good thing. But it’s far from the ideal retirement plan. Many employers and employees alike have found it to be a challenging system to navigate and inflexible. CalSavers also charges asset-based fees of between 0.825% and 0.95%, whereas Icon’s average fund fee is 0.07%. Lower fees help your employees grow their savings faster.

So if you signed up for CalSavers but you’re unsatisfied with your choice, we have good news. You can unenroll your employees from CalSavers and roll their accounts into an Icon retirement savings plan. Icon makes account management easy with a clean and informative dashboard. We also make it easy to rollover old accounts so your employees can start saving more, faster.

If you’re interested in rolling your CalSavers accounts into Icon retirement savings plans, reach out to a representative today. We’ll walk you through the process.

Why You Need to Offer Your Employees the Right Retirement Savings Plan

To be successful, companies need healthy, focused, talented, and productive workers. They need to retain those workers so they’re not constantly recruiting and training new people, and suffering lost productivity due to losing institutional knowledge. In order to attract and retain the talent, companies need to be successful and give employees the support they need. According to a recent survey by PwC, support means caring about employees’ financial well being.

PwC surveyed more than 3,000 workers across various industries and found that 56% were stressed about their finances and 1 in 4 had less than $1,000 saved for retirement. The workers who were stressed about finances reported using up to 3 hours of work time or more to deal with their financial worries, 18% said it had negatively affected their productivity at work and 15% said it had negatively affected their attendance. On top of that, 76% of the financially stressed employees said they were attracted to another company that cared more about their financial well being.

Many workers are struggling and one way employers can help them feel in control of their financial future is to offer a retirement plan that makes saving easy. Since Icon charges low fees, employees will see their savings grow faster, which can give them a sense of security. Icon’s plan is easy to understand and use and we offer support to both plan participants and employers so everyone has the opportunity to be successful in reaching their financial goals.

Icon’s Companion Plan: A New Way to Help Your Employees Save More

Posted on August 9, 2022 by Laurie Rowley - Retirement Benefits

Icon’s 2022 small business survey found that 92% of employees contributing to a 401k want an additional tax-advantaged way to save for the future. That means to remain competitive as an employer, you must provide a comprehensive benefits package that enables all of your workers, from W2 to 1099, a way to achieve financial security beyond traditional offerings. Now, that’s possible with Icon’s Companion Plan.

What is Icon Companion?

Icon Companion is the new, smart way to help your employees build financial security in addition to their 401k plan. It’s easy to set up, integrates with payroll, and is a fraction of the cost of a 401k. Why? Because Icon leverages technology to automate administrative work and keep costs low, allowing us to pass those savings on to our customers.

How Does it Work?

Icon’s Companion Plan works similarly to your 401k in that contributions are automatically deducted from worker’s paychecks and invested in a retirement account.

There are some big advantages with Icon: no federal reporting requirement, no discrimination testing, and no rebalancing needed because it’s set up as a smart, online payroll IRA. All employers need to do is provide payroll information and approve their employees’ elections. Icon handles the rest.

In fact, Icon is a turnkey plan that includes full-service recordkeeping, employee onboarding, portfolio management, and compliance. And because it’s portable, you’ll never have an orphaned account. When an employee leaves the company, they retain access to their Icon account and can continue saving. No rollovers needed.

What are its Benefits?

Employers gain a cost-effective recruitment and retainment tool that doesn’t just sound good, it actually provides employees with a real benefit. Icon’s Companion Plan can be offered to 1099 workers, so if you’re a company that relies on independent contractors, it can help you keep this valuable talent happy. You’re also helping your employees reach financial goals and security, which can lower financial stress, leading to happier, more productive workers.

Employees gain another tax-advantaged way to save for their financial futures that can help them build financial security. Our low-cost portfolios are tailored to the individual employee and easy to manage from the dashboard. Icon’s portability feature is also a huge benefit because employees will never lose access to their account nor will they have to complete a confusing or expensive rollover.

