Just in time for Halloween, Melissa Terito and Kasey Melancon share some spine-tingling tales from the world of retirement plans! 👻
In this episode, the hosts dive into two real-life “horror stories” that will make any plan sponsor’s skin crawl—from misplaced safe harbor contributions and unfiled 5500s to Department of Labor audits and $120,000 in missing deferrals. Melissa and Kasey break down what went wrong,how they fixed it, and the lessons learned to help others avoid similar nightmares.
Whether you’re a plan sponsor, advisor, or just love a goodcompliance thriller, this episode will leave you grateful for a smooth audit and a well-run plan.
Tune in for:
Happy Halloween — and may your plan never haunt you! 🎃
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Music by Adam Vitovsky
In this episode of The Sentinel Show, hosts Melissa Terito and Kasey Melancon unpack one of the most significant upcoming changes from the SECURE 2.0 Act — the mandatory Roth catch-up requirement that applies to certain higher-income participants beginning January 1, 2026.
They break down who’s affected, what plan sponsors and payroll providers need to do to stay compliant, and how HR teams can prepare now. From understanding the $145,000 (indexed) FICA wage threshold to coordinating Roth feature updates and avoiding payroll missteps, Melissa and Kasey make a complex rule easy to follow.
They also discuss the IRS’s final regulations, the two-year transition period ending December 31, 2025, and what "good-faith compliance” means for plan operations in the first year.
Whether you manage retirement plans, oversee payroll, or just want to stay ahead of evolving regulations, this episode offers practical insights to help you navigate Roth catch-ups with confidence and clarity.
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Music by Adam Vitovsky
It’s officially 401(k) “selling season,” and Melissa Teritoand Kasey Melancon are diving into the strategies business owners can still use—even if key deadlines have already passed. They unpack what happens when employers miss the October 1st cutoff for establishing a safe harbor 401(k),explore how prior-year testing can provide flexibility for small business owners, and explain why plan design often looks different for smaller companies with only a handful of employees.
The conversation also touches on profit-sharing opportunities, effective dates, and the practical differences between S corporations and other entity types. Melissa and Kasey break down the pros and cons of pushing a plan through before year-end versus waiting until the newyear, and they highlight solutions—like cash balance plans and profit-sharing-only plans—that can still deliver meaningful tax and retirement benefits.
If you’re a business owner who’s procrastinated on yourretirement plan setup, this episode is full of insights to help you understand your options and avoid missing out.
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Music by Adam Vitovsky
Welcome back to The Sentinel Show! Today, Melissa and Kasey boldly go where this podcast hasn’t gone before: talking about investments. Specifically, we go over how cryptocurrency investments within 401(k) plans work and the risks involved when considering whether to invest in cryptocurrency, whether inside or outside of the plan itself. We aren’t investment advisors, but we are TPAs, so listen along to find out our thoughts and recommendationsfor investments within and outside of retirement plans!
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Music by Adam Vitovsky
Welcome back to The Sentinel Show! Today, Melissa and Kasey tackle an unusual but important topic: pairing SEPs (Simplified Employee Pensions) with Cash Balance Plans.
This question led to a deep dive into how these two types ofretirement plans can (and sometimes can’t) work together. Can you retroactively add a cash balance plan to a SEP? What’s the IRS rule about Form 5305? Why does the 31% combined plan limit matter? And ultimately—why might a 401(k) with a cash balance plan offer more flexibility and higher long-term savings potential than a SEP with one?
Melissa and Kasey walk through the rules, limits, andreal-life scenarios to highlight the pros, cons, and tax advantages that come with these different plan combinations.
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Music by Adam Vitovsky
Welcome back to The Sentinel Show! We have a new episode for you to start your week off right. Today, Melissa and Kasey break down another acronym: RMDs, or Required Minimum Distributions. Once someone reaches a certain age, they have to take money out of their 401(k) plan, but there are many rules surrounding these distributions. How old do you have to be before these distributions are required? What amount is required? Who is responsible for these RMDs? What are best practices for participants? Listen along to get our answers to these questions and much more!
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Music by Adam Vitovsky
Welcome back to The Sentinel Show! We have a new name and the same great content! We hope y’all have had a great summer break! This week, Kasey and Melissa catch us up on what they’ve been up to, and they also go over what happens when one business buys or sells another and how that impacts the company’s retirement plans. Can participants who have had their assets merged into another plan take a distribution or not? How does the type of business transaction impact your options and what part does the purchase agreement play in all this? Listen along to hear our answers to these questions and much more!
