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Optimizing Retirement Plans for Law Firms

BY David N. Heap
December 01, 2003

Recent changes in the legislative and regulatory climate have made it possible and desirable to consider optimizing retirement plan contributions by combining defined benefit and defined contribution plans. But while combination plans can produce superior benefits, their designers must ensure that plans do not violate:

  • The Internal Revenue Code rule that a plan qualified for favorable tax treatment must avoid discriminating in favor of highly compensated employees; or
  • The requirement in the Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA) that pension plans must not discriminate against employees on the basis of age.

In Part One of this article, we introduce and compare some of these possibilities. In Part Two, we will provide spreadsheet analyses of these plans to illustrate their effectiveness and address discrimination concerns.

Basic Plan Types

A defined benefit pension plan defines the ultimate benefit to be paid; eg, a lifetime benefit of $10,000 per month, beginning at age 65. An actuary then determines the amount necessary to contribute annually to fund that benefit. If earnings are less than anticipated, the required annual contributions increase. If earnings are more, then the required annual contributions decrease. For the year 2004, the maximum benefit that may be provided by a defined benefit plan, beginning at age 62, is $165,000 per year. This benefit cannot exceed the participant's final average annual pay.

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