By Ed McClure, CFP®, PPC® You’re probably used to seeing Social Security coming out of your paycheck since your first job, but it can get a little more complicated once you’re ready to actually start participating in it. If you’re at that stage, it means you are looking toward a new and exci...
Is Your Sponsor Plan Audit Ready?
By Ed McClure, CFP®, PPC® No one likes to hear the word “audit.” But when you sponsor a retirement plan, you have to be ready for the fact that there will be times when auditors will check in on your plan and make sure you’re following all the proper rules and regulations. While this can [&h...
Why 30 and 40-Year-Olds Need to Care About Investing & Retirement Income
By Ed McClure, CFP®, PPC® When you think about where you want to be in 20 years, many 30 and 40-year-olds will discuss their goals for financial independence or reaching their ideal retirement. Yet there is often a gap between experiencing financial security and taking the right steps early on to ...
5 Ways Plan Sponsors Can Improve Retirement Outcomes for Their Participants
By Ed McClure, CFP®, PPC® Employees are saving for retirement at an increasing rate thanks to initiatives implemented by plan sponsors during the past two decades. Defined contribution sponsors can play an important part in helping their participants save more for retirement—and the measures for...
Take Control of Your Finances: Tips for Dealing With Inflation and Market Volatility
By Ed McClure, CFP®, PPC® It’s no surprise that the words inflation, volatility, and recession have been so pervasive lately. Inflation has been slowing down since December 2022, but is still a ways away from the Fed’s target rate of 2%. It’s clear that economists are expecting a recession t...
What Business Owners Can Do With Their Cash
By Ed McClure, CFP®, PPC® Running a business is hard. You have to offer a valuable service, ensure your clients are happy, manage employees and vendors, and handle all financial and legal matters that arise. You also have to prepare for the unexpected. Most savvy business owners know that there wi...
What Should I Do With My Money in Today’s Market?
By Ed McClure, CFP®, PPC® There’s always a degree of uncertainty in the market, but sometimes people get especially nervous. In previous articles, I’ve discussed why it’s a bad idea to react emotionally when the market is down. Today I want to address a different side of the issue. More risk...
Business Owners: How to Design Your Company’s 401(k) Plan Features
By Ed McClure, CFP®, PPC® If your company offers a 401(k) plan to its employees, you may not realize how many options you have that can benefit your personal retirement as the owner. I often work with companies that have had 401(k) plans in place for years, never realizing how many levers they cou...
Is a Downturn On the Horizon? How We Watch Over Our Clients’ Investments
By Ed McClure, CFP®, PPC® Sometimes what causes the greatest fear is simply not knowing what lies ahead. Billionaire and founder of Patagonia, Yvon Chouinard, said, “Fear of the unknown is the greatest fear of all.” It seems as though things in our world right now could not get any more unkn...
Top 5 Questions Your Plan Administrator Can’t Answer
By Ed McClure, CFP®, PPC® One common frustration we hear from both employers and employees relates to the inability to get answers to your most burning questions about retirement planning. Part of the problem stems from asking the wrong questions, but, more commonly, it’s asking the wrong people...