Business Retirement Plans

401(k), cash balance and deferred compensation plans, with a 3(38) fiduciary on the investments and employee education through the year.

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Our Methodology

How We Manage Retirement Plans

Many retirement plans are set up once and then left alone. Fees go without a benchmark, the fund lineup drifts, the committee meets when something goes wrong, and the owner saves far less in the plan than the rules would allow. Under ERISA, the people who run the plan can be personally liable for its investment decisions, and many don’t realize it.

At Gatewood, we take that work on for the business owners, finance leaders and HR leaders responsible for the plan. We accept discretionary fiduciary responsibility for the plan's investments under ERISA Section 3(38), benchmark your fees and lineup against peer plans in writing, and design the plan around what the executives and the employees each need from it. We bring the agenda, the analysis and the recommendations to the review meeting, and we run employee education onsite, virtually or both.

Watch our Managing Director, Retirement Plans, Micah Alsobrook, explain why it matters.

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The Deliverables

What Our Service Includes

Every service in our planning model produces tangible, measurable deliverables that you can expect to receive.

3(38) Investment Management

Discretionary responsibility for selecting, monitoring and replacing the plan’s investments under ERISA Section 3(38). You keep the duty to monitor us, and we give you the documentation to do it.

Investment Policy Statement

The written policy governing how your plan’s investments are chosen, monitored and replaced, drafted for your committee to adopt and maintained as the lineup and the rules change.

Plan Benchmarking and Provider Review

A written comparison of your fees, investments, participation and plan design against peer plans of similar size, plus a formal recordkeeper or TPA search when one falls short.

Plan Design

A review of how your plan is built, including eligibility, match, vesting, safe harbor and profit sharing, with written recommendations developed alongside your TPA and our tax team.

Committee Meetings and Minutes

An agenda before each plan review meeting and minutes after it, recording every decision made, the action items that came out of it and the person who owns each one.

Fiduciary File

The documented record of every investment decision, fee review and committee meeting, kept current and organized so it is ready the day the DOL or an auditor asks to see it.

Education and Enrollment

Group sessions onsite, virtually or both, plus one-on-one meetings and office hours through the year, covering enrollment, contribution rates and retirement readiness.

Market and Regulatory Updates

A summary of market trends and regulatory changes affecting your plan, what they mean for participants and sponsors, and what actions may be needed, delivered as developments are finalized.

Beyond the Enrollment Meeting

Education for Everyone in Your Plan

Most people were never taught how money works. They learned it at home and carried those habits into a job where the only financial conversation on offer is an enrollment form.

We believe a benefits meeting is the wrong place to stop, so we come back through the year and cover the whole financial picture, not just the plan. Learn more about our philosophy on employee education and why it matters.

Learn Our Philosophy

  1. At least once a year we come to your office, meet your people virtually, or both. We cover enrollment, how the plan works and what retirement readiness actually looks like. We stay afterward for the questions people did not want to ask in the room.

  2. A group session is rarely where someone asks their real question. We hold in-person and virtual office hours through the year, so anyone in your plan can work through a contribution change, an investment choice, a job move or a house purchase.
  3. Anyone in your plan can sign up for our email list to hear when we post new free content, like blogs, podcasts, downloadables and upcoming events.
  4. Anyone in your plan can ask for a personal financial plan, built with a CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ professional. It’s optional and separate from the plan service. Additional fees may apply.
  5. An onsite session for leadership, built for high earners who have never given their own finances the same structure they give the business.
From First Plan to Full Redesign

Plans We Work With

Here are the different plans we work on and the situations each one tends to fit.

Solo 401(k)

For an owner with no employees other than a spouse, with high limits and simple administration.

Startup 401(k)

For a business starting its first plan. We handle the design, the provider selection and the setup.

401(k)

For an established plan that needs a fiduciary on the investments, a fee benchmark or a redesign.

403(b)

For a nonprofit or a school, where the plan works much like a 401(k) under a different set of rules.

Cash Balance

For an owner who wants to save more than a 401(k) allows, often paired with profit sharing.

Deferred Compensation

For key employees who need to save beyond qualified plan limits.
Get the Most From Your Plan

Your Integrated Financial Plan

For many business owners, the company is the largest asset the household owns. How you pay yourself, which retirement plan you sponsor, when you reinvest and how you eventually retire or sell all shape your personal plan and your retirement, this year and in the years that follow.

That is why Gatewood includes the value of your business in your personal plan, and why one team manages both around one set of goals.

Every service on this wheel works from the same plan, so each one you use adds to a single picture: the business side shows what the company earns, owes and is worth, and the household side shows what that means for your income, savings, taxes and family. You can begin with the service you need most today and add others as your business and household change.

