1. 4 Steps to Understanding
Retirement Plans
Evaluating its Place in Your Business
David M. Kujawa ChFC®, CFP®

2. About the Author
David Kujawa ChFC®, CFP® works as an innovative
partner alongside executive families and business
owners guiding them to develop and manage respected
financial fitness strategies through his six step pro-
cess—beginning with his 3 Financial Keys: Give, Save
and Spend. Kujawa’s goal is to allow his clients to re-
focus their wealth and, when appropriate, diversify and
build a strategy so that they can focus more on their
families and lives.
Kujawa has been working alongside his corporate and
family clients for over 10 years providing comprehen-
sive Wealth Management and Financial Consulting.
Kujawa has been featured in numerous media outlets
such as CBS, NBC and Chicago’s AM 560 the Answer.
This information was developed as a general guide to educate plan
sponsors, but is not intended as authoritative guidance or tax or legal
advice. Each plan has unique requirements, and you should consult your
attorney or tax advisor for guidance on your specific situation. In no way
does advisor assure that, by using the information provided, plan sponsor
will be in compliance with ERISA regulations
Securities offered through LPL Financial. Member FINRA/SIPC.
Advisory Services offered through HighPoint Advisor Group, LLC,
a registered investment advisor. HighPoint Advisor Group, LLC and
OnPath Financial are separate entities from LPL Financial.

3. Step I: Why do you have a Retirement Plan?
This information was developed as a general guide to educate plan sponsors, but is not intended as authoritative guidance or tax or legal advice. Each
plan has unique requirements, and you should consult your attorney or tax advisor for guidance on your specific situation. In no way does advisor
assure that, by using the information provided, plan sponsor will be in compliance with ERISA regulations
Securities offered through LPL Financial. Member FINRA/SIPC. Advisory Services offered through HighPoint Advisor Group, LLC, a registered
investment advisor. HighPoint Advisor Group, LLC and OnPath Financial are separate entities from LPL Financial.
There is a lot of talk these days about Retirement Plans,
401k plans, defined benefit plans, cash balance plans
and how and why to use them! What are the fees, why
you are paying fees, what the Department of Labor
is requiring and so on…wow! There is so much to
consider! What you’re not being told is that you may
not be using your retirement plan correctly.
What? Are you telling me that there is a right and
objective. Then, you need to build it correctly, with
your primary objective in mind-while considering all
the pieces to accompany that objective.
Why? When you begin with the end in mind, you
are setting your priorities first. Now, you can clearly
communicate the reason to your team to help you
build the appropriate mix of plan choices. By the way,
there are a ton of choices, please don’t try this alone!
Now, with a common objective, your team of advisors
can help you properly build the plan to fit your
goal, and incorporate the proper pieces of the plan
requirements.
The goal is having a plan that is properly built all for
the stakeholders involved: Owner, company, employees
and everyone’s families. So, do you know how your
plan is built? Does it fit your objective or the reason
you need/want to keep it going? Take this time now to
define why you really have a retirement plan in place.
Start now. Grab a pen and paper and for the next
5 minutes, list all of the reasons for your current
retirement plan or why it’s worthwhile to continue
it. If there are changes that you are considering, right
down your expected outcome of the changes? Is it
higher participation, better deferral amounts, helping
more with tax planning? What’s the end goal?
Why are you using or
running a retirement plan
in the first place?
wrong way? Well, yes….but it’s more appropriate to say
that there is a right way and a better way. Businesses
that are doing it wrong…well either know or they
already were discovered. Allow me to at least help
educate those of you who want to do it better.
Let’s start with agreeing on one premise… retirement
plans help you potentially “make” money in 2 ways.
But, I’ll come back to that! This series will be a
function of 4 Episodes to cover the following:
Why Do You Have a Retirement Plan?
Risks, Reasons and Relief of Responsibilities With
a Retirement Plan
Who’s On Your Team?
Act Now, Adjust if Needed; Enhance for Excellent
Financial Fitness
Let’s jump in with Step I...
Why are you using or running a retirement plan in
the first place? No really, what’s the overall goal? Is
it employee benefits? Is it planning for the business
owner? Is it for amped up tax deferrals? Is it all of the
above? Whatever the reason, there needs to be a clear
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3
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4 Steps to Understanding Retirement Plans and Evaluating its Place in Your Business

