By Sherron Lumley. Whether a distant dream or just around the bend, retirement benefits hold significant sway with employees making decisions about where to work and for how long. In fact, a 2011 Mercer What’s Working survey of 30,000 workers found that, among American and Canadian employees, retirement plans placed second only to base pay among the most important employee value proposition elements. Despite this emphasis, modern-day employees are notoriously poor at following through...

Find out whether an automatic enrollment 401(k) plan is right for you By Max Berry Saving for the future is every person's individual responsibility. But, as a small business owner, you have the power to provide your employees with some incentive. Instituting an automatic enrollment 401(k) plan may be as close as a you can come to guaranteeing that your employees will save. Automatic enrollment increases plan participation dramatically, but it also presents its own set of challenges for...

Simple to set up, easy to administer, Simplified Employee Pension Plans may be for you By Max Berry Among all the 401(k)s, 403(b)s, and various types of IRAs available to you and your employees, Simplified Employee Pension (SEP) plans don't get a whole lot of attention. This doesn't mean you shouldn't consider one for your firm. If you're a small business owner just starting to offer retirement packages to your employees-or one simply looking to expand the ways employees can save-a SEP may be...