Employer Benefits Builder

Step 1 of 6 • Your business

Start with the company.

We use this to narrow the types of employer programs that may be worth reviewing.

* Required before continuing

Company name * *

Your name * *

Title

Work email * *

Phone

Business type

Total employees * *

How many employees earned at least $5,000 last year? *

Used to screen potential federal small-employer credits.

What is your approximate total annual payroll for employees who would be eligible for the plan? *

$

Do you already have a retirement plan for employees?

In the last 3 tax years, did the business have a retirement plan covering substantially the same employees? *

This matters because the federal startup and employer-contribution credits have special prior-plan rules. If you are unsure, choose Not sure and we will verify it.

How many people own the business?

Years in business

A few quick questions help us avoid showing you plans that clearly do not fit. Estimates are fine. We use these only to narrow the options for your business.

About how old is the primary owner or owner group? *

Age differences between owners and employees can affect whether advanced contribution designs are worth testing.

About how old is the typical employee? *

An estimate is enough. This helps us decide whether age-sensitive plan designs deserve a closer look.

Are business profits and cash flow usually steady from year to year? *

Plans with larger required employer funding generally fit stable businesses better than businesses with unpredictable cash flow.

Is maximizing owner retirement savings an important goal? *

This helps us decide whether to show advanced profit-sharing or pension-style options in addition to a standard employee plan.

We automatically consider the full opportunity set. You do not need to decide whether retirement benefits, tax incentives, owner planning, recruiting/retention, key-employee benefits, business protection or succession planning are “useful.” We screen all of them and only carry forward the ones that fit your company.

Step 2 of 6 • Employer contribution

Choose the budget you are comfortable exploring.

This is not a commitment. Tell us what feels affordable. We use that number to build around your budget instead of handing you a plan and telling you what it costs.

* Required before continuing

Plain English: Employees can save their own money from each paycheck. You decide whether the company also puts money in, how much you want to explore, and whether that company money is a match or another contribution formula.

How do you want to set the budget?

How much of payroll would you consider contributing?

%

Illustrative percentage only; actual formulas depend on plan design.

How much flexibility do you want in what the company contributes each year?

PredictableBest when stable budgeting matters most.

Pros: Easier to forecast, communicate and budget. Can pair well with designs where the employer intentionally commits to a defined contribution formula.

Tradeoff: Some designs that create more certainty or testing advantages can also create required employer contributions or less freedom to reduce contributions in a difficult year.

BalancedGood starting point for many employers.

Pros: Gives employees a meaningful benefit while asking the plan team to preserve reasonable year-to-year flexibility where the rules allow it.

Tradeoff: The exact annual cost may be less certain than a fixed formula, and plan testing or other rules can affect the final contribution.

FlexibleBest when cash flow changes from year to year.

Pros: Prioritizes discretionary contribution designs so a strong year can support more and a lean year can support less, where permitted.

Tradeoff: Less predictable for employees and owners, and maximum flexibility can reduce the value of some safe-harbor/testing strategies or other design advantages.

Why not always choose Predictable? Predictability is valuable, but it can come at the price of commitment. A business with seasonal revenue, rapid growth, uncertain profits or cyclical cash flow may prefer flexibility. We will compare the options before anything is implemented.

Would you consider matching some of what employees save?

Automatically enroll employees unless they opt out? *

Certain eligible small employers may qualify for a $500 annual federal auto-enrollment credit for three years.

About how many eligible employees are regular employees rather than highly paid owners/executives? *

An estimate is fine. This helps screen the startup-cost credit; the plan professional confirms the IRS definition later.

How many employees earning $105,000 or less would receive a company contribution? *

Enter 0 if the company would not contribute for any employees. Zero is a valid answer. This is used only to screen the employer-contribution credit.

Do you employ any military spouses who may participate in the plan? *

If No, we skip the military-spouse questions. If Yes, we ask only what is needed to screen the special federal credit.

A “no scheduled employer contribution” preference does not mean every plan will cost the employer $0. Plan administration/investment fees may exist, and testing, top-heavy, safe-harbor or other plan rules can affect required employer contributions. The review team will confirm actual costs before implementation.

