• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to footer

Castle Rock Investment Company

Independent Guide, Trusted Partner.

  • Home
  • About Us
    • Our Team
    • Community Involvement
    • Our Commitment to You
  • Services
    • Individual Financial Planning
    • Qualified Plan Services
  • Education
    • Employee Education
    • Fiduciary Training
  • Blog
  • Contact Us

Services

Retirement Savings… Are You on Track?

September 21, 2016 by admin

By Mack Bekeza

Retirement savings… that thing you are supposed to live off of when you no longer want to work. Although people seem to talk about it frequently, most people do not realize how important it is to actually save for retirement. In fact, there are numerous statistics that show how little people save for it. For instance, 40% of working Americans are currently not saving for retirement at all. And on top of that, 80% of Americans ages 30-54 believe that they will not have enough saved for retirement.

So, how come Americans do not save for or are not confident about retirement? For starters, many believe that saving for retirement is not worth it because they can just rely on Social Security. However, what most people do not realize is that Social Security was meant to supplement retirement, not completely fulfill 100% of a retiree’s needs. And, if you fall into a higher income bracket, Social Security will only cover a small fraction of your income. Another reason people fail to save for retirement is because many families live above their means, meaning that they typically spend more money than they make. This also explains why many people lack sufficient emergency funds.

So, are you on track when it comes to retirement savings? First, do you know how much you need save to support 70-85% of your current income in retirement? If you do not, J.P Morgan offers a Retirement Savings Check Point. If you are surprised as to how much you need to have saved, consult with a Financial Advisor, such as Castle Rock Investment Company, to discuss what is an appropriate savings rate for you and how to get there!

Although the idea of saving for retirement can be quite intimidating, the need to have sufficient savings is becoming more and more crucial as the cost of living and reaching important goals are increasing every year.

© 2016 Castle Rock Investment Company. All rights reserved. Please share your insights with us at mack@castlerockinvesting.com or via phone at 303-719-7523

Filed Under: 401K, Advice, Blog, Castle Rock Investment Company, Mack Bekeza, Personal Finance, Retirement Plans, Roth Accounts, Services, Uncategorized Tagged With: 401k, budgeting, Emergency Savings Account, IRA, JPMorgan, money, retirement, roth, saving, Social Security

The DOL Rule and Why Brokers and Insurance Agents Should be Concerned

September 7, 2016 by admin

By Mack Bekeza

Are you currently a Registered Representative or an Insurance agent? If so, you will want to keep reading!

As you may know, the Department of Labor will have new regulations in effect on April 10, 2017, which will change how Brokers and Insurance agents conduct business with retirement investors.

For starters, when dealing with retirement investors, the broker or insurance agent cannot receive variable compensation. This means that someone receiving commissions, asset based fees, 12b-1 fees, etc. must create a uniform method of compensation.

Additionally, any investment recommendations must be in the retirement investor’s best interest, meaning that the agent or broker must have a thorough understanding of the client’s overall financial picture and cannot just rely on FINRA’s suitability standards.

Finally, if you still want to receive variable forms of compensation, you must be able to comply with something called the Best Interest Contract Exemption, aka the “BICE.” And, in order to truly comply, you have to be certain that recommending a product that will pay you variable compensation is in the retirement investor’s best interest.

The major caveat with complying with the BICE is that even though the client is fully aware of how you are compensated, if he or she believes the product is not their best interest, he or she can file a lawsuit against you. In other words, you can still sell commission based products, but don’t expect the BICE to bail you out if you are sued!

So, who is considered to be a retirement investor? To make this simple, do you sell or make investment recommendations for the following accounts?

  • ERISA governed Retirement Plans (with less than $50 million)
  • Non-ERISA Retirement Plans (e.g., Keogh, Solo Plans)
  • IRAs
  • Health Savings Accounts, Archer MSAs, and Coverdell ESAs

If you fall into one of these categories, you will want to seek advice on where to go from here! If you reside in the Greater Denver Area, Castle Rock Investment Company and The Law Offices of Ed Frado, LLC are hosting an event to educate Brokers and Insurance Agents on the details of the new DOL regulation on September 20th at Maggiano’s in the Denver Tech Center. If you would like to register, click here

We hope to see you at the event!

© Castle Rock Investment Company. All rights reserved. Please share your insights with us at info@castlerockinvesting.com or via phone at 303-719-7523

Filed Under: 401K, Blog, Castle Rock Investment Company, Department of Labor, ERISA, Fiduciary, Industry News, Legislation, Plan Administrator, Retirement Plans, Roth Accounts, Seminars, Services, Uncategorized Tagged With: #SaveOurRetirement, 401k, DOL, ERISA, Fiduciary, HSA, investing, IRA, retirement, roth

Risk Management: Employee Retirement Plans

January 23, 2015 by admin

Risk ManagementCastle Rock jumps through hoops to be among the best investment advisors. Not every investment advisor goes through the same rigorous training because these hoops are not legally required. We do not think that making best practices a legal requirement will diminish our status as one of the best firms around, but we do think that selecting an investment advisor should be less risky for Plan Sponsors.

You are supposed to be careful of sales pitches that avoid using the term “fiduciary” but stress “education” instead, because those are not interchangeable services. The difference between these services would be like exchanging accounting for bookkeeping services, or medicine with surgery, or heads with tails in a coin toss. Providing education does not negate a need for a fiduciary; rather, a fiduciary investment advisor should be around for cases where education does not meet the plan’s needs, and an expert opinion is necessary.

How confident are we that Castle Rock is the place to turn? We are the best retirement investment advisor around. You can check our About Us section to be sure, or better yet Contact Us.

