Retirement Actuarial Services
Working With Your CPA on Advanced Plan Design
Advanced plan design touches deductions, payroll, cash flow, and entity strategy — which is why it should never happen in a vacuum, separate from your CPA.
Advanced retirement plan design does not exist in isolation. It affects deductions, payroll, cash flow, entity planning, and your long-term tax strategy. That is exactly why the most reliable outcomes come from a coordinated process — one where your CPA, your tax advisor, and the plan design team are working from the same set of facts. Retirement Actuarial Services is built to work alongside your CPA, not to replace them.
Who contributes what
- Your CPA: understands your entity, your compensation structure, your overall tax picture, and how a large deduction fits into the year. They confirm how the plan interacts with the rest of your return.
- The plan design / actuarial team: designs the plan, runs the feasibility study, performs required actuarial certification, and ensures the design passes IRS nondiscrimination testing.
- ERISA / legal counsel: reviews plan documents and fiduciary considerations where appropriate.
- You: provide the goals, the income expectations, and the comfort level with funding obligations.
Why coordination prevents problems
When plan design and tax advice are disconnected, avoidable issues appear: a deduction that does not fit the entity structure, W-2 compensation set too low to support the intended benefit, or a funding obligation that strains cash flow. A coordinated review catches these before implementation, when they are easy to fix.
A good plan design respects the CPA's view of the whole return. The largest theoretically possible deduction is not always the right one once payroll, entity, and cash flow are considered together.
How the process usually flows
- An initial screen (such as the Tax Opportunity Score) indicates whether a deeper review is worthwhile.
- The plan team gathers compensation, census, and current plan details and runs a feasibility study.
- The CPA reviews the proposed deduction and funding in the context of the full tax picture.
- If everyone agrees the numbers work, the plan is documented and implemented with certified actuarial oversight.
If you do not have a CPA yet
That is common for newer or fast-growing businesses. The plan team can still run a feasibility review, and you can bring a CPA into the conversation before implementation. The key principle is the same: the tax strategy and the plan design should be aligned before anything is finalized.
Authoritative sources
Frequently Asked Questions
- Will RAS replace my CPA?
- No. RAS is designed to work alongside your CPA, providing plan design and actuarial expertise while your CPA manages your overall tax picture.
- What does my CPA need to review?
- Typically how the deduction fits your entity and return, whether compensation supports the intended benefit, and how funding affects cash flow. Plan design and actuarial work are handled by the plan team.
- Can the process work if I do not have a CPA?
- Yes. A feasibility review can be completed first, with a CPA brought in before implementation so the strategy and plan design stay aligned.
Use the Business Owner Tax Savings Analysis™ to estimate whether an advanced plan design may be worth reviewing for your income, age, and employee base.
Get My Tax Opportunity ScoreEducational only. Retirement Actuarial Services works alongside your CPA, tax advisor, and legal counsel. Plan feasibility, contribution limits, deductions, and 401(h) reimbursements depend on compensation, employee census, plan documents, actuarial assumptions, IRS limits, and applicable law. Examples are hypothetical and do not guarantee results.