Next: your incentive snapshot. We collect the credit-screen information here so the next page is already populated instead of showing $0 simply because a question was unanswered.

Step 3 of 6 • Potential incentives

See the federal incentives your answers may put on the table.

You gave us the information needed for a preliminary screen before arriving here. Eligible opportunities are shown as dollar amounts or potential ceilings. Items needing professional verification are labeled for review instead of showing a misleading $0.

Credit vs. deduction: a tax credit generally reduces tax liability dollar-for-dollar, while a deduction reduces taxable income. The same startup expense generally cannot be both deducted and used for the startup-cost credit. Employer retirement-plan contributions can generally be deductible subject to tax-code limits.

Step 4 of 6 • Program design

Your preliminary program menu.

These are strategies to review—not product recommendations. Final plan selection depends on census data, testing, tax/legal review, provider pricing and plan documents.

* Required before plan options are revealed

We only show plan types that fit what you have told us so far. Answer these last design questions so we can hide obvious mismatches. Click any plan we show to see how it works, why it may fit, tradeoffs, employer obligations, employee impact, and what we would verify next.

How much employer funding could the business comfortably support in a strong year?

$

This is not a commitment. It helps determine whether higher-contribution designs are worth showing.

Would the business be comfortable with a required employer contribution if it created meaningful plan advantages? *

Some plan designs exchange flexibility for testing advantages or greater contribution capacity.

Are most employees full-time and expected to stay with the company? *

Workforce stability can affect eligibility design, participation, administration, and which plan structures are practical.

Is the organization a government/public employer? *

Government employers can have plan choices that private businesses do not.

Optional features to ask the plan team about

Employee education & enrollment supportInclude employee meetings/education as part of implementation.

Explore Roth contribution optionAsk the plan team whether Roth salary deferrals fit the selected design.

Explore student-loan matchingAsk whether matching qualified student-loan payments is appropriate and available.

Explore emergency-savings featuresAsk whether an eligible pension-linked emergency savings feature is available.

Step 5 of 6 • Business protection

Anything beyond the employee retirement plan?

National Life Group also has business-owner and executive-benefit strategies. These are separate from the qualified retirement plan.

How many employees would be especially difficult or expensive to replace?

Would you like to offer extra benefits to a few key employees?

If an owner leaves or dies, is money/insurance already set aside to buy their share?

Would the business lose meaningful revenue if an owner or key employee died?

Is the business taxed as a C corporation?

If No, we skip the retained-earnings question because it is not relevant to this screen.

How would you prefer plan fees to be handled?

Company pays more of the plan fees

Pros: Employees keep more of their account assets invested; the benefit can feel more employer-sponsored; some employer-paid plan expenses may receive business-expense tax treatment subject to tax review.

Tradeoff: Higher direct company expense and another budget item to manage.

Participants pay more through their accounts

Pros: Lower direct company cash expense and can make the plan easier for the employer to budget.

Tradeoff: Fees reduce participant account balances and investment returns over time; fee reasonableness and disclosure still matter.

Share appropriate fees

Pros: Balances company cost with participant impact. The employer can choose to absorb selected administrative costs while other permitted costs remain in the plan.

Tradeoff: More moving pieces to explain and compare. We need an all-in fee schedule showing who pays each charge.

Important: Fee preference does not change the employer's fiduciary duty to evaluate whether plan fees are reasonable. The final provider proposal should show every material fee, who pays it, and what service is received.

We will show actual plan/provider fees before implementation. “Zero fee” is never assumed: retirement plans can have administration, recordkeeping, investment and individual-service expenses, and ERISA requires plan fiduciaries to evaluate whether plan expenses are reasonable.

Step 6 of 6 • Review

Review your tailor-made draft.

Submitting sends your selections to JDSC for professional review. It does not establish a plan, purchase a product, authorize payroll deductions or create a binding agreement.

Anything else we should know?

I understand this is a preliminary request for review and not tax, legal, fiduciary, investment or insurance advice. Final costs, tax benefits, eligibility and plan design must be confirmed before implementation. Email me a copy of my submitted draft, if available.

Build a benefits program around your business.