Retirement plan is about saving money for the future, i.e for life after retirement. These plans are defined in tax terms by the IRS code and are regulated under Employee Retirement Income Security Act, in U.S.A. If you are an employee, company must take care of your retirement, or if you are engaged in a business, then you must take care of your future as businesses are volatile and can change at any moment.
Retirement plans are of two types, defined benefit plan and defined contribution plan. A defined benefit plan comprises or gives a specified monthly benefit at retirement. The benefit in defined benefit plan is determined by the employee’s salary, number of years of employment, age at retirement, number of years of service, etc.
The retirement income mainly depends on the years of service to a particular organization. The longer the time you are associated with the organization, the more you get your monthly income at retirement. There are many methods used to calculate the defined benefit plan, however, the result is a fixed monthly income that the employer is committed to pay the retiree for the rest of his life.
Defined contribution plan does not ensure specific amount after retirement. In this plan, the employer or the employee contribute to the employees individual account. These contributions are generally invested on behalf of the employee in the employee’s account. The employee will ultimately receive the balance, and the value of contribution depends on the changes in the value of the investments.
A Simplified Employee Pension plan (SEP) allows employees to make contributions on a tax-favored basis, when employee owns or sets up an individual retirement accounts (IRAs). Thus many plans contribute to the benefit of the employees after retirement.