Icon’s Companion Plan is an easy, cost-effective way to stay competitive in a tight labor market while providing your employees with a retirement plan that is a true benefit. And it helps all your employees (W2 and 1099) to become more financially secure so they’re less likely to experience financial-related stress, leading to a happier, more productive workforce. Icon’s Companion Plan is the retirement plan for the modern workforce.

Why Offering an IRA can Help Future-Proof Your Company

Posted on July 28, 2022 by Laurie Rowley - Retirement Benefits

For the past few years, the ground has constantly shifted under employers’ feet. There have been new regulations regarding retirement benefits and employee classification, and The Great Resignation has permanently altered workplace culture and what employees expect from the companies they work for.

Regardless of whether you were ahead of the curve or are currently playing catch-up, one thing is clear: doing things the same way as they were done before isn’t going to cut it. Not in the present environment and in the future.

So how do you come up with a benefits solution that meets the current moment and future-proofs your company from changes that are to come? You offer your employees a payroll IRA like Icon.

What is an IRA?

IRA stands for Individual Retirement Arrangement (or Account) and it is a tax-advantaged retirement savings account. There are two types of IRAs: traditional and roth. Traditional IRAs function similarly to a 401k in that contributions are tax-deductible in year they’re made, the deposits can be used to purchase a wide range of investments and once the retiree begins to take disbursements from their IRA, they pay the appropriate income taxes on the withdrawn amount.

Roth IRAs function a little differently. First, in order to contribute to a Roth IRA, you must satisfy certain income requirements depending on how you file your taxes. Second, contributions to Roth IRAs are not tax deductible in the year they’re made, but once you begin to withdraw them in retirement, you won’t pay income taxes on that money.

All contributions to retirement savings accounts grow tax-free.

401k vs. IRA

As we said above, there are some similarities between these two accounts:

Contributions are tax-deductible the year they’re made (traditional IRA only).
Contributions can be automatically withdrawn from the plan participant’s paycheck and deposited into the account.
Contributions grow tax-free.
Disbursements from these accounts in retirement are subject to the appropriate income tax (traditional IRA only).
Theoretically, owners of these types of accounts have access to the same investments.

Here are the differences:

	401k	Icon IRA
Portable?	No	Yes
Who’s Eligible?	W-2 Employees	All Employees
Access to Investments?	Limited by Company	Access to Everything
Fiduciary Responsibility?	Employer Maintains	Icon Maintains
Filing Requirements?	Form 5500	None
Discrimination Testing?	Required Annually	None
Annual Contribution Limit?	$20,500 (2022)	$6,000 (2022)
Catch-Up Contributions for 50+	$6,500	$1,000
Employer Matching Allowed	Yes	No

How Offering an IRA can Help Future-Proof Your Company

First, staying compliant. In 2019, California passed legislation (AB 5) that expanded its definition of what an “employee” was vs. an independent contractor. This, combined with the state’s retirement plan mandate has forced many California businesses from small start-ups to large, publicly traded companies to rethink how they manage their relationship with their employees without running afoul of employment law.

California isn’t alone in passing a retirement savings mandate– 14 other states either have passed, or are considering, similar legislation and the U.S. Senate is currently reviewing a bill the House of Representatives passed last year that would federally expand the definition of “employee”.

If you offer employees a 401k, you will need to stay abreast of who is legally considered an employee (might be different for state vs. federal), to make sure you’re in compliance with employment law (and not opening yourself up to expensive lawsuits). Or, you could offer employees an Icon IRA. Our plan can be offered to all employees (W-2, 1099, full-time or part-time) and it complies with all state retirement savings mandates so you’re covered in the case the legal landscape changes under your feet.

Second, retaining talent. It’s no secret that many companies rely on independent contractors. It was published recently that even Google retains more independent contractors than actual employees. And startups, especially those that are pre-profit rely on independent contractors in order to grow and innovate.

