The Northshire Blog

Most people never get a clear answer to this question. Here is how to check your savings rate and your balance against common benchmarks, and what to do if you are behind.

When an employee does not choose investments, your plan chooses for them. A qualified default investment alternative, or QDIA, is how the law lets you make that choice with fiduciary relief.

A longer fund list does not automatically give employees better choices. A streamlined menu built in tiers can be easier to use, easier to monitor, and easier to defend.

A managed account builds a portfolio for each employee instead of a one-size-fits-all mix. Whether that personalization is worth the added fee is a fiduciary decision your plan has to make carefully.

Most 401(k) plans are built to help people save, not to help them spend. Here is what plan sponsors can do to support employees who are ready to turn a balance into retirement income.

Small accounts left behind by former employees add cost, paperwork, and risk to a plan. Mandatory distribution rules and auto-portability give sponsors tools to manage them.

Every plan eventually loses touch with someone. How you search, document, and prevent missing participant problems matters, even as the DOL shifts its enforcement focus.

A beneficiary form takes a minute to fill out and can decide who receives a lifetime of savings. Plan sponsors play a bigger role in getting it right than many realize.

Growing past 100 participants usually brings a new annual requirement: an independent audit of the plan. Knowing how participants are counted and how to prepare can save time and money.

The cost of starting a 401(k) is often lower than business owners expect once federal tax credits are counted. Here is how the credits work and who qualifies.

Employees paying down student loans often cannot afford to save in the 401(k) too, so they miss the match. SECURE 2.0 lets employers match those loan payments instead.

Many employees dip into their 401(k) when an unexpected bill arrives. A pension-linked emergency savings account, or PLESA, is designed to give them a better option inside the same plan.

If you own more than one company, the IRS may treat them as one employer for retirement plan purposes. Missing a controlled group can cause testing failures that are expensive to fix.

Your plan document is the rulebook the IRS and DOL hold you to. Here is how restatements and amendments keep it current, and why the end of 2026 matters.

Every covered service provider to your 401(k) must tell you, in writing, what it does and how it is paid. Here is how to make sense of those disclosures.

Form 5500 is your plan's annual report to the government, and it is public. Here is what it covers, when it is due, and what to check before you sign.

Offering a good 401(k) is half the job. The other half is helping employees understand it well enough to use it.

Plan loans can help employees in a pinch, but they come with tight IRS rules and real operational risk. Here is how to set up a loan policy that works.

Hardship withdrawals are a safety valve for employees facing a financial emergency. Recent rule changes have made them simpler to administer, but sponsors still carry responsibility.

Vesting rules decide when the money you contribute for employees becomes theirs to keep. The schedule you choose affects cost, retention, and administration.

A profit sharing feature lets employers decide each year how much to contribute and, within limits, how to allocate it. New comparability designs can direct more of that contribution to owners.

When a 401(k) and profit sharing plan are not enough, a cash balance plan can significantly raise how much an owner can contribute on a tax-deductible basis. It also comes with real commitments.

Late deposits of employee contributions are a frequent 401(k) error, and a very fixable one. Here is how correction works, including the Department of Labor's newer self-correction option.

Every traditional 401(k) must show each year that it does not favor highly compensated employees. Here is how the ADP and ACP tests work and what happens when a plan fails.

ERISA judges fiduciaries largely by their process. A well-run committee and clear meeting minutes are how you show that process exists.

If your company sponsors a 401(k), you carry fiduciary duties whether or not anyone told you. An independent plan advisor helps you meet them and document that you did.

For many 401(k) plans, the target date series is the largest investment decision a sponsor makes. Here is what to look at beyond the year on the label.

Two participants can own the same fund, run by the same managers, and pay very different amounts for it. Share class selection is one of the more fixable fee issues in a 401(k).

Every pay period, your 401(k) depends on accurate data moving from payroll to the recordkeeper. Payroll integration reduces the manual steps where errors tend to happen.

With automatic enrollment, employees start saving unless they choose not to. Here is how it works, the design choices involved, and which plans are now required to use it.

A Roth option gives employees a choice about when they pay tax on their savings. Recent law changes have turned it from a nice extra into a feature many plans now need.

Automatic enrollment gets employees started. Automatic escalation helps keep their savings rate from stalling at the starting point.

ERISA does not require the lowest fees. It requires reasonable fees, and fee benchmarking is how plan sponsors find out whether theirs are.

The numbers refer to sections of ERISA, and the difference between them determines who makes investment decisions for your plan. Here is how each role works.

An Investment Policy Statement turns investment decisions into a repeatable process. Written well and followed consistently, it is a practical tool for plan sponsors.

The ERISA fidelity bond is an often overlooked requirement in a 401(k). Here is who needs to be covered, how much coverage is required, and how to keep it current.

If your plan keeps failing nondiscrimination tests, or owners keep getting refunds, a safe harbor design may help. Here is how it works and what it costs.

MyCTSavings is a Roth IRA program with a payroll deduction attached, and an expensive one. Here is why a 401(k) is the better choice for Connecticut business owners, and why the old objections no longer hold up.

MyCTSavings is an easy way for employees to start saving through payroll deduction, automatic enrollment, and a default 5% contribution rate, so it…

Adding $25 a month to a 401(k) can make a real difference in retirement because small contributions can grow a lot over time through compounding. The…

Trump Accounts are a new tax-advantaged savings account for children under age 18, created by Section 530A of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. The…

Tax Rates Stay Low: The individual income tax cuts from 2017 are now permanent, avoiding the scheduled 2026 tax hike. Current tax brackets and a…

Financial Planning in Your 20s: Building a Strong FoundationImagine it’s a crisp Monday morning in Connecticut. You’re 25, coffee in hand, heading to…

Understanding IRS tax forms can feel overwhelming for individuals and small business owners. This guide explains the most common tax forms you might…

FAFSA now uses the Student Aid Index (SAI) instead of Expected Family Contribution. It can be negative (down to -$1,500) to signal high financial…

Financial Planning in Your 60s: What You Should Prioritize This Decade Your 60s are a pivotal decade in your financial life. By now, you’ve…

Capital gains tax is a tax on the profit you make from selling stocks (or other investments). You only pay tax when you sell and “realize” the gain…

New comparability (sometimes called “cross-tested”) 401(k) plans are a type of profit‐sharing 401(k) plan that lets employers allocate different…

Choosing a financial advisor is a big decision – after all, this person will help guide your money and future. But with so many options out there…