Safe Harbor Plans
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I am new to LPL having moved my practice over from a wire house. " Almost ten years with a wire and seven years with EDJ before that." If anyone wants to know anything about Smith Barney let me know.
I am looking at setting myself up with a Safe Harbor plan and profit sharing. With those two and possibly a VUL I can set aside $80,000 a year easily. Pretty amazing. So do any of you smart people out there have a recommendation as to who has the best Safe Harbor plan? Fees and Sub account selections are at the top of my list. Any help with VULs would be appreciated also. It's great to be here. I have arrived!17 years as an advisor and you’re seeking advice on retirement plans? And why on earth would you screw yourself with a VUL? Doesn’t pass the smell test.
StokWell I guess your right. I should know about these plans but I don’t. Never did a single one. I have a managed money business and that is what I do. Maybe ten years ago I did a few LTC policies but that has been it. No insurance, no retirement plans for businesses. So can you answer my questions.
By the way, when I started at EDJ I had to rubber cement nickels onto my business cards each and every night to prepar for the next days door-knocking. I also attended Bartows Top Gun class.Any help with VULs would be appreciated also.
It's hard to believe, but I will assume that you are serious. Step #1: Look at a VUL prospectus and understand the expenses. You should never have to get to Step #2 after that.Do you have any employees? If not, you should look at setting up a defined benefit plan depending on your age. People in their 50s-60s can defer way more than a 401k plans. How old are you?
I would suggest you look for a local third party administrator that can run some numbers for you. They will be able to tell you what the most effective plan will be based on your employee base and your objectives.I have one full time and one part time assistant . Safe Harbor is the way to go along with profit sharing which allowes me the max contributions. I’ve talked so far to Hartford but obviously need more due diligence.
There's a lot of bravado on this forum isnt there? Young guys who are like little roosters blowing smoke. Skokwiz and anonymous you all can kiss my rear end. I'm an 800k producer running managed money. I was a PMer at Smith Barney for the last 7 years. I know you wont even know what the hell that is. Needless to say, average assets in my region of the U.S. was "is" 78 million and I was above average. Before all that I was a limited partner at EDJ. Thanks Akkula for your help. Why the hell is it a big deal that I dont know about freaking Safe Harbor Plans? I guess I've been too busy making money to bone up.You expect to be taken seriously that an 800,000 producer isn't well versed in retirement plan nuances or VUL's? 800,000 what- pesos?
Another failing little rooster pretending to be a top producer. You are a liar. That's OK, you aren't the only one.I wouldn't feel embarrassed about not knowing the nuances of plan design. At least you know the term "safe harbor" as it relates to 401k plans. Most of the brokers in my office don't even know that.
If I were you, I wouldn't let one of the fully bundled recordkeepers like Hartford near my plan since it sounds like you really want to be able to sock away the most money you can. Talk to a LOCAL tpa that specializes in plan design for small plans with a bunch of doctors and lawyers trying to maximize their contribution and minimize their plan costs. Ask your Hartford wholesaler if they have any contact information for "local tpas in my town." You may also want to check out John Hancock, they don't do any bundled compliance services and always work with local TPAs so they may be able to point you in the right direction. Don't tie yourself to one of the firms mentioned above, though. The local TPA may actually inform you that it is better to do a combination 401k+cash balance plan in order to maximize your contributions. Safe Harbor could be the way to go but you won't know for sure until you give the TPA all of your employee demographic information so they can work their magic.Thanks Akkula.
Lakers there are guys I know at S.B. who are bigger producers than I was who go all the way back to the Pru days who wouldn't have a clue what a Safe harbor plan is and who in 20 or more years have never sold a single insurance policy. 800k in production isn't a huge deal at Smith Barney. I'm simple a managed money guy. That's what I do and that's what I know. You probably know more about things like mutual funds or MBDs for example than I do. I have my speciality. Period. It's a shame the internet seems to open the door to lack of simple decency between people.JT I agree. If you haven’t figured it out yet, this place is populated by a bunch of guys who are young to the business and all full of piss and vinegar. With most of these folks if they are making a $100,000 its a big deal. They have no concept of what managed money is at a wire house and the dollars some of the producers bring in. They cant even imagine 800k so they have to call you a liar. That’s my opinion.
Review JT’s post , where he is posing as another member talking to himself. JT, don’t let us interfere with the conversation you are having with yourself. Might want to change identities on each exchange though. Guess I was right, you little rooster, you.
[quote=JT]
I am new to LPL having moved my practice over from a wire house. " Almost ten years with a wire and seven years with EDJ before that." If anyone wants to know anything about Smith Barney let me know.
I am looking at setting myself up with a Safe Harbor plan and profit sharing. With those two and possibly a VUL I can set aside $80,000 a year easily. Pretty amazing. So do any of you smart people out there have a recommendation as to who has the best Safe Harbor plan? Fees and Sub account selections are at the top of my list. Any help with VULs would be appreciated also. It's great to be here. I have arrived![/quote] JT - Any 401k platform can adopt a Safe Harbor provision. As was mentioned before, Hartford has a good platform, but i am not sure about small markets. Principal as well. If you are from SB, as you state, you might be familiar with Benetech. They are a TPA (NATIONAL) and they not only do the recordkeeping for plans that use American Funds, Lord Abbett, and MFS, but they have their own platform that is relatively new, and is totally open architecture. Hundreds of funds to choose from. They can also advise you on whether Safe Harbor 401k or some other type of plan is best for you now. If you are in the Northeast, and want a contact, PM me, I'll give you the name and number. Otherwise, I'm sure you can ask someone in your old SB office who does QP busienss, they will give you the contact. BTW, when you were at SB, doing PM were you on the GPM Chalkboard? I was pretty active there for a while.I like to take people at face value on these boards. If someone says that they do $800,000, I have no reason to doubt them.
The reality, in this case, is that JT is full of it. Lakers called it correctly. JT needed to come up with an alter ego to defend himself, yet, somehow he failed at this.
A wirehouse broker who claims to have never sold insurance would not talk about putting his own money into a VUL. It's also very doubtful that a decent producer would be as thin skinned as him.
My guess is that he's a fairly unsuccessful VUL salesman who dreams of becoming a wirehouse rep. My second guess is that we won't hear from him again.. with the JT moniker.JT, ignore the attacks, lots of skeptisim on this board until you’ve been around a while and prove your worthiness with decents posts. You should start with the safe harbor until you’re about 5 years out from retiring. Then look at a defined benefit plan like akula mentioned. If you are 55, 5 years from retiring, making 500k, your contribution could be upwards of 200k depending on how you structure your plan.