When To Restructure Your Plan

1. When should we restructure our retirement plans for changes in our business or the economy to make them keep working for us?
2. When should we redo our General Investment Plan, and fill out a new GIP Planner?
3. Do we have to communicate these restructuring amendments to our employees?

When should we restructure our retirement plans to make them keep working for us?

• Please refer to the page “Changes In Your Situation”. The changes listed there show many of the catalysts that may suggest you consider changes to your plan design.
• Perhaps the most important image we can tell you is that you would not drive a car with your eyes closed, so with your retirement plan you need to be aware of changes in your road, and consider the impact on the retirement plan.

When should we redo our Investment Plan, and fill out a new IP Planner?...Investment Planning

• The Investment Plan and the IP Planning Tool were created by us;  we strongly recommend you redo your Investment Planning yearly to fit in new factors, and also fill in a new IP Planning Tool.
• Keep your old versions of these forms, and compare your current assets and life circumstances against what you had for the last several years; you will quickly discover that the economy has cycles, that inflation changes, that assets do not perform in a nice linear growth pattern, and that your prior growth projection rates were probably too high; use this knowledge to set projection rates going forward at lower more realistic rates, and also rejoice in accumulations of assets gained by paying off debt.
• Along with values of assets, your GIP Planner should have as a goal the production of a regular source of income to your family after retirement; this income is what you will be spending, and the annual income should be a benchmark planning tool for you, not just the asset value.

Do we have to communicate these restructuring amendments to our employees?

• If you have employees other than owners, you must communicate all amendments immediately to all participants, ex-spouses of participants who have benefits, and other interested parties; the simplest way to do this is to send out the Notice we prepare, perhaps along with the amendment itself; while amendments providing extra benefits are quite useful to provide to employees, the law requires that you provide full disclosure of amendments cutting back on benefits, rights, or features to all immediately.
• If you fail to provide notice of cutbacks, the cutback may not be effective.