But independent contractors are often functioning like employees– working alongside actual employees for the same number of hours (or more) and subject to the same performance standards and oversight. They just don’t receive the benefits. If you are like the many companies that rely heavily on your independent contractors, offering them an Icon retirement savings plan can help them feel valued and a part of the company. Which will make it harder for another employer to poach them.

Even your full time employees who are eligible for a 401k will benefit from an Icon retirement savings plan. Our plans are portable, so they never lose access to their account, they can choose from 100’s of investments, our app makes plan management easy, and our low, flat fee makes it easier for them to grow their savings faster.

If you’re looking for a way to future-proof your benefits package, consider an Icon IRA. It’s the most cost-effective way to offer a retirement savings plan that complies with all major state mandates and doesn’t send you scrambling when employee classifications change.

Will the SECURE 2.0 Act Really Solve the Retirement Crisis?

Posted on July 12, 2022 by Laurie Rowley - Retirement Benefits

As has been widely publicized lately, there is a looming retirement savings crisis in America. Only 40% of Americans have any savings at all in retirement accounts and the median American worker has nothing saved for retirement. As an attempt to help solve this crisis, the House of Representatives passed the Securing a Strong Retirement Act of 2022 (aka the SECURE 2.0 Act), building upon the Setting Every Community Up for Retirement Enhancement Act (aka the SECURE Act) of 2019. The legislation is currently in committee in the Senate.

What Changes Does the SECURE ACT 2.0 Make?

The first and perhaps the most consequential change this legislation makes is making it mandatory that employers auto-enroll their employees in a retirement savings plan. The default settings are:

Pre-tax contributions are to be 3% of the employee’s gross income.
Contribution percentages increase by 1% each year to at least 10% of gross income, but not to exceed 15% of gross income.
Contributions will be invested in a qualified default investment alternative like a target date fund, a balanced fund or a managed account.

-Participants can change these settings at any time but they must be prompted to do so.

-This only applies to businesses with over 10 employees who have been in business for at least 3 years. There are also exemptions for church and government plans.

The next set of changes the SECURE Act 2.0 makes are around the topic of “catch-up” contributions.

For those aged between 62 and 64, the catch-up contribution to defined contribution plans like 401ks and 403bs increases to $10,000. The additional catch-up contribution allowed for those between age 50 and 62 remains the same.
The $1,000 additional catch-up contribution allowed for IRAs for participants aged 50 years and older, will be indexed to inflation starting in 2023. It is currently not indexed to inflation.
Starting in 2023, all catch-up contributions must be made to Roth IRAs. That means plan participants will pay income taxes on their contributions in the year they’re made, but they won’t pay income taxes on those contributions when they start to withdraw them.

Other changes to the rules around retirement plans include:

Allowing employees to have their employer’s matching contributions treated as a Roth IRA contribution, meaning said contributions will be included in the employees’ gross taxable income. But, employees won’t pay taxes on those contributions when they withdraw them in retirement.
Delaying the start date for required minimum distributions (RMDs). Now, participants in defined contribution plans like 401ks must start taking their required minimum distributions starting at age 70 ½. If the SECURE 2.0 Act passes, it will delay the start of RMDs until 73 in 2023 (if you reach age 72 between 1/1/2023 and 12/31/2029), 74 in 2030 (if you reach age 73 between 1/1/2030 and 12/31/2032), and 75 in 2033 (if you reach 74 after 12/31/2032).
Employers can provide matching contributions to employees for student loan payments, even if those employees aren’t currently contributing to their retirement plan.
It expands the eligibility for long-term, part-time employees to participate in their employer’s defined contribution plan. Right now, part-time employees become eligible after working for an employer for 3 years. The SECURE 2.0 Act shortens that time period down to 2 years.
It will create a lost-and-found database for people to locate retirement accounts they had with former employers.
It offers a tax incentive to small businesses of $1,000 per employee if they offer a retirement plan.

What Problems does the SECURE 2.0 Act Solve?

