Most employees understand the immediate tax savings as well as the importance of saving for retirement, but they do not understand how to protect their assets from tax erosion and efficiently receive their assets as income.

Cypress Group, LLC believes that communication is the most important element in the retirement planning market.  Agent communication on the employer level covers different kinds of plans and specifications, as well as how to structure these options to work as hard for the employer as they work for his or her employees.

Communication on the employee level is equally important, because most defined contribution plans limit the contribution level allowed by highly compensated employees.  The degree to which highly compensated employees benefit from a retirement plan hinges directly on non-highly compensated employee participation.

Understand that perception is reality.  The perception is that Social Security likely will be unavailable for the youngest of baby boomers means that employees need to understand the importance of retirement planning, where they stand in the retirement planning game, and how to build flexibility in their retirement portfolio.

In communicating the aspects of retirement preparation, We stress the three planning stages:
1. Accumulation
2. Protection
3. Distribution

In the accumulation stages we stress education on investment balance, time, and the importance of investing in both equity-oriented and income-oriented investments.  Most employees in this stage primarily are concerned with the return of their money.  Many employees may not have access to qualified retirement program or simply haven`t become involved.  These employees may have young children and possibly a mortgage or other debts, and probably are focusing on debt reduction or college planning.

We also discuss the effect of possible Social Security benefits, although most of our prospects want to treat Social Security as "frosting on the cake".  We also plant the seed for building a balanced taxable and non-taxable portfolio, explaining how future distributions from any taxable source directly will affect the taxability of Social Security retirement benefits.

In the protection stage, we again stress investment balance and continue to communicate information regarding asset ownership, taxable and non-taxable income streams, and techniques for protecting accumulated assets from an unexpected need for nursing assistance. 

Most employees in the protection stage are interested in how they can reduce their current taxation as well as pass on accumulated assets to heirs.  Their children`s college expenses are about to end or already have ended; the mortgage likely is paid off; and retirement is a primary focus.

In the distribution stage, we stress time, investment balance, and balanced taxable and non-taxable distributions.  Most of my retired prospects are concerned with return of their money as compared with return on their money.  During this stage, we begin discussing the definitions of modified adjusted gross income (AGI).  Modified AGI was brought into place as a way of taxing persons who were in high tax brackets while receiving Social Security Benefits.

The employee receives many benefits from our data base:  the knowledge of where he or she is in relation to his or her retirement savings goals; an understanding of future concerns such as estate taxes or excess accumulation taxes; and the ability to coordinate his or her spouse`s retirement program with his or her employer`s program.  Sometime the information is blunt, showing the employee that he or she will be more dependent on Social Security than he or she expected.