Why Your Company’s Best People Stay
The executive benefit strategy that turns retention from a hope into a structure.
You’ve probably noticed that retaining top executives gets harder every year. Recruiters are relentless, public companies offer equity packages you can’t match, and your best people know their market value.
But here’s what most business owners don’t realize: the executives who leave aren’t always chasing more money. They’re chasing more security — specifically, the retirement income security that your 401(k) can’t provide.
The Math Behind the Departure
An executive earning $400,000 who maxes out the 401(k) will retire with roughly $130,000–$150,000 in annual income. Their target is $280,000. That’s a $130,000–$150,000 per year gap — and it’s the gap that makes recruiter calls worth answering.
How Companies Like Yours Are Solving It
We worked with a technology company that had lost two senior leaders in three years. We designed a SERP program for their five-person executive team: a supplemental retirement benefit that closes each executive’s specific income gap, vesting over seven years (creating a golden handcuff worth $2–$5 million per person), funded through COLI that recovers the company’s cost over time.
The result: the company now has a quantifiable retention tool that no recruiter can easily replicate. The executives have retirement income security. And the company’s net long-term cost approaches zero because the COLI death benefit recovers the investment.
Who Else Might Need This?
If you know a business owner who’s losing key executives, struggling to compete with public company benefit packages, or worried about what happens when their leadership team gets recruited away — we’d welcome the introduction.
A forwarded email with our booking link is the easiest way. 20 minutes is all it takes to explore whether an executive benefit program makes sense for their company.
Know Someone Who Could Benefit?
If you know a business owner, ESOP company, or executive who might be dealing with any of the issues discussed in this article, we’d welcome the introduction. A 20-minute conversation is all it takes to determine if we can help.
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About SSG Financial Group
SSG Financial Group provides integrated insurance and financial planning solutions for business owners, ESOP companies, and high-net-worth families. We work on wealth transfer, business transition planning, ESOP repurchase liability funding, and executive benefits.