There are some things about this legislation to applaud. Allowing employers to provide 401k contribution matching for student loan payments can benefit both employer and employee. The employee receives a retirement benefit for paying their student loans, and by providing this matching it could make it easier for the employer to pass non-discrimination tests as long as those paying off their student loans aren’t highly compensated employees.

Creating a database that enables people to locate retirement accounts they had with previous employers could potentially cut down on the number of abandoned accounts and lead to greater retirement savings for individuals. And shortening the time in which part-time employees become eligible for the employer-sponsored retirement benefit and providing small businesses an incentive to offer employees a retirement savings plan could result in increased access to retirement savings accounts.

On the surface, these are all good things. But they don’t solve the structural problems inherent in the 401k industry and some of the provisions laid out in the SECURE 2.0 Act aren’t going to benefit those that need it most.

What the SECURE 2.0 Act Doesn’t Solve

Auto-enrolling employees with a default contribution rate of 3% their gross income, and then automatically increasing the contribution percentage by 1% per year might sound like a good way to force savings. But it could catch some employees by surprise and they might not be prepared to allocate that much of their monthly or annual budget to their retirement account.
The lack of retirement savings among mid to low income earners. Increasing the catch-up contribution amount will likely only benefit high earners who can afford to set aside an additional $10,000 a year for their retirement account. Taking away the tax deferral benefit of catch-up contributions by requiring they’re deposited in a Roth IRA, makes it even more difficult for mid to low income earners to afford these additional contributions.
Delaying RMDs might be a good thing if you’re a high earner and you plan to continue working into your 70’s. That way you don’t have to pay income taxes on both your traditional income and your retirement distributions. However, by delaying these distributions, individuals will be taking larger chunks of money over a shorter period of time and might be subject to higher taxes because of this.
The structural problems inherent in the 401k system. These types of retirement accounts are expensive to set up and administer, making it difficult for small businesses to offer this benefit (even with a $1,000/employee incentive). The fiduciary risk these plans carry is also a burden many companies, big, medium or small, can’t justify. The lack of portability of 401k plans and the cost of rollovers means that even if individuals find their long-lost retirement accounts, they will be left with the choice of managing and continuing to keep track of separate accounts or engaging in an expensive rollover.

While the SECURE 2.0 Act attempts to solve many facets of the looming retirement crisis in America, it doesn’t do enough to increase access to and the usability of retirement savings accounts for most Americans.

Icon’s payroll IRA is a portable, low-cost (for both plan participants and employers) retirement benefits solution that is easy to set and use. There’s no fiduciary risk to employers and employees always have access to their money.

How Icon Uses Behavioral Finance to Help You Successfully Save for Retirement

Posted on June 22, 2022 by Laurie Rowley - Retirement Benefits

Behavioral Finance might sound a little esoteric and perhaps like it’s a subject for grad school. But the question this scientific field tries to answer is actually quite simple: why do investors, even experienced ones, often make misguided choices? Icon uses the principles of Behavioral Finance to ensure its plan participants are successful in saving for retirement.

What Is Behavioral Finance?

Behavioral Finance is a field of study that was developed in the 1980’s and 1990’s in response to what experts thought were unpredictable moves in the stock market. At the time, the Efficient Market Hypothesis held that the stock market moves in predictable, rational ways because everyone has access to the same public information (and those that have access to insider information aren’t allowed to trade on said information).

But the stock market often moves in irregular or volatile ways so researchers wanted to find out why.

What Has Research Into Behavioral Finance Found?

In short, Behavioral Finance has found that the markets don’t always move in predictable, rational ways, because the people who are operating within those markets (i.e. the investors) are not always rational and predictable. Instead, they often let outside psychological influences affect their investment decisions.

Some of the phenomena researchers have found include:

Stocks with ticker symbols starting with an A, B, or C are traded more often and are thus considered more liquid than those with tickers starting with X, Y or Z.
Investors (even experienced ones) have a tendency to sell winners too quickly and hold losers too long. Presumably because the pain of losing is greater than the satisfaction of gains.
Most actively managed funds (i.e. those managed by a broker who decides which assets to buy and sell) don’t beat passively managed funds (i.e. those that are automatically rebalanced using an algorithm).

