Q3 2025 Newsletter
October 7, 2025
At Primark Benefits, we’re committed to helping employers and advisors navigate the complexities of retirement plans with clarity and confidence. This quarter, we’ve published a range of new articles designed to inform, debunk misconceptions, and highlight opportunities—especially those that can still make a difference for this year. Next quarter, we'll be continuing our new How to "Break" a Retirement Plan Series and discussing other timely and important topics.
Here's What You Need to Know
Retirement plans can often feel like an alphabet soup of acronyms, mandates, and evolving state and federal laws. This series seeks to dispel common myths so employers can make better informed decisions. In previous articles, we’ve covered multiple myths at once. However, in Part IV, we’ll focus our efforts on one big misconception. Specifically, we’ll be talking about the idea that cookie-cutter, state-run programs such as CalSavers are “just as good” as custom-designed retirement plans, and the misunderstandings that persist about what state-run retirement programs do (and don’t) offer.
Welcome to our new series, How to “Break” a Retirement Plan, where we discuss what leads to a retirement plan being categorized as “broken,” ways to fix broken plans, and compliance tips for how to avoid a broken plan in the first place.
Updated December 31, 2025 Retirement plan catch-up contributions allow “older” workers—typically those age 50 and over— to set aside additional funds in their retirement accounts beyond standard annual limits. These extra contributions are an important planning tool for those nearing retirement who want to make up for earlier gaps in saving. Up
Retirement plans can be confusing. Between complex rules, industry jargon, and competing providers, it’s easy for employers to fall into patterns based on assumptions or half-truths. That’s why we created this series: to cut through the noise and help employers make confident, informed decisions. In this third installment, we’re addressing two persistent myths that often lead employers down the wrong path: the idea that payroll providers are the best place to get your plan, and the belief that robo-firms offer a hassle-free alternative. Spoiler: neither is as simple (nor as beneficial) as they seem.
Many companies, especially in the professional services sector—law firms, staffing agencies, engineering and consulting companies, healthcare groups, etc.—are often made up of various employee tiers. For example, in a given company, you might find partners or executives in one segment, professional staff in another, and support staff or hourly workers in yet another. While this tiered structure works well operationally, it can pose challenges relating to retirement plan compliance. In one recent example, the Primark Benefits team helped a client with over 3,500 employees overcome a complicated compliance issue by strategically changing the plan design, first expanding eligibility and then implementing automatic enrollment. Let’s take a look.
The Challenge A business owner came to us after receiving confusing news from their retirement plan actuary. Their Defined Benefit (Cash Balance) Plan had performed exceptionally well over several years; strong investment returns seemed to have created what’s called an overfunded Plan. While it seems like a positive name, an overfunded plan can create excessive and unexpected tax liabilities. So, their actuary recommended terminating the Plan by transferring the excess assets into the company's other Plan, a 401(k)/Profit Sharing Plan, before eventually closing both Plans, a lengthy and complicated process.
As we wrap up the second quarter of 2026, one trend continues to stand out: retirement plans are becoming increasingly specialized. Whether driven by changing regulations, unique workforce structures, or evolving business goals, employers are finding that a one-size-fits-all approach simply doesn't work. This quarter, we explored the unique retirement plan challenges facing several industries—including medical and dental practices, construction companies, architecture and design firms, wineries, and California employers navigating CalSavers requirements. We also continued our series on the hidden risks of low-quality retirement plan services, highlighting how operational complexity, fragmented accountability, and misaligned incentives can create costs that extend far beyond administrative fees. For employers still evaluating their retirement plan options, we also discussed opportunities that many business owners overlook, including the ability to establish retirement plans after filing a tax extension and potentially generate meaningful tax savings. Below is a recap of the articles we published this quarter. We hope they provide practical insights to help you reduce risk, improve plan performance, and make more informed retirement plan decisions.
When considering retirement plans, employers in the private sector are often focused on designing a compliant plan that meets the needs of their owners and employees. While that process for private sector entities can certainly be complex, nonprofit organizations face an entirely different set of considerations, related to funding, staffing, governance, and organizational structure, to name just a few. From seasonal employees and grant-funded positions, to creative executive retention strategies and legacy retirement programs, to smaller budgets serving a mission, there is so much behind the scenes that can affect a nonprofit organization’s ideal retirement plan. At Primark Benefits, we've worked with nonprofit organizations of all sizes throughout our history, from large institutions with hundreds of participants to small community organizations with fewer than 20 employees. In addition, many members of our management team serve on nonprofit boards across the country for organizations and causes near and dear to their hearts. All that combined experience has validated what makes a retirement plan most successful: understanding the organization itself.