4. This information was developed as a general guide to educate plan sponsors, but is not intended as authoritative guidance or tax or legal advice. Each
plan has unique requirements, and you should consult your attorney or tax advisor for guidance on your specific situation. In no way does advisor
assure that, by using the information provided, plan sponsor will be in compliance with ERISA regulations
Securities offered through LPL Financial. Member FINRA/SIPC. Advisory Services offered through HighPoint Advisor Group, LLC, a registered
investment advisor. HighPoint Advisor Group, LLC and OnPath Financial are separate entities from LPL Financial.
What are the potential risks if you don’t have
a proper plan design? Well, proper plan design is
everything. It dictates who can participate and when.
It identifies what everyone is entitled to and what
everyone who is eligible needs to do. It sets up your
roadmap. Without a proper roadmap on a roadtrip,
what happens? You get sidetracked, or altogether lost
along the way.
It’s no different if you are the plan fiduciary or the
plan administrator-or a human resources professional
handling the benefits (more than likely you’re a
fiduciary on the plan). Plan design matters, the goals
matter and so does the roadmap.
So, let me ask you-when was the last time that you
went through the plan and identified all the important
pieces? When was the last time that you benchmarked
your plan against others of a similar size? When was
the last time that you identified if you are getting the
equal value out of the plan team relative to what you
are paying in fees? (Please tell me by now you know
what your fees are!)
If it’s been over 3 years (for smaller plans) or 1 year (for
larger plans) then you may be leaving a lot of risk open
for interpretation. What I mean by this is, if you don’t
know all these pieces then how are you evaluating
your plan annually (or quarterly even)? What is the
baseline or benchmark? This (if true), according to
recent events and rulings, may work against setting
up positive experiences for you, your company or the
employees. This is where undue risk and uncertainty
seeps into plans and then starts going against the
beneficial interest that retirement plans bring to
companies and its employees.
For example, when I have helped clients benchmark
their plans; there are 5 major areas that we review
within the plan design that identify both potential
impacts on cost and retirement readiness. What’s
interesting is that these areas are not that abstract.
Items to consider are eligibility, employee and
employer contributions, investment options and
distribution allowances. In most discussions, until we
go through the exercise, these are areas that haven’t
been reviewed in a long time. Most of these areas I
have consulted on can be very impactful on overall
participant education programs and total participation
rates.
We all want to pursue building opportunities for
our employees and participants to build and plan
for a funded retirement program….but what are we
doing each year to make sure that they have the tools
available to pursue retirement readiness? Because
within these same parameters, there are 14 recognized
industry statistics that measure how well a plan helps
plans prepare for retirement. They can be grouped
into the following:
Knowing
Saving
Investing
Spending
So, this is the reason that time needs to be spent
focusing on plan design…it matters a lot. What’s
your design? Is it what you intend and need it to be?
Compare the current plan design with your answers
from Episode I-do they align?
Step II: Risks, Reasons and Relief
1
2
3
4
4 Steps to Understanding Retirement Plans and Evaluating its Place in Your Business