Reasons for this behavior include several biases:

Herd behavior: the instinct to act how others act.
Overconfident bias: you think you know more than you do.
Hindsight bias: you think what happened before will happen again.
Confirmation bias: you look for information that confirms what you already think is true.
Anchoring bias: basing your assessment of value on the numbers in your immediate vicinity. A real world example of this is: you live in an area with a high cost of living, so you think that everything costs more than it does (or should).

How Does Icon Use Behavioral Finance To Make You More Successful At Saving For Retirement?

Icon asks you a few questions to understand your financial situation. Then, we use an algorithm to determine the assets your portfolio should include. We use an algorithm to rebalance your portfolio regularly to ensure you always own the asset mix that makes sense for your financial goals and timeline.

Why do we use an algorithm? Because an algorithm doesn’t have psychological biases. It doesn’t favor stocks with tickers at the beginning of the alphabet or have hindsight bias.

We also don’t use jargon to influence your decisions. And we show gains and losses in true dollar amounts instead of percentages because it’s an easier way for people to understand the state of their portfolio.

At Icon, our goal is to help you save for retirement successfully. We don’t make money off of the sale of specific assets nor are we motivated by having as many assets under management as possible. We are simply motivated by closing the retirement savings gap because we believe everyone deserves a financially secure future.

Dreading That Form 5500? This Retirement Plan Doesn’t Require One.

Posted on June 13, 2022 by Laurie Rowley - Retirement Benefits

If you offer your employees an employer-sponsored retirement plan in the form of a 401k, a pension or another type of plan covered under ERISA, you’re coming up on your Form 5500 deadline. Unless you have a one-participant plan (either a sole proprietor or partnership plan) with total assets of $250,000 or less, filing the Form 5500 is a non-negotiable requirement to offer a 401k or similar plan. And it will likely require that you allocate resources (time, money and talent) to ensure it’s completed properly.

What is a Form 5500?

Form 5500 is a form issued by the Department of Labor (DOL) on which employers who offer 401ks and other ERISA-covered plans report on their plan’s performance, financial condition, operations and management. These results are then distributed to plan participants.

There are three types of Form 5500:

The “Regular” Form 5500: If your plan has 100 or more participants, you’ll have to complete this version.
The “Short” Form 5500: This version is for companies that have fewer than 100 participants in their plan.
The “One Participant” Form 5500: If your plan covers one participant and their spouse, and you’re required by ERISA rules to file a Form 5500, this is the version you will use.

Why Do Employers Have to File a Form 5500?

The federal government uses Form 5500 in two ways. First, it helps to ensure that employer-sponsored plans are being operated and managed in a way that is in the best interest of the plan participants (i.e. the employer is fulfilling its fiduciary responsibilities). Second, the DOL, Congress and other federal agencies and private organizations use it to inform them on employee benefits, tax and economic trends and policies.

Form 5500 Deadline

Your deadline to file your Form 5500 is seven months after the end of the plan year. If your retirement plan operates on a calendar year, then your deadline is July 31st. Penalties for missing the deadline are $250 a day up to a maximum penalty of $150,000.

The Form 5500 is one of the many annual administrative duties employers must fulfill when they offer a 401k or similar type of retirement savings plan. But what if we told you there was another option that didn’t require filing a Form 5500, or any other form of documentation with the IRS or Department of Labor (unless you’re offering a plan to comply with a state mandate)? There is. It’s an Icon payroll deduction IRA.

Payroll Deduction IRA: The Simplest Way to Offer a Retirement Plan

Even the IRS will tell you that, “a payroll deduction IRA is probably the simplest retirement arrangement that a business can have.” This is why:

A business of any size (even the self-employed) can offer a payroll deduction IRA.
No plan documents are required (unlike the plan document you must maintain under a 401k arrangement).
The employer has no Form 5500 filing requirements, unless required by a state retirement mandate.
Employers’ only responsibilities are to approve the payroll deductions and provide employee information to plan administrators.
No statements need to be provided to employees.
Only employees make the contributions.
Employees’ contributions might be eligible for the Saver’s Credit.
Employees are always 100% vested.

