Your 403(b) Plan: Can You Set It and Forget It? What is Going on With Your 403(b)Plan? Presented by Georgette Geller, ChFC, CLU Executive Vice President AXA Advisors, LLC AGE (5/13) (Exp 5/15) 8/19/2015

 Georgette Geller does not provide legal or tax advice; nor can anything in these materials be used to avoid the payment of income tax or penalties assessed by a US tax authority.  Georgette H. Geller, ChFC, CLU a registered representative and investment advisor representative who offers securities and investment advisory services through AXA Advisors, LLC (NY, NY ), member FINRA/SIPC, and is an agent who offers annuity and insurance products through AXA Network, LLC and/or its insurance agency subsidiaries. AXA Network, LLC does business in California as AXA Network Insurance Agency of California, LLC and, in Utah, as AXA Network Insurance Agency of Utah, LLC. AXA Advisors and AXA Network are affiliated companies and do not provide tax or legal advice. Representatives may transact business, which includes offering products and services and/or responding to inquiries, only in state(s) in which they are properly registered and/or licensed. Your receipt of this does not necessarily indicate that the sender is able to transact business in your state Disclaimer 8/19/2015

Have you put compliance practices in place to comply with the final 403(b) regulations? Final regulations found online, effective January 1, 2009, forced you to quickly adopt a plan document; and put agreements in place so that product providers (or TPAs if you have one) would agree to cooperate with information sharing for compliance purposes. Are you ready for that? Measuring Your 403(b) Plan’s Success 8/19/2015

How many of your employees are participating in your 403(b) plan? If participation rates are low, can you take steps to increase participation? Remember: if your employees save in voluntary plans, the probability is they will retire at normal retirement ages. You can read more about this in a study, “The Difference an Adviser Can Make,” reported in Plan Sponsor, January 16 th If they do not save their own dollars, they may continue working well past retirement age. Is That Enough? 8/19/2015

As communicated by the Association of School Business Officials, if your employees continue to work to advanced ages, more budget dollars are expended for higher salaried long-term employees Participation in voluntary plans help reduce the number of long-term employees working to later ages Budget Issues 8/19/2015

In an interview with Senior Staff Specialists of the IRS Audit Division, Field Examiners are looking at the participation rates of employees! Recent reports where participation was 18-20%, IRS field examiners are asking employers to share their employee education plan. >they appear to be questioning whether “meaningful opportunity” to enroll/make changes is being provided A New Twist In Recent IRS Audits: 8/19/2015

What Should it be? A good 403(b) education plan should include various methods of employee communication: >on line tools (provided by the product providers) for computer savvy self-starters (self-starters are estimated at some 15% of your employees) according to a study from the National Education Association. >financial literacy seminars (including pension plan, social security, and both 403(b) and 457(b) plans) What is Your Education Plan? 8/19/2015

Face to face meetings with financial professionals >based on numerous studies in Plan Sponsor, Benefit News and Financial Planning.com, demonstrating the increased participation rates, improved investment results, larger contribution rates (For copies of some of those studies, just let me know!) Frequent enrollment and change dates to meet life style changes of employees >Once a year is not often enough! Methods to Potentially Increase Participation, Cont. 8/19/2015

Your most-trusted product providers can manage your educational program for you (and, focus on getting your other providers involved), or, Your TPA (if any) can work with you and the product providers to plan and implement your program You or other key administrators can/should communicate the plan to your employees Where Can You Turn for Help? 8/19/2015

Ask payroll personnel to compare the participation rate prior to implementation of the program to the rate at the end of each year of the program If not satisfactory, gather input from the involved parties, implement any needed changes How Can You Measure Success? 8/19/2015

Better management of budget dollars (more to work with) If higher paid employees timely retire, they can be replaced with employees at beginning salaries. Possible improvement in employee perception of your sponsorship of plans for them Fulfillment of the universal availability requirement of providing “meaningful opportunity” to take advantage of your 403(b) plan The Positives of Success 8/19/2015

THANK YOU! Questions? 8/19/2015