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Note from the editor: We had a few technical difficulties this episode, so we apologize for the quality change, but we anticipate that this will be fixed for future episodes!
Music by Adam Vitovsky
Welcome back to the Sentinel Pension Show! On our final episode before we take a break for the summer, Kasey and Melissa are breaking down a topic that is widely covered in the TPA world: plans that go off the rails. Our resident plan fixers break down the governing bodies that review these plans, what they’re looking for when they come to audit plans, the safe harbor standard for deposit submissions, the types of corrections systems, and so much more! We hope y’all have a great summer and will come back to learn more with us next season!
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Music by Adam Vitovsky
Welcome back to the Sentinel Pension Show! We have someexciting news – next season of the Sentinel Pension Show will be coming to you from a new office! Today’s episode talks about an important topic: while you may think there are cookie cutter retirement plans, that’s most likely not the case. We talk about potential mistakes that can befall a retirement plan and how mistakes in the plan can snowball into more difficult problems. To learn more about this, continue listening to this great episode!
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Music by Adam Vitovsky
Welcome back to the Sentinel Pension Show! It’s almost theend of the school year and our former teachers, Kasey and Melissa, are teaching us about retirement plan fees. We go over record keeper asset fees, reasonableness of fee requirements, fee disclosure notices, plan benchmarking, and much more!
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Welcome back to the Sentinel Pension Show! For today’sepisode, Kasey and Melissa go over retirement plan rules. We review the new super catch-up rules applicable in 2025, how plan limits have increased, how the super catch-up formula works, and options employees have. We also go employeecontribution limits and 415 limits. Listen along to learn more!
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Music by Adam Vitovsky
Welcome back to the Sentinel Pension Show! On today’sepisode, Melissa is joined by Sentinel Pension team member, Hailey Bass! Today’s episode covers how the sales and implementation process works for new plans. We talk about startup plans, a transfer of assets, target date funds, and much more!
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Welcome back to the Sentinel Pension Show! On today’s episode, we are wrapping up our series on plan documents. We’re talking about the SECURE, CARES, and CAA amendments as well as optional provisions that plan documents may have, including qualified birth and adoption distributions, RMD provisions, the hardship amendment, and more.
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Music by Adam Vitovsky
Welcome back to the Sentinel Pension Show! For this fourth episode, Melissa and Kasey are going over what it means for a plan to be top heavy. We review what a top heavy plan is, who gets top heavy minimums, and how that affects compliance testing.
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Welcome back to the Sentinel Pension Show! For this third episode, Melissa and Kasey are going over force-outs. We review what force-outs are, the benefits of removing terminated employees from a plan, and plan sponsors' responsibilities as they pertain to force-outs. We also break down the process for conducting a force-out from a plan and provide a few recommendations for handling removing terminated employees from a benefit plan.
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Music by Adam Vitovsky
Welcome back to the Sentinel Pension Show! This week, we’re talking all about distributions. Kasey and Melissa go over what distributions are, the importance of only issuing distributions that are qualified, in-service distributions, hardship distributions, retirement age, and more!
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Music by Adam Vitovsky
Welcome back to the Sentinel Pension Show! Melissa and Kasey are starting off this brand new season continuing our discussion of the plan adoption agreement. This next section is all about vesting, or when you become entitled to employer contributions given to a retirement plan. We go over vesting schedules, forfeiture accounts, the rule of parity, and much more!
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Welcome back to the Sentinel Pension Show! Today, Kasey and Melissa discuss new comparability, also known as cross tested profit sharing, which is a method of providing a higher percentage which normally results in a higher dollar amount of a profit sharing to the business owners versus what they have to give their rank-and-file employees. They discuss how safe harbor non-elective contributions are normally paired with new comparability, the gateway test, contribution growth over time, and much more! After this episode, we will be taking a break for the holidays. We look forward to creating new episodes for you soon!
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Welcome back to the Sentinel Pension Show! Today, Kasey and Melissa discuss integrated profit sharing. We review what a profit sharing contribution is, how integrated profit sharing came about, and how integrated profit sharing is calculated. We also discuss vesting schedules, allocation conditions, and much more!
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Welcome back to the Sentinel Pension Show! Today, Kasey and Melissa discuss the next section of the plan document all about employer matching contributions. We review what a participant has to do in order to receive a matching contribution, discretionary matches vs. safe harbor matches, testing requirements, and much more!
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Music by Adam Vitovsky