How Icon Makes a Payroll Deduction IRA Even Better

Icon leverages technology to administer our plan so we can offer flat, transparent pricing. We handle all employee onboarding, communication and investment management. We offer customer support in real-time and provide employers with a streamlined dashboard for the minimal tasks they need to perform and employees with an app for easy plan management.

5 Things You Need to Know Before CalSavers’ June Deadline

Posted on April 26, 2022 by Laurie Rowley - Retirement Benefits

If you’re an employer of California residents, you’re probably keenly aware of the June 30th CalSavers deadline. It might have you scrambling to set up your workplace retirement savings plan, or maybe you’re ahead of the curve and already have a plan in place. Either way, there are 5 things you need to know as this all-important date approaches.

1. The CalSavers deadline most likely applies to you. Over the past couple of years, the state of California has been gradually lowering the employee threshold at which it requires employers to offer a workplace retirement plan. If you have more than 100 employees, your deadline was September 2020; more than 50 employees, your deadline was June 2021 and now, if you have 5 or more California employees, your deadline to offer a retirement savings plan to your people is June 30th of this year. The mandate applies as long as at least one of your employees is 18 years of age or older

2. CalSavers is only for California-based employees. If you are one of the many companies that saw their workforce scatter during the pandemic, you have a choice to make. You can set up state-based retirement savings plans in every state in which you both have employees and one is available and required. Or, you can find a singular solution in the private market, like Icon.

3. There are financial penalties for not complying with the June CalSavers deadline. If you haven’t set up a workplace retirement savings plan for your California employees within 90 days of the June 30th deadline, you will be assessed a fine of $250 per eligible California employee. If you still haven’t enrolled your company in a plan by 180 days after the June deadline, you will be assessed an additional $500 per eligible employee.

California employees are considered eligible if they are: 1) Age 18 or older and 2) considered an employee under California law. The number of hours worked per week or their tenure is not a factor into their eligibility. You must upload all employee information to the CalSavers website within 30 days of their start date. Employees will then be automatically enrolled in the program if they do not opt out within 30 days thereafter.

While California law doesn’t require that you offer a workplace retirement plan to 1099 workers, Icon’s savings plan gives you that ability. With Icon, all workers, regardless of status, have the opportunity to save for retirement through automatic payroll deductions

4. CalSavers accounts have default settings that may not benefit all employees.

The default account type is a Roth IRA. The default account type for CalSavers accounts is a Roth IRA which carries with it income limits based on tax filing status. In 2022, those limits are: $214,000 for a married couple filing jointly and $144,000 for single filers. If account holders earn above the income limit, they aren’t eligible to contribute to a Roth IRA and if they do so, they will have to unwind their contributions.

Account holders pay income taxes on Roth IRA contributions (although they don’t pay income taxes on the distributions they take later).

Account holders have the option to change their account type to a Traditional IRA, but they must take it upon themselves to do so.

The default savings rate is 5%. Unless account holders designate a different contribution rate, 5% of their paycheck will be automatically deposited into their CalSavers account. Some workers may not be able to afford a 5% contribution and will thus be unpleasantly surprised if they’re not made aware of this default setting.

Employees are automatically enrolled in the CalSavers retirement plan. California law states that employers must automatically enroll all eligible employees in the CalSavers program (if that’s the company’s chosen retirement plan). Employees must then take it upon themselves to opt-out if they don’t want to participate. This could leave some employees feeling like it’s a hassle to manage their account or it could take them by surprise should they either forget to opt-out.

5. Think a private market retirement savings program is a better fit for your company? You can un-enroll your company from CalSavers. If you signed up for CalSavers ahead of the June 30 deadline but you now see you have better options, you can unenroll from the program. You just need to contact CalSavers directly and they can help you through the process.

