Small Business Solutions

Your partner for growing your business

Small businesses are our bread and butter. We understand the hurdles and challenges you can face when growing your operation, and our team is here to take some pressure off your shoulders so you can focus on the most important parts.

We support long-term growth through tailored small business solutions designed to simplify retirement planning, maximize tax advantages. From SEP and SIMPLE IRAs to 401(k) plans, our expert guidance helps business owners build smarter benefits, attract talent, and invest confidently in their company’s future success.

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Rethinking Small Business Retirement Plans

Retirement accounts represent the largest source (roughly 34.1%) of aggregate wealth for American households. As a result, employee-sponsored retirement accounts are crucial for millions of Americans’ retirement plans. Your business isn’t like everyone else’s, so your retirement plan shouldn’t be either. With customized retirement strategies for your business, you can:

Attract & retain top talent

Create personalized plans

Maximize your tax advantages

Get a dedicated advisor

Offer more investment options

Match employee contributions

Our Small Business Retirement Solutions

At Confluent, we boast retirement plans built for small businesses. Simple to set up. Easy to run. Designed to help owners and employees save more, pay less in taxes, and invest for the future. We offer plans that provide opportunities for small businesses of every sort with less stress. Whether you’re a solo entrepreneur or small operator, or a business with multiple employees, we have options for you:

Business 401(k)

Customized retirement plans built specifically for your business, no matter the size. A 401(k) allows employees to save more from their paychecks than many other plans, while giving your business valuable tax advantages.

Key benefits:

  • Fully tailored plan to fit your business needs
  • Tax benefits for your company
  • Employees can contribute more than with most other plans
  • Optional matching contributions from the employer
  • Growth that’s tax-deferred for long-term savings

Company Retirement Account (CRA)

A Company Retirement Account (CRA) holds your plan’s assets, offers a wider range of investment options, and provides access to Confluent’s retirement planning tools, research, and resources.

Key benefits

  • Wide selection of investment options
  • Flexibility to manage assets in one account or give each participant a separate self-directed account
  • Dedicated advisor for guidance on current market trends

 

SEP IRA

A SEP IRA gives small business owners and self-employed professionals a simple way to save for retirement, supporting both their team and their own future.

Key benefits:

  • Contributions are tax-deductible and fully vested right away
  • Earnings grow tax-deferred over time
  • Adjust contributions each year to fit your business needs
  • Higher contribution limits designed for business owners
  • Opportunity to invest in your employees’ retirement accounts

SIMPLE IRA

SIMPLE IRAs are perfect for small businesses with 100 or fewer employees, giving you an easy way to help your team save for retirement. They’re especially ideal if you don’t already offer another employer-sponsored plan:

Key benefits:

  • Simple, consistent way to grow your own retirement while supporting your employees’ savings
  • Affordable plan primarily funded by employees
  • Tax-deductible contributions for your business
  • Hassle-free setup with no special IRS filings

Why Businesses Partner with Confluent

White Glove Service: Complete setup, adoption documents, payroll integration, and employee enrollment.
We Speak Tax: Plan designs respect owner-level tax strategy and payroll realities.
Transparent Fees: No hidden charges or “gotchas” along with precisely scoped deliverables.
Fiduciary Support: Service to reduce plan sponsor liability and administrative burden
Continued Education: After employee enrollment, we continue to promote financial growth
Compliance: Assistance for filings and testing

Start Building Your Business' Retirement Plan

Book a no-cost consultation and speak with our retirement solutions team today to get started!

Book an introductory meeting

Outsourced Chief Investment Officer (OCIO) Services

As the popularity of OCIO’s grows, many firms are experiencing a wide variety of benefits from hiring an OCIO to expand their investment team. From expanded approaches to added services for their clients, firms of all sizes are able to offer more to their clients than ever before. All of this is happening while maintaining lower costs and shrinking the demands on the time of their team members. Some of the biggest notable benefits of hiring an OCIO include:

➤ Active investment strategies

➤ End-of-year tax harvesting

➤ Portfolio transition assistance

➤ Real-time portfolio updates

➤ Quarterly allocation/ updates

➤ Strategy customization

➤ Portfolio recommendations

➤ Additional research & analysis

➤ Dedicated advisor(s)

The benefits do not stop there! Whether it is access to investment models, access to allocation weights and CAPM or support on ad hoc initiatives, having an OCIO to lean on can level up any operation and keep things on the upward trajectory without much of the hassle that can come along with it.

What does an OCIO do?

An Outsourced Chief Investment Officer (OCIO) acts as a third-party firm that takes on the responsibility of managing an organization’s investment portfolio, essentially acting as an outsourced investment manager, allowing the organization to delegate most or all investment decisions to the OCIO. This can include establishing the strategic asset allocation, picking managers to oversee portfolio management, and offering guidance on the overall direction of client portfolios.

Why choose an OCIO?

