Retirement & MEAP Solutions
Help your employees build financial security with competitive 401(k) plans, MEAPs, and retirement consulting.
Retirement Benefits That Retain Talent
Competitive retirement benefits are one of the top drivers of employee retention. Catapult helps employers design, implement, and manage 401(k) plans, Multiple Employer Aggregate Plans (MEAPs), and other retirement vehicles that attract top talent while keeping costs manageable.
Plan design choices
A 401(k) plan is built from a handful of design decisions. Each one affects cost, participation and how much testing the plan has to pass.
Traditional 401(k)
Flexible matching and vesting, but the plan must pass annual nondiscrimination tests that compare what highly compensated employees save with what everyone else saves.
Safe harbor 401(k)
The employer commits to a required contribution and notice each year. In return the plan can avoid most of the annual nondiscrimination testing that trips up traditional plans.
Roth and profit sharing
Roth deferrals let employees save after-tax money that can come out tax-free in retirement. A profit sharing feature lets the employer make discretionary contributions.
Automatic enrollment
SECURE 2.0 requires most new 401(k) plans established after December 29, 2022 to enroll employees automatically, with exceptions for businesses with 10 or fewer employees and businesses less than three years old.
What a plan sponsor is responsible for
Sponsoring a retirement plan makes the employer an ERISA fiduciary. That brings ongoing duties, even when much of the work is handed to providers.
- Prudent oversight. Fiduciaries must act in participants’ interest, check that fees are reasonable and monitor the investment lineup and the providers they hire.
- Timely deposits. Employee deferrals must reach the plan as soon as they can reasonably be separated from company money. Late deposits are one of the most common errors the Department of Labor finds.
- Annual testing and filings. Most plans file Form 5500 every year, and traditional 401(k) plans run ADP, ACP and top-heavy tests.
- Required notices. Participants receive fee disclosures, safe harbor or automatic enrollment notices where they apply, and a summary plan description.
- 2026 contribution limits. Employees can defer up to $24,500 in 2026. Those 50 and older can add an $8,000 catch-up, and those aged 60 to 63 can add $11,250 instead.
Why employers look at multiple employer plans
In a multiple employer arrangement, unrelated employers join one plan instead of each running its own. Plan-level work, such as the annual Form 5500, the independent audit when one is required, and investment oversight, is handled once for the whole plan rather than separately by every employer.
For a small or mid-size employer, that can mean a fuller plan with less administrative work in-house. The SECURE Act of 2019 created pooled employer plans, which opened this approach to unrelated employers more widely. Talk with our team about how Catapult’s MEAP is set up and whether it fits your workforce.
Retirement plan questions
When does a 401(k) plan need an independent audit?
Generally when the plan has 100 or more participants with account balances at the start of the plan year. Smaller plans usually file a simpler version of Form 5500 without an audit.
Are there tax credits for starting a plan?
Yes. SECURE 2.0 expanded credits for small employers that start a plan, including credits toward startup costs, employer contributions and adding automatic enrollment. Your tax advisor can confirm what your business qualifies for.
Can we fix a mistake in an existing plan?
Usually. The IRS and the Department of Labor both run correction programs for common errors such as late deposits or missed contributions. Fixing an error early typically costs far less than having it found in an audit.