Icon is helping small and mid-sized companies to both comply with California law and offer their employees an easy and inexpensive way to save for retirement. The initial set-up for both employers and employees takes minutes, then Icon takes care of the rest. We handle employee education, investment management, communication with your payroll service, and we carry the fiduciary responsibility to the employees so all you have to do is upload employee information and approve their contributions. Icon is the easiest, quickest, and most affordable way to comply with the California June 30th deadline.

Why Don’t 81 Million Americans Have A Retirement Plan?

Posted on March 30, 2022 by Laurie Rowley - Retirement Benefits

The retirement industry is complicated, outdated, and serves a workforce that no longer exists. Originally created to replace the pension system, the 401k was intended to provide employees who worked for the same company, for the majority of their career, a way to save for retirement.

But, in the forty-plus years since 401k plans were created, the workforce has changed in dramatic ways. Today, people are mobile and will have an average of 12 jobs throughout their career. Many companies are also making a strategic shift toward keeping their workforce independent contractors as a way to keep costs down. These shifts in the workforce require a parallel shift in how people access retirement plans.

Or else we’ll all pay the price.

The Harrowing Stats

Almost 36% of Americans have never had a retirement account. Not because they don’t want one, but because most of them don’t have access to a workplace retirement plan (e.g., a 401k). This problem is going to get worse as more and more people choose to work for themselves and/or become independent contractors. In fact, 86.5 million workers are predicted to be self-employed by 2027 (Statista). None of whom is eligible to contribute to a 401k.
In 2020 there were 147.79 million people employed in the U.S. and only 60 million of those participated in a 401k. That’s 40% of the workforce.
About 50% of women and 47% of men aged 55 to 66 have no personal retirement savings.
Only 22% of women have $100,000 in savings or more, which is worrisome when healthcare alone is expected to cost the average 65 year old $300,000 in retirement.
The annual contribution limit for an IRA (the only type of retirement savings vehicle available to everyone, regardless of their type of employment) is $6,000 (an additional $1,000 is allowed for those age 55 and older). Compare this to the $20,500 limit for 401ks for 2022 (with a $6,500 catch-up allowed for 55 older), and you see that even if these workers open their own retirement savings account, it’s difficult for them to save the amount they’ll need for retirement.

The current system that relies on 401ks as the preferred vehicle for retirement savings isn’t working.

What Makes 401ks Outdated for the Modern Workforce?

Lack of portability. The 401k is set up and sponsored by the employer, which means once someone leaves the company, they’re no longer eligible to contribute to their plan. They must either roll their previous employer’s plan into a new one (which could be costly, if it’s even allowed), manage multiple plans, abandon the account, or cash out.

Today, people spend between 2 and 8 years at a job , which means that 15 million people change jobs each year. That’s 15 million people who are forced to make potentially damaging decisions about their financial future because of the way the 401k is structured.

Unfair eligibility leaves a lot of people out. The 401k system is restrictive when it comes to who is qualified to participate. Typically, to “qualify” for a 401k, you must be a full-time employee who has worked for your employer for a certain time period. If you’re a part-time employee you’re only eligible to participate if you book between 500 and 999 hours with your employer over a consecutive two-year period. If you’re an independent contractor, you’re not eligible at all. Even if you work 40 hours a week or more for the company.

If you’re an employer, surprise, you’re a fiduciary. Over the past decade, several high-profile lawsuits have brought an increased level of attention to employer’s legal responsibilities in offering 401k plans. This is because employers become fiduciaries when they sponsor plans. They are responsible for ensuring the plans are fair, managed in the best interests of plan participants and in compliance with ERISA guidelines. Even if the 401k provider takes on some fiduciary responsibilities, the employer always remains a fiduciary, as well.

Due to these liabilities, risks, and costs, many employers would like to remove themselves from the responsibility of being a fiduciary to their employees’ retirement savings.

