Two pay scales, one plan document.
Your census splits sharply — a small group of partners and principals earning multiples of the associates and administrative staff below them. That gap is precisely what nondiscrimination testing exists to catch.
We design around it: cross-tested allocations by class, safe harbor structures that neutralize ADP and ACP testing, and a cash balance layer for partners in their peak earning decade. Owner-level deductions without capping what the rest of the firm can save.
Four things a professional-services plan has to do.
Deferrals, cross-tested profit sharing, and a paired cash balance plan can move a partner well past six figures of pre-tax savings.
A visible, competitive match is one of the few benefits that reads as real to a mid-level associate weighing an outside offer.
As 3(38) investment fiduciary we own the lineup and the documentation — not the managing partner or the firm administrator.
Guaranteed payments, K-1 income, draws, and bonuses each get treated correctly in the plan document and in testing.
Where professional-services plans go wrong.
The same four issues surface in nearly every partnership plan we benchmark.
When partner accounts exceed 60% of plan assets, minimum contributions to staff become mandatory. That should be planned for, not discovered.
Low associate participation forces refunds back to partners every spring. Safe harbor design ends the annual scramble.
Partner compensation for plan purposes is not the number on the K-1. Getting the definition wrong invalidates the allocation.
A management company alongside an operating partnership often forms a controlled group that must be tested as one employer.
The levers we pull for partnerships.
Separate allocation rates by class — equity partners, non-equity, staff — tested on projected benefits rather than contributions.
A nonelective or enhanced match removes ADP and ACP testing and settles the top-heavy question in one move.
For a partner over 45 with stable firm profits, a paired cash balance plan is the largest deduction available.
Testing the whole controlled group before the IRS does.
Firms with a management company, an operating partnership, and a separate real-estate entity are frequently one controlled group for plan purposes. We map controlled-group and affiliated-service-group status at the design stage, so allocations still hold up years later when the firm restructures or a partner leaves.
From first call to a plan that runs itself.
Partners get modeling. Staff get a guide.
We model every partner’s contribution and deduction individually before the plan year starts, and every employee — associate to front desk — can meet with our team at no cost.
See how we support participantsOther industries we serve.
See what your partners could shelter.
Send a census and your current plan documents and we’ll model partner-level contributions, staff cost, and testing outcomes.