SECURE Act 2.0: An Overview

In the final days of 2022, Congress passed a new set of retirement rules designed to facilitate contribution to retirement plans and access to those funds earmarked for retirement. The law is called SECURE 2.0, and it is a follow-up to the Setting Every Community Up for Retirement Enhancement (SECURE) Act passed in 2019. The sweeping legislation has dozens of significant provisions; here are the major provisions of the new law.

New Distribution Rules

Required minimum distribution (RMD) age will rise to 73 years in 2023. By far, one of the most critical changes was increasing the age at which owners of retirement accounts must begin taking RMDs. Further, starting in 2033, RMDs may begin at age 75. If you have already turned 72, you must continue taking distributions. However, if you are turning 72 this year and have already scheduled your withdrawal, we may want to revisit your approach.1

Access to funds

Plan participants can use retirement funds in an...

Problems Hiring? 

We found the secret sauce in the middle of the night at the most random place...

It is no secret that the majority of today’s workforce issue is the ability to attract great talent… or any talent for that matter.  It seems that COVID hit our world and wiped out our workforce.  We keep waiting for the return, but it just doesn’t seem to show any sign of a rebound. 

Over the past 12 months or so, the HRB team has started to notice a trend- companies who have a great culture are not having trouble hiring or retaining employees.  However, companies who struggle with their workplace culture, are struggling to hire and retain new hires and their current workforce.  Of course, we put on our detective hats and started looking into this pattern deeper… what we found was very interesting.  Did you know that (according to businessnewsdaily.com) when searching for a new job, 77% of surveyed respondents to a...

 Starting a new job is stressful, and let’s be honest, so is hiring someone!

The average US employer spends $4000 and 24 days to hire a new worker. (Business Wire, 2019)

If you are like most small businesses, you may not have a lot of manpower to spare – being down a person for even a fraction of that time can mean even more hard work shared between you and your already hardworking team, all while you are taking on the additional and difficult task to find someone new.

Reviewing and interviewing applicants can feel like a frenzy when candidates often have so many options to choose from. When you finally find the right person and they accept your offer, its finally time to relax… well, maybe not quite yet.

Image Credit: @Mattsurelee

Lets try to put ourselves in your new employees’ shoes. Imagine with me for a moment that you are in their position, but rather than starting a new job, you are a guest at a hotel:

You show...

As small businesses, there is so much to balance as we care for our employees. This past year has undeniably kept Colorado small business owners on their toes and busy with a myriad of legal changes. We see all the hard work these changes have required and are proud of the way our community has stepped up to the plate and prevailed! More changes may not be business owners’ top priority this year, but the Colorado General Assembly has their own action plan that will impact us none the less. In the next year, they will be mandating a state sponsored retirement savings plan, the Colorado Secure Savings Program. This plan is designed to make retirement savings more accessible to the Colorado workforce.

With continually pressing financial demands of the present, creating savings to use years from now is often not at top of mind. The fact is financial planning and retirement savings can make for a more predictable future and are exponentially more effective the sooner they begin. At...

Annual performance reviews are both helpful and time consuming. Performance reviews can provide a sense of clarity to an employee's job,  provide a way to plan for goals, create open communication, and a roadmap, pinpointing where they are, and developing a plan, to get to a successful destination. However, reviews have been known to create stress and anxiety leading up to, during, and afterward these reviews. In this blog I will be giving both the benefits and disadvantages of annual performance reviews.

No matter which side you fall on about annual reviews it is always important to provide feedback. In such a busy environment as most small businesses are, the offer of feedback is sometimes lagged. However, it is so important to offer as much feedback to your employees as possible and be open to receiving some as well. Providing feedback in a constructive manner is very beneficial for your employees, if an employee does not receive feedback there is a high chance that the...

Update November 10, 2021:

Though Colorado’s Public Health Emergency ended in July 2021, as of November 10, 2021, there is still a Federal Public Health Emergency Declaration in place. The Healthy Families and Workplace Act (HFWA) states that its emergency paid sick leave provision is required not only during a state or local public health emergency, but also a federal public health emergency. This means that small businesses must still honor the up to 80 hours of sick leave allotted to employees who need time for qualifying reasons. The current wording of the Healthy Families and Workplace Act only provides for this leave through the end of 2021, but we are waiting to see if it will be updated to renew in 2022.

Original Blog posted July 2021:

The last 16 months have brought overwhelming challenges to our small business community. I won't beat a dead horse, we've all been on the same wild ride. However, with the recent announcement from Colorado's Governor...

This piece of legislation came about in an effort to prevent persons with criminal records from being automatically ruled out for job vacancies, Colorado Governor Jared Polis has signed “ban the box” a.k.a. Chance To Compete legislation. The new law asserts that its intent is to provide those with criminal backgrounds a better chance to compete for a job in the workforce and grow Colorado’s economy. It is also intended to promote safer communities and allow employers to have access to an applicant’s complete criminal history. This new law went into affect on September 1st, 2019 with employers with at least eleven employees, and those with less then eleven employees must have had to comply with the new law as of September of 2021. With this new law in place this makes Colorado the 13th state to enact the "ban the box" legislation on private employers. 

Now what exactly is this new law? The Act broadly defines an “employer” as any person...

We’ve all heard of wellness programs and how big companies promote them, however, these companies may be on to something. Enabling a workplace wellness program provides many benefits: reduced stress, greater productivity, increased morale, and reducing health insurance costs (if one is offered). There is a common practice in most businesses around the country of individuals working until they burn out. It is very important that businesses small and big provide their employees different “outlets” that promote a healthy lifestyle. Small business employees tend to wear multiple hats, so employees may not want to take time off as they are dedicated to what they do and may not want to return to a stack of work.

Wellness programs can provide multiple positive outcomes. By providing activities that help reduce stress, create higher productivity, and improve morale, this is great for not only your employees but also...

“Nearly 50 percent of embezzlement thefts occurred at companies with fewer than 25 employees, 82% had 150 or fewer employees”

Source: 2016-Hiscox-Embezzlement-Study

“My aunt and her husband owned a dental practice years ago. It was a successful small business and their employees were like family to them. The bookkeeper on staff took care of their accounting and billing and had been the office manager when they bought the business. She knew more about the books than they did and was seemingly so committed to her job, that she never took time off.

My uncle suspected money was going missing but couldn’t prove it. He checked the ledger daily, they had a double-booking system, and a CPA but couldn’t come up with answers. Then patients started questioning why they were receiving invoices when the insurance companies had paid the claim. My Aunt and Uncle then discovered discrepancies between their records and claims that were marked as...

As we all know, the hot topic for the past year has been COVID-19.  Recently the conversation has turned from doom and gloom to hope and excitement for the future.  Something as simple as the possibility of hugging someone special or walking into a public place without a mask is infusing life back into our community. I know I am bursting at the seams as I look forward to the upcoming summer.  Full disclosure, I may hug the first person who steps on my toes as I push through a crowded room.

As we watch the COVID numbers decrease and the vaccination numbers increase, the small business community is eager to do our part.  Supporting community vaccinations in our businesses through optional or mandatory vaccination policies has brought a ton of questions to the table.   Below are a few questions that we have been able to help the small business community navigate.

Q:  Required Vaccinations vs. Recommended Vaccinations…what should I...