Pass-Through Tax Reform Impact on Small Businesses May Be Mitigated via Roth

The American Retirement Association says that tax reform could be a disincentive for small businesses to offer retirement plans; however, as one reader shares, there are counter considerations having to do with Roth 401(k) options that could mitigate some of the concern.

This week the American Retirement Association (ARA) issued a warning about the Congressional tax reform proposals’ potential impact on small business retirement plans, warning that certain features of the proposed tax reforms in the House and Senate could reduce independent business owners’ incentives for offering retirement benefits. 

The basic argument is that small business owners’ distributions from their 401(k) plans would potentially be taxed at the 35% individual income rate in the future, rather than the lower qualified business income tax rate of 27% allowed for under the Senate Finance Committee bill. Thus, rather than structure income for the future through a tax-qualified retirement plan, a small business owner may simply opt to collect the income today at the so-called “pass-through” rate. 

Never miss a story — sign up for PLANADVISER newsletters to keep up on the latest retirement plan adviser news.

Responding to this argument, Dave Evans, co-founder of 401ksleuth in Stamford, Connecticut, says the ARA is correct in the broad details of its argument. However, he shares some important caveats. Notably, he says, to propose that small business owners will be in the 35% tax bracket in retirement would mean that they would have to withdraw $424,000 from their retirement savings in a given year. Even if they were in the 28% bracket, they would have to withdraw $238,000 from their savings, Evans says. This category will certainly include many successful small business owners, but it is only a segment of the business owning population. 

“I do not think that the 35% bracket is a fair proxy,” Evans says. “Even if a small business owner had $3 million in their 401(k) plan, if they applied the 4% a year withdrawal rule, they would have annual income of $120,000. Even if you add Social Security benefits, you are not getting to $200,000 in annual income. Instead, it is more likely that many will be in the 25% bracket. And even if they were to sell their business, they would be taxed at a capital gains rate, which is lower than ordinary income.”

Furthermore, unless the small business is truly a mom-and-pop shop, the business is likely to have employees, and like any other business, the company needs to offer a retirement plan to attract people, Evans adds.

Finally, he says, “another mitigating consideration is the plan design opportunity to allow a small business plan sponsor to offer both the regular pre-tax 401(k) deferral option but also offer a Roth 401(k) component.  In that case, a business owner that feels that their pre-retirement tax-bracket is lower than their retirement tax bracket could save significantly more through the 401(k) Roth feature versus a Roth IRA.  The Roth feature would allow them for 2018 to contribute $18,500/$24,500, if age 50 by the end of the year, and receive the distribution tax-free assuming current rules.  This is significantly more than the $5,500/$6,500, if over age 50, for IRAs for 2018. I believe advisers should point this out to clients and potential clients, as some accountants may not be aware of this avenue and may recommend that pass-through clients should not implement a 401(k) plan.”

Top Adviser Teams Practice True Collaboration

More than 60% of advisers say they work within a team structure, yet only one-third of teams regularly collaborate in their daily decisions and processes.

New research from the Investments & Wealth Institute, published in collaboration with Janus Henderson Investors, suggests advisers like to use the terminology of teamwork—but they have less success at forming truly integrated advisory teams.

The firms present their findings in an analysis aptly titled “High-Performing Advisor Teams,” and they identify numerous advantages of working in a team context. Perhaps most importantly, the research seeks to “distinguish factors of the most productive teams.”

Want the latest retirement plan adviser news and insights? Sign up for PLANADVISER newsletters.

Study participants included advisers operating in branch networks (wirehouse and national/regional broker/dealers) and independent channels, including independent broker/dealers, registered investment advisers (RIAs), and hybrid RIAs. As the researchers lay out, teams were ranked by assets under management (AUM) per producing adviser, AUM per total headcount and average client size, and were then segmented into quartiles based on overall performance.

“These factors were crucial representations of an adviser’s ability to attract and retain clients, as well as the team’s overall efficiency, ability to scale its practice and success attracting high-net-worth investors,” researchers explain.

Key findings from the study suggest “truly shared decisionmaking” could be a lost opportunity for many practices. When it comes to the tenets of shared decisionmaking, the researchers point to frequent and detailed communications across all team members. In addition, teams of advisers seem to be better at fostering shared decisionmaking when the constituent members have all moved down the road of complementary specialization—with some team members focused on investing, others on working with clients to manage relationships and set goals, and others focusing on marketing or business development, for example.

The data shows over half of teams in the “top-performing” category hire specialized staff roles, compared to 37% of peer teams overall. Related to this, the top-performing quartile of advisory teams have a broader mix of advanced credentials and are 1.5 times more likely to hold a CIMA or CPWA designation compared to peer firms.

While it is in a sense obvious that adviser teams would, broadly speaking, manage more assets than individual advisers, teaming up seems to allow for excess benefits of scale. For starters, the research shows, the industry’s largest advisers with $100 million or more in individual AUM are more likely to operate in a multi-adviser team context. At the same time, over 60% of advisers with $100 million to $250 million in AUM operate as a team, as do 77% of advisers with $250 million to $500 million in AUM, and 90% of advisers with $500 million or more in AUM.

Specialization and deeper expertise characterize top performing teams

When analyzing top-performing teams, several distinguishing factors emerged with respect to client-facing activities. Notably, top-quartile teams offer an average of 3.8 wealth management services per client, compared to 3.2 for peers. A focus on client service and communication were also components that set successful adviser teams apart, according to the research. Nearly half of top-performing teams hold quarterly in-person review meetings with clients, compared to only 29% of peers.

“Outreach methods played at the forefront for successful advising teams,” the research states. “Responses showed that these successful, high-achieving teams are more likely to leverage proactive marketing and personal relationships help them to find new clients.”

Important to note, the study showed that half of top-quartile teams employ at least one producing junior adviser. At the same time, nearly half of top-quartile teams employ at least one non-producing junior adviser. Additionally, in peer teams, only 27% of advisers nearing retirement are uncertain about their succession, and in hierarchy-based teams with multiple leaders, only 16% of advisers are uncertain about their succession.

Additional findings from the research study, conducted with support from Cerulli Associates, are available here.

«