Antiquated technology. Much of the technology the 401k industry uses is shockingly outdated. This is worrisome. These behemoth systems create massive inefficiencies that result in high fees that are passed on to plan participants, which erodes their life savings. In addition, outdated technology makes the process of saving cumbersome and out-of-step with other consumer experiences. Today’s customers expect products to be easy to use, accessible, personalized, and fairly priced.

Fees, fees, and more fees. Today, high fees are costing people billions of dollars in lost savings. This is especially true for those who work for small to medium companies. Sadly, smaller companies pay much higher 401k fees because they don’t have the negotiating leverage of larger companies.

The Solution is Portable Retirement.

The last decade has brought rapid innovation to banking, payment processing, and systems integration. These new technologies provide the components required to build an alternative retirement savings architecture that serves the needs of the evolving workforce.

Beyond technology, there are other design and product features required for a modern retirement savings plan including: low (transparent) fees, high quality funds, universal accessibility, holistic financial education, and support with personal finances.

Icon. The modern retirement plan.

Built by industry experts in behavioral finance, technology, and design thinking, Icon is an entirely new approach.

Icon eliminates the regulations, costs, and risks for employers, and completely redefines the employer’s role. Icon is the simplest way to offer a retirement plan.

It gives people the freedom and flexibility to save in a low-cost, easy-to-use, tax-deferred savings plan. And, unlike a 401k plan, there are no limits on who can use it. Everyone qualifies: full-time, part-time, independent contractors, gig workers.

And for the millions who work for themselves, Icon can help them achieve financial security through a structured, self-directed, and flexible retirement savings plan.

The Easiest Way to Offer a Retirement Plan

Posted on March 23, 2022 by Laurie Rowley - Retirement Benefits

If you’re reading this article it’s probably because you’ve tried to offer a 401k retirement plan and found it to be complicated, confusing, and expensive. With a payroll IRA, small and medium businesses now have an easy way to offer their employees a retirement savings plan without the cost, risk, and complexity of a 401k. No matter what your setup, whether you have all W2 employees, all 1099 workers or a mixture of both, a payroll IRA is the easiest way to offer the people on your payroll a retirement savings plan.

Payroll IRAs are Easy to Set-up and Administer

With a payroll IRA, employers get a “plug-and-play” retirement benefits solution that’s low cost, low risk and, because of its utilization of new technology, incredibly easy to use for employees and employers alike. Icon is a full service, payroll IRA with live customer support, employer and employee onboarding, employee communication, and an easy-to-use dashboard.

With Icon, employers complete minimal paperwork for initial plan set-up and then you send us your payroll information and we take care of the rest. This includes:

Employee onboarding and education,
Communication with your payroll service,
Plan management, and
Employee removal upon departure from the company.

Once you’ve activated your plan, your employees choose whether or not they want to participate and how much they want to contribute (up to the annual maximum). The only thing you have to do as the employer is approve employees’ contribution amounts.

Payroll IRAs Solve 3 Big Benefits Problems for Employers

First, a payroll IRA satisfies the need to offer all employees a retirement benefit. There’s no need to distinguish between different employee classes or to figure out vesting schedules, because all employees are eligible to participate in a payroll IRA and they’re immediately 100% vested.

Second, it allows employers to offer a retirement benefit without the cost and risk of carrying a 401k plan. With Icon’s payroll deduction IRA, we maintain the fiduciary liability of managing the plan, there are no annual reporting requirements, and no ERISA or nondiscrimination rules to worry about. Icon charges a flat monthly fee based on your company size. Icon is so much more affordable than a 401k plan because we leverage new technology to keep our costs down. The 401k industry is still very paper-intensive and requires a lot of manual plan management, so they tend to charge employers and employees a lot more for their services.

Third, employers have more flexibility in terms of how you reward employees for saving. Instead of a complicated formula used in 401k plans, you can have full discretion on what you give your employees (if anything) through a financial wellness bonus.