5. This information was developed as a general guide to educate plan sponsors, but is not intended as authoritative guidance or tax or legal advice. Each
plan has unique requirements, and you should consult your attorney or tax advisor for guidance on your specific situation. In no way does advisor
assure that, by using the information provided, plan sponsor will be in compliance with ERISA regulations
Securities offered through LPL Financial. Member FINRA/SIPC. Advisory Services offered through HighPoint Advisor Group, LLC, a registered
investment advisor. HighPoint Advisor Group, LLC and OnPath Financial are separate entities from LPL Financial.
Everyone has a choice. Once upon a time, the
choice was as easy as calling your nearest broker and
saying that you wanted to start a retirement plan. They
would come over, show you a nifty presentation and
have you choose the type of plan. Then, they would
help you by “advising” you on “suggested funds” to
have included in your plan. Then with enrollment,
discussions with the employees would be hypothetical.
If you asked how much you were paying, it was built in
so you really never new.
Those days are over. There is too much risk
at hand to be “sold” a plan anymore. The
retirement plan of today needs to be designed and built
specifically with your company’s needs in mind. You
start with the goal (see above), then you go through
the options. When you have a question, you ask it
and the person on the other side of the table should
be able to answer you directly. Giving you solid advice
and providing some direction based upon your best
interests. If you ask how much this is going to cost,
the other person must be able to identify the exact
fees and tell you who is paying them and what you are
getting for that price. This my friends, is the role of a
fiduciary advisor. “Selling” is semantics. “Advising”
is not. Choose someone who can advise you (as the
owner, administrator, or human resource director/
professional), and if the plan is set up properly can also
educate and advise the employees.
If you are not a prudent plan expert-then
hire one. If you are not a competent financial
planner, investment advisor or records keeper-then
don’t let your staff pretend to be one—hire one. If your
payroll company is not an expert plan administrator-
then don’t let them do one of the most important jobs
in this team line up. If you want everyone to work
together for the sole purpose of helping you navigate
the rules and have a plan built specifically for you, then
what you want is a fiduciary advisor who can help you
build the dream team of “unbundled” (aka you know
what you are paying for) team members. This includes
the following:
Do you notice something? With fiduciary advisor at
the helm, the team comes together for the purpose
of providing what’s best for you-the company,
stakeholders and employees.
Step III: Who’s On Your Team?
4 Steps to Understanding Retirement Plans and Evaluating its Place in Your Business

6. This information was developed as a general guide to educate plan sponsors, but is not intended as authoritative guidance or tax or legal advice. Each
plan has unique requirements, and you should consult your attorney or tax advisor for guidance on your specific situation. In no way does advisor
assure that, by using the information provided, plan sponsor will be in compliance with ERISA regulations
Securities offered through LPL Financial. Member FINRA/SIPC. Advisory Services offered through HighPoint Advisor Group, LLC, a registered
investment advisor. HighPoint Advisor Group, LLC and OnPath Financial are separate entities from LPL Financial.
What’s The Next, Best Right Step? So this is
something that my dad used to say. (The whole gist
is) “There is no such thing as THE RIGHT answer.”
The answer is different for everyone-especially when
it comes to retirement plans. But, there is a next, best,
right step. So, what is the next step that leads the plan
to improvement?
First, if you couldn’t agree with each point in this
article saying that you have or are in process of or have
recently completed my steps outlined in each episode,
then you may have plan gaps. If you aren’t sure, see the
Financial Fitness Stewardship checklist at the back of
this book.
If you want to close that gap, then do a full
comprehensive review of your plan…but again-don’t
do it alone. If you want to dictate how much risk you
are taking, then go through a complete Financial
Fitness Fiduciary Evaluation so that you can uncover
the plan gaps and build a strategy to implement what
you want and need to enhance.
By the way, if you sign the 5500, participate in the
decision making, are the business owner, or help
employees through this process-then by law you are
a fiduciary. If you haven’t gone through a review
process, it is really imperative that you do, so that you
know where you stand and what needs improvement.
Doing it on your own is much better than answering to
a Department of Labor Audit.
Step IV: Act Now: Adjust if needed; Enhance for Ex-
cellent Financial Fitness
4 Steps to Understanding Retirement Plans and Evaluating its Place in Your Business

