We are consultative in our approach and focus both on the financial side of a companies' plans as well as the psychological side of the total impact a well designed compensation plan can have on corporate culture which we believe is the backbone of a companie's success.
The smaller, closely held business can follow some of the Fortune 500 style arrangements that have been around since the early 60's and many of those strategies are still being used today. However, very few private, closely held companies are aware of what these plans can do, and we often hear "I didn't know I could do that" or "you mean I can choose who gets to be in the plan and there are no limits?"
Implementing these sophisticated compensation designs are favorable for both employers and employees and these plans can vault the company miles ahead of their competition. At the same time, these plans can effectively "incentivize" great talent, so they remain at your company years longer than otherwise jumping ship to a "greener pasture" position, possibly with a competitor company.
These retention/reward plans are targeted for just the key employees, the ones who drive the bottom line and the ones who would be extremely expensive to replace. These comp plans are often the richest and most important benefit these key people have and, in most cases, the business owner can also reward themselves by being a participant in the plan.
Rank and file benefits (major medical/401K etc) are necessary however the "selective" plan designs we build are reserved for your upper income talent and carry more favorable tax advantages than the typical 401k/profit sharing plans.
The plan designs are totally selective as to who gets to participate and there are no funding limits, especially beneficial for incomes north of 200K/year since they are bumping into maximum contributions in their 401k plans. This "reverse discrimination" can be easily addressed with a well-designed "non-qualified" executive compensation plan and when vesting periods and even non-compete agreements are used, maximum retention strength can be attained.
TPG is well versed on how to integrate these plans into existing benefit plans, and we have a deep bench of financial professionals who can assist in helping executives fully leverage these plans to the greatest extent possible. Our plan designs are effective. We see significant increases in company productivity and positive changes in the culture of a company that has one of our versions in place.