Our qualifications exceed all of these expectations, but you may want to check to see if your own advisor is able to eliminate some of the risks to you as a plan sponsor[1]:

  1. At least 50% of assets under management in qualified retirement plans (ours are 99%);
  2. Has an Accredited Investment Fiduciary™ or similar designation;
  3. SEC Registered Investment Advisor (RIA);
  4. Make sure your advisor has been working in the industry for at least a decade;
  5. Get a fee agreement that clearly states how the fees will be charged; and
  6. Make sure that fiduciary status is in writing.

To show your support for conflict-free advice in all retirement plans, please sign the petition here at: http://www.thepetitionsite.com/414/401/760/tell-washington-to-stand-up-to-wall-street/

 

Michele L. Suriano, Accredited Investment Fiduciary™, is president of Castle Rock Investment Company, a woman-owned SEC registered investment advisory firm serving qualified retirement plans. www.CastleRockInvesting.com

Filed Under: 401K, Advice, Blog, Castle Rock Investment Company, Department of Labor, ERISA, Fiduciary, Industry News, Michele Suriano, Plan Administrator, Retirement Plans, SEC, Services, Uncategorized Tagged With: Accredited Investment Fiduciary, Advice, Castle Rock, Castle Rock Investment Company, Department of Labor, Experienced Investment Advice, Fiduciary, Michele Suriano, Phyllis Borzi, Plan Administrator, Plan Sponsor, Registered Investment Advisor, retirement advice loophole, Retirement Industry, Retirement Plan, Risk, Save Our Retirement, workplace retirement plans

In-plan Roth Rollovers: the latest topic

December 3, 2014 by admin

Get out your red pen, folks: serious revisions to the rollover options for your plan. Today we’re looking at how you will need to revise your Plan Document in order to offer in-plan Roth rollovers and a few highlights.

In-plan Roth rollovers of otherwise non-distributable amounts are treated as eligible rollovers, meaning that no withholding applies. Since this amount is not distributable, no part of the rollover may be withheld for voluntary withholding. An employee making an in-plan Roth rollover may need to increase his or her withholding or make estimated tax payments to avoid an underpayment penalty. Concerning the rollover process, here is a critical section to know from IRS Notice 2014-74:

 

If you do a rollover to a designated Roth account in the Plan

You cannot roll over a distribution to a designated Roth account in another employer’s plan. However, you can roll the distribution over into a designated Roth account in the distributing Plan. If you roll over a payment from the Plan to a designated Roth account in the Plan, the amount of the payment rolled over (reduced by any after-tax amounts directly rolled over) will be taxed. However, the 10% additional tax on early distributions will not apply (unless you take the amount rolled over out of the designated Roth account within the 5-year period that begins on January 1 of the year of the rollover).

If you roll over the payment to a designated Roth account in the Plan, later payments from the designated Roth account that are qualified distributions will not be taxed (including earnings after the rollover)…

Remember, if you’re making revisions to your Plan Document, then Best Practices direct you to get an ERISA attorney, and make sure you’re fulfilling your fiduciary responsibility.

 

Katherine Brown is a Research Associate at Castle Rock Investment Company with a Master’s degree in Global Finance, Trade, and Economic Integration from the University of Denver. She can be reached at Katherine@castlerockinvesting.com.

Filed Under: 401K, Advice, Blog, ERISA, Fiduciary, Industry News, IRS, Katherine Brown, Roth Accounts, Services, Uncategorized Tagged With: Advice, Auditor, Best Practices, Castle Rock Investment Company, Discussions, ERISA, ERISA attorney, Fiduciary, In-Plan Rollovers, In-Plan Roth Rollovers, Internal Revenue Service, IRS, IRS Notice 2014-74, Katherine Brown, Plan Document, Plan Sponsor, Retirement Plan Compliance, Roth IRA, Roth Rollovers, Tax, workplace retirement plans

How May I Help You?

November 13, 2014 by admin

Castle Rock is dedicated to making retirement transition easy for you. One of the best ways to do that is to be with you in retirement transition and throughout the different stages of your retirement. We are excited to announce that we will soon offer a Retirement Transition Service to ease the retirement process for individuals, and to provide our clients with the piece of mind that all participants are taken care of.

Because we want you to have a part in how we build this new service, please reach out to me at Katherine@CastleRockInvesting.com with your comments and goals for retirement. We will try to incorporate as much as we can into the best service for you.

Stay tuned as we introduce the details of this program!

Filed Under: 401K, Advice, Blog, Castle Rock Investment Company, Fiduciary, Katherine Brown, Michele Suriano, Retirement Plans, Retirement Transition Service, Services, Uncategorized Tagged With: Advice, Castle Rock Investment Company, Excess contributions, Fiduciary, Highly-compensated employees, Income Solutions, Katherine Brown, retirement, Retirement Plan, Retirement Planning, Retirement Transition, Retirement Transition Service, workplace retirement plans

Footer

About Us

Castle Rock Investment Company, formed in 2006, is an independent woman-owned SEC-registered investment adviser located in Castle Rock, Colorado. We specialize in individual financial plans and qualified service plans.

Sign up to hear about events:

From the Blog

State Farm and Edward Jones React to the Fiduciary Rule

By Mack Bekeza With April 10th, 2017 quickly approaching, a large number of investment firms and insurance agencies are scrambling to comply with the DOL fiduciary regulation. However, some firms believe they have found a solution to the upcoming rule. Knowing that their representatives cannot put their clients’ interest first, State Farm and Edward Jones […]

  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • Facebook
  • YouTube

© Copyright 2006-2017 · Castle Rock Investment Company · All Rights Reserved