Working with an OCIO offers additional expertise and leverage, as well as allowing advisors more time to focus on other elements of their business operations. Organizations working with an OCIO can benefit from additional ideas and expanded investment approaches for their clients. Many teams that work with an OCIO also see more efficient time management, reduced costs, faster decision-making, as well as exposure to a potential network of trusted and insightful professionals.

Our product offering

Confluent offers tailored solutions across every stage of the investment cycle, aligning perfectly with client objectives. Whether focusing on income, growth, or risk management, our expert advisory team works closely with you to craft an ideal portfolio. Our diverse product portfolio includes distinctive options:

Growth strategies

Our large cap equity strategy focuses on capital growth through investments primarily in common stocks, emphasizing companies poised for appreciation.

The Small Cap Growth equity strategy targets capital growth by investing primarily in common stocks, focusing on companies poised for appreciation. With flexibility to allocate over 80% of assets in small-cap growth stocks, we aim for long-term capital appreciation by primarily investing in high-growth small-cap companies.

The Select Technology equity strategy emphasizes capital growth through investments primarily in common stocks, focusing on companies poised for appreciation. With over 80% flexibility in allocating assets to technology stocks, our goal is long-term capital appreciation by primarily investing in high-growth technology stocks.

Our Wealth Xcelerator strategy is dedicated to capital growth, predominantly investing in domestic common stocks that display promising growth potential. The strategy aims to seize opportunities within the U.S. market, allocating 85% or more of its assets to domestic securities.

Preservation strategies

The Total Market Return strategy aims for long-term capital growth by investing in a diverse mix of US sectors and industries through ETFs. These ETFs primarily consist of large, mid, and small-cap stocks, offering exposure to growth oriented companies.

The Global Select is an actively managed investment strategy focusing on both developed and emerging market ETFs. With a primary goal of capital appreciation, the strategy tactically selects ETFs to capitalize on global economic opportunities, aiming to outperform the MSCI ACWI NR Index.

The Sector Rotation strategy actively manages investments across S&P 500 sectors, occasionally including sub-sectors for attractive risk-adjusted returns.

Our Global Tactical Asset Allocation strategy involves carefully choosing where to invest your money across various asset classes like stocks, bonds, and commodities.

Income strategies

The Fixed Income strategy focuses on actively investing in fixed income ETFs, encompassing government bonds, treasuries, investment-grade, high-yield corporate bonds, and below investment-grade ETFs.

This investment strategy invests in an actively managed portfolio comprising stocks forecasted to deliver above-average dividend yields. It looks to maximize income while adjusting for risk and will serve as a core component of an investor looking for reliable income generation through selected dividend-paying assets.

Thanks to an approach that links an investment to top-performing indices like the S&P 500 or any major stocks at a risk level the investor selects, investors benefit from market growth, all while knowing the initial capital is as protected as you want it to be. So, when the market dips, they have protection against those downturns.

Enhance your offering today!

Speak with one of our registered advisors today and take the first step to leveling up your offering.

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Our investment approach

Confluent offers tailored solutions across every stage of the investment cycle, aligning perfectly with client objectives. Whether focusing on income, growth, or risk management, our expert advisory team works closely with you to craft an ideal portfolio. Our diverse product portfolio includes distinctive options to support investors throughout wealth creation, accumulation, preservation, or distribution phases. Explore our comprehensive solutions for optimized investment strategies.

Minimize

When market and macro risks are elevated, our first priority is protection.

We don’t leave your portfolio exposed. Instead, we gradually scale back investments to cash, safeguarding your assets from unpredictable downturns.

This defensive strategy allows us to shield your wealth while remaining flexible for future opportunities, thanks to allocation of cash.

Stabilize

Markets can be a mixed bag, with no clear direction. When that happens we have to balance our approach.

Our strategic balancing act helps capture upside gains while minimizing exposure to unexpected drops.

When indicators send conflicting signals, we manage your portfolio’s Beta (the measure of risk relative to the market) to find the sweet spot between growth and protection.

Capitalize

When the signals are green, it’s time to act. If our conviction in the market is high, we will aim to capitalize.

With a proactive stance and precision timing, we position your investments to achieve maximum growth.

Our Alpha Maximization approach ensures that your portfolio is fully aligned to capture the market’s full upside potential.

Learn more about confluent

Confluent offers tailored solutions across every stage of the investment cycle, aligning perfectly with client objectives. Whether focusing on income, growth, or risk management, our expert advisory team works closely with you to craft an ideal portfolio. Our diverse product portfolio includes distinctive options to support investors throughout wealth creation, accumulation, preservation, or distribution phases. Explore our comprehensive solutions for optimized investment strategies.

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Take the next step!

Speak with one of our registered advisors today and take the first step to leveling up your offering.

Book an introductory meeting

Resources for advisors
Case Study

Securing your golden years: A case study on balancing stability & growth in retirement portfolios

Market volatility can be quite distressing for those people who are nearing or have already reached retirement. The years of careful saving and investment often shift the frequent focus from expansion to preservation. A balance between protecting and growing the wealth accumulated is not easy to strike, and it becomes all the more vital when market volatility is high.

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December 26, 2024 No Comments