A ring of thirteen services around a centre reading Your Plan. The upper half is for households: financial planning, cash management, investment management, insurance management, tax planning, estate planning and tax preparation. The lower half is for businesses: tax preparation, accounting services, CFO services, retirement plans, insurance management and investment management. Each segment links to that service. HOUSEHOLDS BUSINESSES FinancialPlanning CashManagement InvestmentManagement InsuranceManagement TaxPlanning EstatePlanning TaxPreparation TaxPreparation AccountingServices CFOServices RetirementPlans InsuranceManagement InvestmentManagement YourPlan
What Firm-to-Family® Means

For the Families Behind the Business

Behind every business are families who depend on it.

The owner's household depends on what the company is worth and what it distributes. Each employee's household depends on the paycheck, the benefits and the plan they were enrolled in on their first day. We have never met a business decision that stopped at the business — which is why we built the firm to serve the family behind it.

Your Retirement Plan Consultant leads the plan, and the team comes with them: the investment team on the fund lineup, the tax team on the deduction and the contribution decisions, and a wealth planner for anyone in the plan who asks for one.

That is what we call Firm-to-Family®, and it is why your plan is supported by a diverse and experienced team rather than on one person.

Learn About Firm-to-Family®
A businessman working from home with his family.

Frequently Asked Questions

Employer-sponsored retirement plans are more commonly referred to as "Business Retirement Plans." 

This is a retirement savings plan a business sets up for its employees, funded by employee deferrals, employer contributions or both.

The most common is a 401(k). Others include 403(b) plans for nonprofits, profit sharing, cash balance and deferred compensation plans for executives.

Many businesses use more than one, because each solves a different problem.

Under ERISA, whoever selects your plan’s investments can be personally liable for those decisions. That is usually the owner or an internal committee. A 3(38) investment manager accepts that responsibility in writing. We select, monitor and replace the plan’s investments, and we are accountable for those choices. You keep governance of the plan and the duty to monitor us.

We quote each plan individually, because the work depends on plan size, participant count and the services you need. The benchmark report is free, so you can see what you pay now before you decide anything. Request an estimate to see what it would cost for your plan.

Yes, and we do most of the work. We walk you through plan design, coordinate the recordkeeper and TPA selection, and run employee enrollment meetings. After launch, we work with your TPA to keep the plan on schedule each year. Most new 401(k) plans launch 30 to 60 days after you decide.

Usually not. In most cases, we can become the advisor on your plan at your current recordkeeper. A few recordkeepers have restrictions, and we’ll tell you up front if yours is one of them.

Becoming your advisor typically takes 1 to 3 weeks, with little to no disruption for employees. If the benchmarking shows you’d be better off with a different recordkeeper, we’ll tell you and run the move if you choose it. That takes 60 to 90 days. Either way, the decision is yours, and the benchmark comes first.

It’s hard to tell from the paperwork you receive. Send us your most recent fee disclosure, plan statement and plan document, either the adoption agreement or the summary plan description (SPD). We’ll give you a written comparison of your fees, investments, participation and plan design against plans of similar size. It’s free, with no obligation.

You keep the duty to monitor us and responsibility for plan operations, like timely deposits and accurate payroll data. We give you the documentation and reminders to stay on top of both.

We’re paid a fee for our work on your plan. It can be a percentage of plan assets or a flat fee, paid from the plan or directly by your company. The fee is disclosed in writing before you sign and in every required fee disclosure after. Gatewood does not receive revenue from the funds in your plan. If a conflict ever exists, we disclose it and document how we manage it.
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Built on Relationships

Hear What Our Clients Say

“My wife and I moved to St. Louis four years ago and became Gatewood clients in 2024, on a referral from our daughter-in-law. Her father was an established attorney who had said good things about the team, and that recommendation was passed down to us. That introduction set an expectation, and the people there have matched it. We've met a lot of the team by now, and the impression has been consistent with every one of them. Each person we're introduced to is professional, smart, and they work together well as a group — which says something about the people Gatewood hires…” Read more.
Dale D., Retired Corporate Professional | 08.17.26

Important Disclosure: The statements provided are testimonials by clients of the financial professional. The clients listed have not been paid or received any other compensation for making these statements. As a result, the client does not receive any material incentives or benefits for providing the testimonial. These views may not be representative of the views of other clients and are not indicative of future performance or success.

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With expertise and care, we're here to build a personalized plan for wealth that instills confidence for all of life’s key moments. Schedule a conversation with our team today.

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