[topic 1]

Customization Options

We've been in the 401k business almost as long as 401k plans have been around. We know what works, what works well, and what's most important to a 401k plan's health and popularity.

Our Web 401k reflects what small businesses most often seek in a 401k plan:

(1) Affordability, first and foremost
(2) Investment flexibility
(3) Convenient rewards for employee loyalty

Our Web 401k has the same design principals but allows a little affordability to be sacrificed in the interest of heightened investment and perks flexibility.

The chart below outlines the key customization options available in our 401ks. All options are included in the price of the 401k (see our Pricing page) unless otherwise noted.

-- Free help is available with understanding each customization option and determining which are most pertinent to your company's needs. Simply contact us with your questions; better yet, complete the appropriate Order Form with the "Unsure. Please contact..." button checked for any item about which you'd like more information. (Your order form answers give us the specifics we need to provide you with a well-informed answer, yet completing an order form costs you nothing and puts you under no obligation to purchase anything.)

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[topic 2]

Our IRS-Approved Prototype 401k Plan

The customization options outlined above are all part of our IRS-approved prototype 401k plan that we work with you to customize to your 401k needs. You're never faced with some cookie-cutter 401k plan and take-it-or-leave it investments like with some 401ks designed for small businesses.

We offer free help with understanding each of your 401k plan customization options, so you can make educated decisions as to what will be best for your company and its employees.

-- For help with specific topics, complete the appropriate Order Form and mark "Unsure. Please contact..." for any items you'd like assistance with. Completing an order form costs you nothing and IN NO WAY obligates you to purchase anything; it simply gives us the information we need about your company's size, etc., to answer questions regarding your potential 401k plan.

-- Within parameters set by law, you can have us edit your 401k plan down the road, too. You're never locked into the decisions you find suitable today. (If edits you later have us make to your 401k plan mean re-customization of your 401k plan administration software and/or amendment of your official 401k Plan Adoption Agreement, we reserve the right to charge a fee to cover our costs.)

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[topic 3]

The Safe Harbor Method of 401k Plan Operation

401k compliance tests are designed to ensure 401k plans have at least a threshold balance of participation of rank-and-file employees in relation to highly-paid employees.

The IRS offers an alternative means for achieving 401k plan balance: The safe harbor method of 401k plan operation lets 401k plans skip their annual 401k discrimination testing so long as the sponsoring employer meets certain employer 401k contribution requirements (designed to ensure broad participation in the company plan) and provides 100% immediate vesting of the contributions.

-- To qualify a 401k plan as a safe harbor plan, the employer must make matching contributions that fulfill the below requirements or make nonelective contributions equal to 3% of each eligible employee's compensation. (See our 401k Basics page if you're unfamiliar with these terms.)

-- Nonelective contributions are made to all eligible employees, regardless of if the employees participate in the company 401k plan. Matching contributions, on the other hand, being based upon salary deferral amounts, are made only to active 401k participants' accounts.

-- If the employer chooses to make safe harbor matching contributions, those contributions must meet two requirements: First, each non-highly-compensated employee must receive a dollar-for-dollar match on salary deferrals up to 3% of compensation and a 50¢ to the dollar match on salary deferrals from 3% to 5% of compensation. Second, the rate of any matching contributions being made to highly compensated employees cannot exceed that being made to non-highly compensated employees.

The employer must provide annual information to employees explaining the 401k plan's safe harbor provisions and benefits, including that safe harbor contributions cannot be distributed before termination of employment and that they are not eligible for financial hardship withdrawal.

Your Web 401k system includes such notification within your customized 401k plan's Summary Plan Description, a document for prospective and active plan participants that's updated at least annually.

-- If you don't choose the safe harbor method of 401k plan administration, we encourage you to use your customized Web 401k's point-and-click compliance testing every month to keep well apprised of your plan's health so there are no surprises when your plan is subjected to its mandatory year-end tests.

-- Monthly testing takes only seconds with Web 401k; frequent testing means you can spot and correct undesirable trends before they compound.

-- Test your company’s 401k plan for compliance at any hour of the day or night, and day of the week, from any computer with Internet access --- that’s total 401k compliance control and oversight!

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