FreeERISA offers several databases that can help you identify companies in your market that offer qualified retirement plans.
One of them is "Top Hat Plans," which are unfunded deferred compensation plans that are required to declare their existence in a public filing. (These plans are not required to file a report annually.)
So, while you can't usually tell from FreeERISA data whether or not a company in your market offers non-qualified benefits for a select group of key executives, it's a good idea to ask about these plans as you prospect. Among companies with 50 or more employees, you may find that a significant number offer either a non-qualified deferred compensation (NQDC) program or a Supplemental Executive Retirement Program (SERP). When you can serve both a company's qualified plan and also its non-qualified executive plan, you will increase your revenue potential and time efficiency in selling and servicing accounts.
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In an NQDC, executives typically agree to defer part of their pay in exchange for promised future benefits. In a SERP, the employer and executive agree to future benefits that will be paid to the executive (typically in retirement or at death), often based on the executive's service continuity and performance.
NQDCs and SERPs differ from qualified retirement plans in two important ways: 1) they may discriminate in favor of highly-paid employees and key managers; 2) they are more likely to be funded with life insurance.
Along with Corporate Owned Life Insurance (COLI) and "split-dollar plans," these programs have become important sources of business for life insurance companies and agents. COLI is sometimes used to provide funding for NQDCs and SERPs. Split-dollar is an arrangement under which an executive receives life insurance coverage and benefits, while the company typically pays premiums and then recovers those premiums at death or payout.
While there are many issues in qualified retirement plans that you can discuss with companies in your market, you also can make them aware of important developments affecting COLI, split-dollar NQDCs and SERPs.
In qualified plans, you have plenty of "good news" to report such as higher contribution limits and increased benefit formulas.
This presents an opportunity to help companies in your market "sort the wheat from the chaff" and then make decisions or changes.
The best way to help companies in your market address specific concerns about these plans is to team up with an expert, such as a benefits consultant or tax attorney.
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