Executive Benefit Plans

In today’s competitive marketplace, the ability to recruit, retain and reward key employees is critical to the success of any business. It is especially important to take care of those people who make the difference between success and failure.

It isn’t enough to simply have a “one size fits all” benefit package plan. Given the limits imposed by the IRS on contributions to traditional qualified retirement plans, highly compensated executives may find it difficult to achieve their retirement goals. A non-qualified retirement plan can add the flexibility that key executives need to accomplish this goal and provide an additional method of aligning the goals of the organization with its key personnel.

The financial advisory team of Burnham Gibson can design a strategy to meet any organization’s goals, including the following executive benefit plan designs:

• Supplemental Executive Retirement Plan: Intended to supplement a qualified plan, these plans are typically designed to provide future benefits to an executive or business owner in the event of retirement, death, or disability. They can be utilized as a paired funding technique for buy-sell agreements.
  
• Non-Qualified Deferred Compensation: Designed to mirror a 401(k) plan, these plans provide executives additional opportunities for pre-tax deferral into a retirement program.
  
• Split Dollar Insurance Plan (Cost Sharing Arrangement): This type of plan provides subsidized life insurance coverage for executives’ beneficiaries.
  
• Executive Bonus Plan: Executive bonus plans can be structured in various ways to provide additional bonuses to executives through tax preferred vehicles.

Now is the time to consider an executive benefits program or enhance an existing one. With the right benefits program in place, a company can worry less about retaining and rewarding key executives and concentrate more on the strategies that make the business successful.