Thinking Outside of the 401(k) Box

Want to double the value of your business? Bain Consulting says: work first on building customer loyalty.

The benefits: retain the lifetime value of a customer, reduce customer acquisition cost, reward yourself via higher margins from loyal customers. Customer loyalty is why AT&T, Subway, Nike, and Costco dominate their respective niches.

Who is your single largest customer? If you are a professional services provider, perhaps your most important customers are your own employees. Large hospital systems, for a hypothetical example, find that retaining a single physician specialist brings savings of $250K to $1M versus replacing the doctor.* Reduce turnover by 2% in a 500 doctor setting and the savings could be $5M per year. If your company is worth 10X profit, that is an immediate $50M addition to your enterprise value!

Are you using your corporate retirement plans to foster raving fans that become loyal to your organization? Consider the following five design elements that can help you stand out in the crowd:

1. Do you offer your high performing executives an opportunity to defer their bonuses into their tax- advantaged qualified profit sharing plan?
2. Do you permit your employees to defer way in excess of the 401(K) limits as a way to prepare for retirement through a nonqualified deferred compensation (“NQDC”) plan?
3. Do you offer an incentive match to your corporate retirement plans – so you can share the wealth as the company performs?
4. Do you permit your key employees to dramatically reduce their tax rate on equity or synthetic equity plan via re-deferral arrangements?
5. Do you offer an advanced administrative system aggregating all your plans to increase visibility and employee engagement?

At BOLD Value, we use over 40 strategic incentives to engage and promote loyalty with your most important asset: your people. We customize, design, promote and administer value sharing programs such as:

• Qualified Plans (401(k), ESOP, Qualified Profit Sharing Plans)
• Equity Plans (Restricted stock, employee stock options, SARs)
• Synthetic Equity Plans (Phantom stock, value band plans, change in control plans)
• Direct Cash Plans (NQDC, LTIP, Bonus Plans, lifestyle plans)

Take a fresh look at your retirement plans as a strategic asset, not a cost center. Engage and foster your raving fan employee base to increase your enterprise value along the way.

Please contact us to learn more.

This material is for general use with the public and is designed for informational or educational purposes only. It is not intended as investment advice and is not a recommendation for retirement savings. Lincoln Financial Advisors does not offer legal or tax advice.