Retirement savings plans consistently rank among the top employee benefits, but despite their popularity with workers, they have gained a reputation among employers for being costly and complex.

As a result, many small- and midsize-business owners avoid offering a retirement benefit altogether, believing they lack the budget, resources, and expertise to effectively manage a high-quality plan.

This can be a missed opportunity, especially when it comes to attracting and retaining talent. Fortunately, there is a solution that is making retirement plans easier and more affordable for businesses of all sizes: Pooled Employer Plans (PEPs).

Navigating the waters of health insurance plans, flexible spending accounts (FSA), and deductibles can be confusing and present tough choices. Sure, your employer gives you a helpful booklet, the benefit options seem pretty straightforward, and you usually have a few weeks to submit your elections.

Nevertheless, here are some tips to keep in mind…

• Tip 1: Open the benefits packet, read the packet

• Tip 2: Measure your needs

• Tip 3: Explore a flexible spending account

• Tip 4: Think strategically with a health savings account

• Tip 5: Use wellness benefits

Being a parent, especially a new parent, can certainly be stressful. Many moms and dads struggle to get enough sleep, manage mealtimes, help with homework, and make sure their kids get to school and all their extracurricular activities on time, all while juggling their own careers or supporting a spouse’s career. And employees who bring stress from home into the office can’t do their best work. So, what can employers and businesses do to make balancing kids and career easier by providing a great workplace for parents?

They can adopt policies that act to the mutual advantage of both their workers and themselves. These can cover areas like:

• Location and schedule flexibility

• Robust leave policies

• Useful insurance options

As we conclude the third quarter of 2024, the economy continues to grow steadily, yet the balance of risks is shifting. Small cracks have begun to emerge in consumer sentiment, manufacturing, and within the labor market. Employment has now overtaken inflation as the Federal Reserve’s primary concern within its dual mandate as progress on disinflation has been satisfactory, thus paving the way for the Federal Reserve to join the global monetary easing cycle.

Despite some bumps along the way, the 2024 equity market rally remains intact. The healthy broadening out of the market beyond the mega-cap “Magnificent Seven” and “Fabulous Four” companies, has thankfully materialized. Risk assets were broadly supported by ten-year U.S. Treasury yields falling firmly below 4 percent, although interest rate volatility reached some of the highest levels of the year.

It was a quarter of tail-risk events: There were two assassination attempts on former president Donald Trump, Japanese stocks had the worst crash since 1987, before promptly rebounding, military conflict continued to escalate in the Middle East, and Hurricane Helene ravaged the Southeast, as one of the deadliest hurricanes to make landfall on the U.S. mainland in recent history. With the election around the corner in November, we anticipate elevated volatility persisting into the foreseeable future.

You might associate trusts with the ultrawealthy, or with young adults who don’t have to work. But trusts have benefits for a far wider swath of the socioeconomic spectrum — a swath that likely includes you.

“Not knowing how trusts work or what they’re used for, other than passing down assets to children, can keep people from setting one up,” said Michele Collins, director of advanced sales at MassMutual’s Boston office. “So can being afraid of the cost as well as being uncomfortable planning for death, which is when trust discussions often come up.”

Here’s a rundown of the most common types of trusts and their purpose.

We’ve all heard stories of contested wills and disinherited ne’er-do-wells among the rich and famous. Hollywood has used this storyline countless times, creating a motive for the bad guy or a righteous quest for good. It makes for great theater and even better supermarket tabloid headlines, but for the rest of us, it’s something we actively seek to avoid.

In theory, providing equal shares of your estate to your children is a case of simple math. Add up the assets and divide by the number of kids. But the problem for business owners is that the business, often the estate’s largest asset, is illiquid. There’s no cash to divvy up. And if the business is to be passed down to the next generation — specifically to those actively involved in the business — how do you make the others "whole" while keeping the business in one piece?

Before you embark on a strategy to make your business more valuable and transferable, be sure to identify and correct the risks that might threaten your company’s success.

“All of that work is futile if you don’t de-risk the business first,” said Brian Trzcinski, the director of business market development at MassMutual. Look for red flags that can indicate potential threats and take action to help eliminate any that may interfere with your plans to grow and monetize your business.

Whole life insurance offers an income tax-free death benefit as well as deferred cash value growth.

Baby boomers own approximately 4.5 million businesses with employees in the United States, and it’s estimated that 70 percent of these owners will be retiring over the next decade. According to the 2022 MassMutual Business Owner Perspectives Study, 60 percent of today’s owners say selling their businesses is their preferred exit strategy.

The problem? Historically, 75–80 percent of businesses that get put up for sale never sell.

So why do so few businesses transact? Simple. The business (and the owner) isn’t ready.

The market recently took quite a sudden dip, causing lots of consternation.

• Should we sell?

• Is this the beginning of the end?

• Are we about to enter another Global Financial Crisis?!

Honestly? Markets just go down sometimes and, candidly, it can be healthy … particularly when viewed through the lens of history and rationality.

There’s one question many small business owners ask themselves everyday: “What is the true value of my business?”

It’s an important question because, whether you realize it or not, the value of your business will have a big impact on both personal and professional aspects of your life. So, knowing the answer is vitally important.

The second quarter delivered positive returns for investors across almost all major asset classes. Global equities have continued to make new highs, led by the Artificial Intelligence (AI) revolution in the U.S. While consumer and business sentiment has sunk lower throughout the quarter, the narrative for stocks and bonds has been hard to describe as anything but optimistic.

The fundamental supports have all held in:

• The economy is growing.

• Corporate earnings are strong.

• The U.S. labor market is creating still-plentiful jobs.

• Household wealth continues to reach new records.

June marked the seventh winning month out of the past eight for the S&P 500, bringing year-to-date total returns to approximately 15 percent. There are now officially three U.S companies with equity market capitalizations over $3 trillion. Without question, it’s a bull market, but the probability of something going awry is rising. Specifically, signs are mounting for the Fed that restrictive monetary policy is influencing the economy, consumer spending is slowing, and concerns are rising over the political environment as the presidential election approaches.