Why Choose a Third Party Administrator?
 
Pinnacle Pension Services is an independent Third Party Administrator (TPA) of tax qualified defined contribution, defined benefit and flexible spending plans. We service plans allocated on both traditional balance and daily valuation multi-fund open architecture platforms. We administer 401(k), 451(b), Safe Harbor 401(k), Profit Sharing, Money Purchase, and Flexible Spending Account Plans. As an independent contractor we do not manage assets or collect commissions. We provide objective plan design and servicing.
 
Plan Design: As an independent TPA firm Pinnacle Pension Services assists plan sponsors (employers) with designing the most appropriate tax qualified plan to meet their needs. A plan is individually designed based on consideration of the company goals (both employer and employee), current available design options and the resources (human and financial) available to implement and support the plan. These discussions often include the employer’s financial advisor and are key for designing a new plan or transferring your existing administration to Pinnacle.
 
Advantages of Custom Designed Plan
  • Maximize tax deductions for the employer (plan sponsor)
  • Maximize tax-deferred retirement savings opportunities for the employer and employees (plan participants)
  • Minimize costs for starting up and maintaining the plan
  • Retention and recruitment of effective employees by offering an attractive retirement plan benefit.
Plan Documents: Pinnacle Pension Services utilizes AccuDraft/Relius document services to insure creation and maintenance of accurate and compliant plan documents. The plan document is a critical component of your tax qualified retirement plan, describing the day to day functioning of your plan.
Document types that we prepare and service
  • Standardized Prototype - A prototype plan is a standardized plan that has been approved and qualified as to its concept by the Internal Revenue Service.
  • Non-standardized Prototype- A non-standardized adoption agreement allows the choice of additional options but is not automatically qualified. A non-standardized adoption should be submitted to the IRS for approval
  • Volume Submitter - offers employers a wide variety of plan provisions allowed by law using language which has been reviewed by the IRS. However, unlike the master or prototype plan which offers only a few options, a volume submitter plan normally offers hundreds of variations. Employers adopting a volume submitter plan should obtain IRS approval of the plan as written for that employer.
 
Plan Administration: Required annual administration services: Summary of accounts (accrual basis), Preparation of IRS Form 5500, Discrimination Testing, ADP/ACP, Top Heavy, Amending your plan to help ensure it complies with continually developing IRS and DOL Rules.
 
Services provided as needed
·         Participant distributions: Defined contribution distributions, Hardship distributions, Qualified Domestic Relations Order (QDRO) distributions
  • Participant loans: Initial set up, Maintenance for the life of the loan
·         Additional work with auditors related to the Form 5500 for plans with more than 100 participants
  • Corrections made due to failed discrimination tests
  • Reallocation of forfeiture
  • Allocation of annual profit sharing or match contribution
  • Cross-tested calculations
  • Non-standard definition of compensation
Compliance Testing: Compliance testing and non-discrimination testing for tax qualified defined contribution plans, help ensure that plan sponsors are following the rules and laws set forth by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and the Department of Labor. Compliance tests help verify that funds are being allocated properly and in a timely manner. Non-discrimination tests help ensure that all eligible employees in a company have been afforded the same opportunity to participate in the plan. The consequences for plans sponsors that are not in compliance, intentionally or not, are severe and could include heavy civil or criminal penalties imposed by the IRS or the DOL. 
 
Government Reporting: Plan sponsors (employers) are required to file an annual return, or report, with the Federal government called a Form 5500 Annual Return/Report of Employee Benefit Plan. Form 5500 is designed to disclose information about the plan and its operation to the Department of Labor (DOL), the plan’s participants, and to the public. Form 5500 is part of the Summary Annual Report that is a required component of a tax qualified retirement plan. The Summary Annual Report must be provided to all plan participants free of charge and no later than 9 months after the close of the plan year, although a two months extension is available if DOL Form 5500 is on extension