Actuaries Unlimited, Inc. Breaking News

     

Actuaries Unlimited, Inc. Acquires Los Angeles Based Pension Firm

     

by Christina Millette on November 1, 2018

Actuaries Unlimited, Inc. (“AUI”), a leading retirement planning firm, announced today that it has acquired the assets of PRB Administrators Incorporated (“PRB”), A Summit Consolidated Group Company.

Founded in the 1970s, PRB, a recognized leader in its field, has provided third party pension plan administration and consulting services to thousands of Defined Benefit and Profit Sharing/401(k) retirement plan sponsors within and around Southern California. The company had achieved the highest-level of proficiency in the retirement plan industry led by managing Actuary, Tom Munson, MSPA, who will be joining AUI.

Mindy Gassman & E. Mark Fishman, Shareholders of AUI, said, “Actuaries Unlimited, Inc. is delighted to combine our nearly fifty year legacy with the nearly fifty year legacy of PRB Administrators. We are thrilled to be growing our company and clientele, and look forward to continuing our mission to be the most creative plan design team in the business. PRB is a great addition to our company from both a business and geographic standpoint. We are also pleased to welcome Tom to the team as our seventh in-house actuary.”

Tom added, “This acquisition provides a major growth opportunity for both our businesses to unite our strong knowledge, advance our technical resources and expand our service capacity for our 700+ clients. AUI’s mission aligns with PRB’s to ensure that plan sponsors have the appropriate tools to develop and manage their retirement plans. I am proud of the high-quality services we provided to our clients, and look forward to continually serving them with AUI’s excellent and impressive team.”

For more information, please contact Christina Millette.

Christina Millette is an Executive Assistant at Actuaries Unlimited, Inc. (AUI). With her Bachelor’s degree from UCSB in Business Economics with an Accounting Emphasis, Christina started with AUI in 2016 and has grown within the company. She helped facilitate the PRB acquisition and wears many hats as the in-house IT technician, event planner, recruiter, marketing and social media guru, and office spirit. You name it, Christina can do it!  She is a principal cultivator to AUI’s company culture and has helped foster camaraderie within the company. Christina prides herself on being resourceful and doing what it takes to get the job done well.

When she is not juggling her many faceted job responsibilities, she enjoys spending time with her family and friends, attending events, exploring rooftops, drinking Aperol spritzes and listening/dancing/singing to Taylor Swift. Christina lives in Santa Monica with her pet cat, Rondo.

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Actuaries Unlimited, Inc. Breaking News

     

New Partner Named at

Actuaries Unlimited, Inc.

      

Actuaries Unlimited, Inc. welcomes newest Partner, Erin Russell

     

by Christina Millette on June 26, 2018

Actuaries Unlimited, Inc. (“AUI”), the go-to retirement planning firm based in Encino, California, is pleased to announce the continued growth of our firm and welcome its newest Partner, Erin Russell, effective June 4, 2018. Erin has been with the firm since 2001. A graduate of Pepperdine University with a degree in Business Administration and Management, Erin has been with AUI for seventeen years working her way up from assistant, to administrator turned actuary, to Director of Administration, and now Partner. Erin is actively involved in various professional organizations and is an Enrolled Actuary, a Certified Pension Consultant, a Qualified Pension Administrator, and a member of the American Society of Pension Professionals & Actuaries.

“We are so pleased to announce that Erin Russell, one of our Enrolled Actuaries who has been with Actuaries Unlimited, Inc. for her entire career, is now a Partner of the firm. She always goes above and beyond and is a tremendous asset to our clients and the firm. We are proud to call her our Partner.”                                  – Mindy Gassman & Mark Fishman

In addition to her technical experience, Erin challenges the pension administrators at AUI to rise to new heights in education and industry experience through mentoring and leading numerous continuing education workshops.

A native to Los Angeles, Erin currently resides in Redondo Beach with her husband Justin and their two children.

Christina Millette is an Executive Assistant at Actuaries Unlimited, Inc. (AUI). With her Bachelor’s degree from UCSB in Business Economics with an Accounting Emphasis, Christina started with AUI in 2016 and has grown within the company. She helped facilitate the PRB acquisition and wears many hats as the in-house IT technician, event planner, recruiter, marketing and social media guru, and office spirit. You name it, Christina can do it!  She is a principal cultivator to AUI’s company culture and has helped foster camaraderie within the company. Christina prides herself on being resourceful and doing what it takes to get the job done well.

When she is not juggling her many faceted job responsibilities, she enjoys spending time with her family and friends, attending events, exploring rooftops, drinking Aperol spritzes and listening/dancing/singing to Taylor Swift. Christina lives in Santa Monica with her pet cat, Rondo.

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Actuaries Unlimited, Inc. Quarterly Digest

      

Small Businesses Still Need Retirement Plans

       

by E. Mark Fishman, Enrolled Actuary, MSPA, FCA, MAAA on June 23, 2017

You may be thinking; I have a small business, so why would I consider having a qualified retirement plan for my company? It costs money to set up and administer, and I may have to include some of my employees. Well, it makes perfect sense to have one in place. If your company is profitable, then why wouldn’t you want to consider a retirement plan? It will not only allow you to take taxable profit each year and contribute some or all of it to a retirement plan, it will also defer taxes to future years when you will really need it to live on once you retire.

