Retirement Plan Advisory
401(k) and Retirement Plan Advisory for Kansas and Missouri Employers
A strong retirement plan is one of the most valuable benefits you can offer—and one of the most complex to manage well. Employers face competing demands: supporting employee outcomes, controlling plan costs, meeting fiduciary responsibilities, and maintaining strong governance.
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At Curtis & Associates, we provide retirement plan advisory services for Kansas and Missouri employers, including 401(k) plans and advanced plan designs. Our goal is to help plan sponsors improve plan effectiveness, strengthen fiduciary process, and deliver a better participant experience.
Advisory Services
Our Retirement Plan Advisory services include:
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Plan Design (eligibility, match/profit sharing, safe harbor, plan features)
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Fiduciary Governance (process, oversight, documentation, committee support)
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Plan Benchmarking (fees, investments, participation, outcomes)
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Cash Balance Plans (advanced solutions for owners and high earners)
Common Executive Benefits Solutions
Depending on goals and suitability, executive benefits may include:
Supplemental life insurance strategies
Executive disability coverage
Bonus and carve-out benefit designs
Deferred compensation concepts (in coordination with your legal and tax advisors)
Business and succession-related insurance planning
Explore Retirement Plan Services
Schedule a consultation to review your options and next steps.
Plan Features That Help Improve Participation and Outcomes
Thoughtful plan design can help improve retirement outcomes while aligning employee benefits with your organization’s goals and budget.
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We help employers evaluate key plan features, including eligibility, employer match and profit sharing, automatic enrollment, Roth and pre-tax options, vesting schedules, and other plan provisions.
The right plan design can help increase participation, support recruitment and retention, improve testing outcomes, and balance competitiveness with predictable employer costs.
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A review may be especially valuable as your workforce grows or changes, participation falls below expectations, or your current plan no longer aligns with your business goals.
Understand How Your Plan Compares
Plan benchmarking helps employers understand how their retirement plan compares to peers across fees, investments, participation, contributions, and vendor performance.
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By reviewing key plan metrics, we can identify potential fee inefficiencies, evaluate vendor competitiveness, strengthen fiduciary documentation, and uncover opportunities to improve participant outcomes.
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Benchmarking can be valuable when fees haven’t been reviewed recently, participation is stagnant, vendor value is unclear, or your organization is preparing for an RFP or renewal.
Help Strengthen Process, and Improve Oversight
Strong fiduciary governance helps retirement plan sponsors maintain clear oversight, make informed decisions, and document a consistent process.
We help organizations strengthen their fiduciary framework through committee structure, investment monitoring, fee and vendor oversight, meeting documentation, and policy development.
Whether you’re establishing a governance process or improving an existing one, our support is tailored to your organization’s needs and plan maturity.
A strong governance framework can help clarify responsibilities, improve reporting, strengthen vendor oversight, and create a more defensible decision-making process.​
Curtis and Associates representatives assist the named fiduciary with their compliance obligation, however the named fiduciary retains final authority over the activities.
Advanced Retirement Strategies for Business Owners and High Earners
Cash balance plans can help business owners and high earners make significantly larger tax-advantaged retirement contributions than a traditional 401(k) alone.
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They may be a good fit for businesses with consistent profitability and strong cash flow that want to maximize retirement savings while enhancing employee benefits.
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Often paired with a 401(k), cash balance plans require specialized actuarial design, annual funding, and careful consideration of employee eligibility and long-term cash flow.
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We work with plan sponsors, actuaries, and TPAs to evaluate whether a cash balance plan aligns with your business and retirement goals.