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Cheerful Seniors

RETIREMENT PLAN

Benefit Summary

In an effort to encourage and assist staff member's regarding savings for retirement, and upon meeting eligibility and application requirements, PetWow will contribute – dollar for dollar – up to three (3) percent of a staff member’s wages toward a personal retirement account which PetWow sets up on the staff member's behalf. In addition, staff members who elect to enroll in PetWow’s retirement plan may contribute as much as 6% of their own income into their retirement account (although the company “matches” up to 3%). In this way, a staff member has the potential to have as much as 9% of their annual income saved in a tax-deferred retirement account (6% by their own contribution and 3% from the company)! Here are the details:

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  • Matching Contributions: PetWow makes a matching dollar-for-dollar contribution *up to* 3% of the wages of participating staff members.

    • ​Note that PetWow contributes a MATCHING contribution UP TO 3%. If, for instance, the staff member only contributes 2% of their own wages into their retirement plan in a given year, PetWow will only match 2% for that year.

  • Elective Contributions: Staff Members can contribute up to 6% of their own money into their retirement plan annually, which means each staff member could route as much as 9% of their gross income into retirement each year (counting company contribution).

  • Tax Deferred Savings: All retirement contributions, whether originating from the staff member or from PetWow's matching dollars, are deposited into the staff member's retirement account TAX FREE. This means that the actual out-of-pocket costs to defer some amount of payroll wages to retirement savings is greatly reduced. For instance, since taxes are deferred, the cost for a staff member to contribute $100.00 of their own payroll earnings to their retirement account may be roughly only $80.00! To understand more fully the great advantage of utilizing our TAX-DEFERRED retirement benefit click HERE.

  • Full Vestiture: All company contributions are 100% "vested" upon deposit, which means ALL company contributions remain with the staff member should they leave PetWow. Many companies shackle their retirement contribution benefit with a practice called "Vestiture". To understand why "Vestiture" is a BIG NEGATIVE (and therefore why PetWow does NOT practice it) click HERE. 

  • Free Online Brokerage Account and Consultation: Participating staff members receive a free personal online trading account with free brokerage advice through TD Ameritrade. Staff members will receive a monthly online or paper statement of their TD Ameritrade retirement account showing all of their own monthly retirement contributions as well as any matching contributions made by PetWow. 

  • Investment Vehicle Freedom: Staff Members can choose whichever investment vehicles they desire, such as stocks, bonds, mutual funds, gold, etc. In short, staff members are not forced to choose from a pre-determined set of mutual funds, etc.

  • Legal Plan Description: You may read the full legal description and parameters of PetWow's retirement plan HERE.

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Eligibility

  • Basic Eligibility:

    • A team member must have received at least $5,000.00 in compensation in the last calendar year at PetWow AND

    • The team member must be reasonably expected to earn $5,000.00 in compensation for the upcoming plan year.

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  • Waiting Period: An eligible team member may initially seek enrollment in this benefit during the period beginning on the 365th days after hire date and ending on the 390th day after hire date. If the team member elects not to seek enrollment during this Initial Enrollment Window, he or she will not be able to enroll until the next annual "Open Enrollment" period which runs from December 1st, through December 31st of each year, with new plans/policies beginning January 1st. There are no additional "Qualifying Events" which afford team members the opportunity to enroll in the retirement plan outside of either the Initial or Annual Open Enrollment periods.

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  • Please Note: PetWow human resources will not automatically notify an eligible team member that they have reached their 365th day of employment (although the team member can easily keep abreast of when this initial period will begin by looking at their "Benefits" tab in their "MY INFO" section of BambooHR). Therefore, it is the eligible team member's responsibility to actively seek enrollment in this benefit during the initial enrollment window if he or she wishes to do so. PetWow human resources will, however, notify all eligible team members about the December annual Open Enrollment on or near the beginning of November each year. 

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To verify current eligibility please refer to the "Benefits Tab" within your "MY INFO section of  BambooHR.

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Enrollment

  1. Contact PetWow Human Resources: Use the BENEFIT FORM to request participation in PetWow's tax-deferred Retirement Plan.

  2. Complete Documentation: Our human resources department will contact you to set up a time to fill out the relevant documentation needed to establish your retirement account (the process takes about 20 minutes). The documentation process involves two steps:

    1. ​Contribution and Start Date Selection: You will fill out a simple form whereby you select what percentage or dollar amount of your bi-weekly paycheck you wish to have transferred to your retirement account every two weeks (within plan limits). You also select the date on which you wish such contributions to begin (most people simply choose the next paydate as their contribution start-up date). 

    2. TD Ameritrade account Setup: You will spend about 15 minutes filling out an online application for an online retirement account with TD Ameritrade. At the end of this process you will have a fully active account with TD Ameritrade that you can login to at any time. 

      1. ​Beneficiary Information Note: You will also need to have the following information handy when completing your the account application:

        1. ​Your Social Security Number (SSN)

        2. The Name, and Date-of-Birth OR Social-Security-Number of any person or persons you wish to establish as the "Beneficiary(s)" of your retirement account in the event of your death (You must establish at least one person as your account beneficiary).

  3. Contributions Begin: PetWow's human resource department will then begin withholding your selected amount of retirement contribution from each paycheck and forwarding it to your TD Ameritrade retirement account. Of course, PetWow's own matching contribution will be deposited into your retirement account by April 15th of the following year as described above in the "Benefit Details" section.

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Ongoing Plan Management

  • To Change or Cease Your Retirement Paycheck Deduction: Use the BENEFIT FORM to indicate the new amount or percentage to be deducted, or else indicating your wish to cease retirement contributions altogether. In the case of changes to your per paycheck deduction percentage or dollar total, changes may be made a maximum of once per every 3 months.

  • You May Access and Manage Your Personal Retirement Account Online by logging in with your private Username and Password at TD Ameritrade. Following are just a few of the many things you can accomplish with your online TD Ameritrade account:

    • ​Invest in a wide range of investments

    • Fund your account

    • Change Beneficiaries

    • Change login and password

    • Change address where statements are sent

    • Conduct deep market research

    • Enjoy free real-time stock quotes

    • Much, much more

  • TD Ameritrade Mobile App: You may click HERE to learn about TD Ameritrade’s mobile app which allows full access to your retirement account, including online investing, through your SmartPhone.  

  • For all other plan management issues, please contact PetWow Human Resources

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Planning Tools

  • ​Instructional Video: For those staff members interested in gaining a general grasp of the great benefits to be gained by actively participating in a retirement plan, we highly recommend that you take just 7 minutes of your time and watch THIS video presentation.

  • Retirement Savings Calculator: You may also find THIS Retirement Savings Calculator spreadsheet useful in thinking through your retirement goals and strategies.

  • Retirement Savings Planning Guide: In addition, we also encourage staff members to take a look at TD Ameritrade's helpful Retirement Planning Guide to better understand the benefits of retirement savings and the strategies needed to successfully plan for retirement. 

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