Let’s face it. It’s difficult to save even if you are in a high earning tax bracket. Most of us live close to our means (and many of us go beyond that), and the more we make the more we spend. It takes lots of discipline to put away a large part of our net income after paying the essentials. Of course for many of us, the essentials can be quite large. We like to have vacations, drive nice cars and send our children to pricey private schools, which can be very expensive and almost as costly as college tuition (and sometimes more). So with our children going to post-graduate school, living at home and either not working or earning low salaries, there are lots of expenses that we parents have today which prior generations did not. Life is expensive and the more we make the costlier it gets.

So, why a retirement plan? Well, a retirement plan has many advantages. First, if your earned income is large enough, you can contribute as much as $54,000 – $60,000 (pre-tax) in a Defined Contribution Plan (401(k), Profit Sharing Plan, etc.). For those really high earners, this might help but may not be enough. With a Defined Benefit Pension Plan, you can possibly contribute up to $200,000 – $250,000 (pre-tax)  in a single year.

Say you live in California and your business net profit is $600,000 a year. As you can see from Table 1, more than 40% of your income is going to Uncle Sam.

Tax Type	Marginal Tax Rate	Effective Tax Rate	Tax Amount
Federal	39.60%	28.91%	$173,454
FICA	2.35%	3.27%	$19,611
State	12.30%	9.86%	$59,151
Total Income After Taxes			$252,216
Income After Taxes			$347,784

Table 1

With a Defined Benefit Pension Plan, contributing $200,000 in a single year can save you more than $90,000 in taxes. Take a look at Table 2 – Instead of reporting $600,000 in income, you would be reporting $400,000, thus saving nearly $100,000 in taxes. So not only are you saving money, the $200,000 you contributed to your Defined Benefit Plan would continue to grow each year.

Tax Type	Marginal Tax Rate	Effective Tax Rate	Tax Amount
Federal	33.00%	27.05%	$108,199
FICA	2.35%	3.73%	$14,.911
State	11.30%	9.02%	$36,075
Total Income Taxes			$159,186
Income After Taxes			$240,814

Table 2

An annual contribution to a company sponsored qualified retirement plan is a forced savings each year that will grow. The growth is in a tax deferred investment vehicle, so it will not be immediately taxed. This compound effect will accelerate growth over time so you end up with a much greater sum of funds at retirement than if you just saved after tax money. This is another major advantage of having funds in a qualified retirement plan.

Here is another important aspect of a company retirement plan. No one ever plans on getting sued or filing for bankruptcy, but sometimes unfortunate and unexpected events happen to us. The funds in a retirement plan, where there are non-owner employees, are considered to be in an ERISA covered plan. This type of plan is protected from creditors in the event of filing a bankruptcy or in a lawsuit. When there are non-owner employees who have benefits in a company’s retirement plan, all assets in such a plan are considered “asset protected.”  Even the owners’ funds, which may be as high as over 90% of the funds in the plan, are protected. In fact, a qualified retirement plan may still have limited asset protection when there are no non-owner employees.

I have worked with many clients over the years that have had a retirement plan for their businesses. To their surprise, their retirement plan accumulated to over $1 million, $2 million, $3 million or more. They have told me that without a retirement plan, they would have never been able to save that kind of money and that their retirement plan ended up becoming a major part (if not their only part) of their retirement income. It has had a tremendous impact on their retirement lives and how they plan to live in their golden years. They will be able to enjoy their retirement and live the same lifestyle as they did when they were in their income earning years, but with much more time to enjoy it.  So, I ask you, what’s wrong with that?

Mark Fishman is an owner and an Enrolled Actuary at Actuaries Unlimited, Inc (AUI). With his Bachelor’s degree from UCLA and Master’s degree from Loyola Marymount University, both in Mathematics, Mark started with AUI in 1982 and has been a partner for more than 20 years. He is a principal contributor to AUI’s professional relationships and has fostered the expansion of their client base through unmatched service to their clients and industry partners. Mark prides himself on developing strong professional relationships, being a creative actuary and producing the most competitive results in the business.

In addition to running a business, Mark also lectures for CPA and CFP Continuing Education Seminars and Conferences. When he is not fostering an industry-wide reputation as a go to expert in retirement plans, he enjoys attending sporting events, drinking wine and listening to the Beatles. Mark has two grown sons and lives in Sherman Oaks with his partner, Carrie.

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Actuaries Unlimited, Inc. Monthly Digest

    

Real Estate in a Qualified Retirement Plan

     

by Mindy Gassman, Enrolled Actuary, MSPA, CPC, MAAA on January 19, 2017

A qualified retirement plan may hold assets in the form of real estate. Owning real estate in a retirement plan can seem cumbersome initially. Before making a real estate purchase you should be aware of the following rules:

• The plan document must allow the plan to purchase real estate with existing plan assets.
• The plan may not purchase, sell, exchange or lease the real estate to a party in interest.
• The plan may not pay commissions or management fees to a party in interest.
• Income derived from a debt-financed property will generate Unrelated Business Taxable Income (UBTI).

Upon the purchase of real estate, other rules take effect.  Below are some guidelines to follow during the lifetime of the plan when maintaining real estate. These guidelines will help to avoid any prohibited transactions which would jeopardize the plan’s qualified status: Continue reading →

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