The Harvest · Cash Balance + 401(k)
Your 401(k) may only be the first layer.
A 401(k) caps yearly contributions at $72,000 ($80,000 from age 50; $83,250 at 60 to 63) regardless of income. A cash-balance pension is a second, separate bucket whose yearly capacity is set largely by your age, because the law caps the ending, not the saving. At late-fifties ages, the extra amount an owner can put away pre-tax often exceeds $200,000 per owner per year. It runs higher above that age and lower below it, and the exact figure depends on your team's ages and pay.
The layer sits on top of the 401(k) and is fully deductible. An enrolled actuary certifies it every year, and that certification is included in our fee. These capacities are illustrations, not entitlements. Your actual number depends on age, compensation, workforce demographics and the actuarial assumptions used. We need employee ages and compensation to calculate it, and we do that before you commit to anything.
Worked example · Age 56
A 56-year-old owner funding nine years to a practice sale can roll roughly $2m+ into an IRA, untaxed at rollover. The contributions are deducted at peak rates and withdrawn at retirement rates. Florida adds no state tax on either end.
What $200,000 could mean for one owner
Using $200,000 of additional pre-tax contribution capacity in the owner's own retirement assets, through a cash-balance plan alongside the existing 401(k), defers about $74,000 of current federal tax this year. All of it is invested pre-tax and taxed later, when withdrawn. Illustrative only, at a 37% owner marginal rate; the exact contribution depends on owner and employee demographics and actuarial design.
This isn't a one-year tax trick.
This is a multi-year funding commitment, sized to your practice's worst plausible year - not its best. It includes employee funding. If your cash flow doesn't support it, we'll tell you, and design smaller or not at all.
We never touch the money.
Custodians and recordkeepers hold it; we do design, testing and filings.
Fee: $7,500–9,500/yr flat
Actuary's certification included. Flat fees. No asset charges. No revenue sharing.
Set against deductible capacity that often exceeds $200,000 per owner per year at late-fifties ages. And as the plan grows, the fee doesn't.
Capacity figures are approximate and age-dependent. Your figures come from your census. Not legal or tax advice.
What happens next
We spend 20 minutes reviewing whether the opportunity could work for your practice.
Your CPA is welcome. If the numbers make sense, the next step is a $2,000 flat-fee design study using your actual workforce data.
If the numbers don't work, we'll tell you.