7. By not using a retirement plan, you could be losing
money. You aren’t deferring income away from your
current business to fund your future business (aka
retirement). You may not be hiring and retaining
the best employees, because your competitors may
be using a good retirement plan as a benefit. If you
aren’t building your plan in a manner that the above
items are clear, then you also may also be risking
your stakeholders by not protecting your business,
employees and staff. Any way you look at it, your plan
is an important factor. Your plan needs to be reviewed
and it needs to be built properly. Be a better steward.
That really is the (one of the) motivation behind all of
the recent regulatory changes.
Remember the statement from Episode I….”retirement
plans help you “make” money in two ways”…. the
first is that it helps the company and employees with
a proper deferral strategy to save for retirement.
Replacing your paycheck is one of the most daunting
tasks we have for retirement. In addition, as a company
stakeholder it also helps you “make” money because
as an employee benefit, when properly designed, it
can help you retain your employees. This in and of
itself saves you a lot of time and money in lowering
your turnover. Do all this with a little effort and
focus, and you can pursue becoming a Financially
Fit company with employees pursuing Financial
Fitness. Now what’s the impact this movement can
have on your community and business? Being known
as a great steward of your resources and benefits to
your employees! Wow. That’s a headline that would be
enhancing, isn’t it?
This information was developed as a general guide to educate plan sponsors, but is not intended as authoritative guidance or tax or legal advice. Each
plan has unique requirements, and you should consult your attorney or tax advisor for guidance on your specific situation. In no way does advisor
assure that, by using the information provided, plan sponsor will be in compliance with ERISA regulations
Securities offered through LPL Financial. Member FINRA/SIPC. Advisory Services offered through HighPoint Advisor Group, LLC, a registered
investment advisor. HighPoint Advisor Group, LLC and OnPath Financial are separate entities from LPL Financial.
In Summary
4 Steps to Understanding Retirement Plans and Evaluating its Place in Your Business
Be a better steward.
For your convenience, I have included a quick
Stewardship Checklist for you to complete in order to
better understand where you and your company are
within pursuing good Plan Stewardship. If you would
like help with this process, please reach out and ask.

8. This information was developed as a general guide to educate plan sponsors, but is not intended as authoritative guidance or tax or legal advice. Each
plan has unique requirements, and you should consult your attorney or tax advisor for guidance on your specific situation. In no way does advisor
assure that, by using the information provided, plan sponsor will be in compliance with ERISA regulations
Securities offered through LPL Financial. Member FINRA/SIPC. Advisory Services offered through HighPoint Advisor Group, LLC, a registered
investment advisor. HighPoint Advisor Group, LLC and OnPath Financial are separate entities from LPL Financial.
To Know
Are you in a fiduciary relationship with the service/
investment providers?
N/A
3(16)
3(21)
3(38)
Unsure
Do you regularly monitor your providers?
Yes
No
Have you benchmarked your plan in the last 3 years?
Yes
No
Do you have a formal 401(k) Committee?
Yes
No
Have you reviewed your plan design in the last 3
years?
Yes
No
Do you have an Investment Policy Statement?
Yes
No
Do you offer regularly scheduled financial wellness
education to your employees?
Yes
No
Do you offer regularly scheduled fiduciary education
to the trustees of the plan?
Yes
No
To Do
Review Health Plan:
1. Participation rates
2. Deferral rates
3. Investment Choices
4. Age/Balance
5. Loan activity
6. Clear out terminated participants
7. Review the ERISA Bond
8. Review costs
9. Establish Annual Objectives
10. Ask the employees if they understand the plan
Read:
1. Service provider contracts
2. Plan document
3. Fee disclosures
Organize a Fiduciary Binder:
1. Signed service agreements
2. All plan documents and amendments
3. Letter of Determination
4. Investment Policy Statement
5. Fee disclosures
6. Insurance/Bonding
Stewardship Checklist
4 Steps to Understanding Retirement Plans and Evaluating its Place in Your Business

9. To perform an initial consultation and review your Stewardship Checklist
Contact Us Today
4 Steps to Understanding Retirement Plans and Evaluating its Place in Your Business
100 Illinois Street, Suite 201, St. Charles, IL 60174
p: 630.584.8100 | f: 630.584.8107
Kyle D. Witt
MBA
kwitt@onpathfinancial.com
Ext. 101
Daniel S. Tresemer
CFP®
dtresemer@onpathfinancial.com
Ext. 102
Richard R. Kitick
CFP®
rkitick@onpathfinancial.com
Ext. 103
David M. Kujawa
ChFC®, CFP®
dkujawa@onpathfinancial.com
Ext. 107
Erin K. Brown-Carter
ecarter@onpathfinancial.com
Ext. 111