Q1 2025 Newsletter
April 10, 2025
As we wrap up the first quarter of 2025, the team at Primark Benefits has been hard at work for our clients, keeping their retirement plans in compliance.
At the same time, we've also been keeping you informed on the latest retirement plan developments, compliance updates, and strategic best practices. In case you missed any of our recent articles, here’s a quick recap of the topics we covered this quarter—from new SECURE 2.0 provisions to record retention strategies and ROTH account considerations.
Here's What You Need to Know
The ROTH Retirement Account, named for Senator William Roth, was introduced as part of the Taxpayer Relief Act of 1997. The main feature of a ROTH account is that contributions are made with post-tax dollars as opposed to pre-tax; this means that any withdrawals, including earnings on the investments, are tax-free in retirement. This advantage can be particularly attractive for those individuals who anticipate being in a higher tax bracket later in life. However, this needs to be weighed against the uncertainty about whether and for how long this tax status will be truly protected. Can you safely invest in a ROTH account and really expect tax-free withdrawals ten, twenty, or thirty years down the line?
How Long Do I Need to Keep All of This Paperwork? Today, we’re going to share our position on what may seem to be a black-and-white (if not also mundane) retirement plan-related topic - that of record retention. It’s one that we’ve been asked about hundreds of times, and understandably so: For one thing, it involves a lot of files, whether hard copy or electronic. Also, the requirements and guidelines from various government agencies can often seem to conflict. Most importantly, though, it has gotten plenty of well-meaning plan sponsors into some hot water, both financially and legally. There have been numerous instances when it turned out the guidelines weren’t enough to protect employers from costly legal disputes. Read on to find out more.
Primark Benefits is continually monitoring legislative updates. As such, we are sharing this reminder about the “super catch-up" contributions available under The SECURE 2.0 Act, in effect as of the start of 2025.
For years, many California employers viewed CalSavers as something they would “deal with later.” As the state gradually rolled out mandatory retirement program deadlines based on employer size, it was easy for smaller businesses to push the issue down the road. Now, those deadlines have passed, the employee headcount threshold is now ONE— and enforcement is becoming very real.
In Part I of this series , we explored how differences in retirement plan service models can influence risks related to compliance, oversight, and fiduciary areas. In Part II, the focus shifts to a more concrete question: How do these differences ultimately affect the total cost of maintaining a retirement plan over time? While administrative fees are often the most visible expense, they represent only a portion of a plan’s true cost. The broader financial impact—what is often referred to as total cost of ownership—includes the downstream effects of operational efficiency, compliance accuracy, and the ability to fully utilize the plan’s design.
Medical and dental practices often assume their retirement plan options are relatively straightforward and should be simple to administer. In reality, these businesses frequently present some of the most complex retirement plan challenges among small-to-mid-sized employers.