Employer-Provided Retirement Plans

A well-designed retirement plan is a powerful tool for attracting and keeping good employees. Offering one can help reduce turnover, build company loyalty, and ultimately support profitability, while giving your team a meaningful way to save for the future. First Western Bank & Trust specializes in both the administration and investment management of qualified retirement plans, so you can offer a competitive benefit without taking on the full burden yourself.

First Western offers Profit Sharing plans, traditional 401(k) plans, Individual 401(k) plans, and Safe Harbor 401(k) plans. Each suits a different business size and goal, from owner-only operations to companies with many employees. A trust officer can review your workforce, budget, and objectives to help you choose the plan that fits.

A Safe Harbor 401(k) is a 401(k) in which the employer makes required contributions to employees’ accounts, which in exchange generally allows the plan to bypass certain annual nondiscrimination tests. This structure is often attractive to business owners who want to maximize their own contributions while keeping the plan simpler to administer. The specifics depend on how the plan is designed, so it’s worth discussing your goals with our team.

We handle the ongoing administrative and trustee work for employee benefit plans, including on-site meetings with employees, participant statements, summary annual reports, summaries of participant accounts, annual Form 5500 reporting, annual plan testing, and monitoring of asset maturity. Because our administrative staff is local and our systems are in-house, we can offer flexible report design and responsive service. This lets you offer a well-run plan without managing the day-to-day compliance details yourself.

Yes. First Western Bank & Trust can assume the fiduciary responsibility of investment management for your plan. That includes determining the trust’s investment objectives, investing trust funds, providing investment options for employees, reporting on trust assets periodically, monitoring investment ratings and values, and executing cost-effective purchases and sales. Taking on that fiduciary role helps relieve you of a significant part of the plan’s responsibility.

No. Products offered through the Trust Department are not FDIC insured, carry no bank guarantee, and may lose value. This differs from deposit products at First Western Bank, such as checking, savings, CDs, and IRAs, which are FDIC insured up to the maximum allowed by law. A trust officer can explain how plan assets are held and managed.

Contact our Trust & Wealth Department or visit a branch near you to discuss your goals, and we’ll help you select a plan, complete the prototype documents, and put the administrative and investment services in place. Whether you’re starting your first plan or looking for more responsive administration of an existing one, our local team can help.