Look beyond the obvious.
Built on purpose. Designed for legacy.
Actuarial Excellence
Stop settling for $72,000 401(k) limits. Defer $300,000+ of income into a cash balance plan — deductible against business income, certified by an in-house actuarial desk.
$0.0M+
Lifetime tax deductions
$0.00M+
Family payout
0+
Owners & professionals served
Plan Fundamentals
An IRS-qualified defined benefit pension that reports your benefit as an account balance — funded by the business, certified each year by an enrolled actuary.
A cash balance plan is an IRS-qualified defined benefit pension that reports your benefit as an account balance. Each year the plan credits a pay credit — a percentage of compensation or a flat dollar amount — plus an interest credit at a rate written into the plan document.
A 401(k) caps what you put in. A defined benefit plan fixes the benefit you are working toward — the contribution is whatever an actuary calculates is needed to get there. Age and income drive that math, so a fifty-something owner with strong profit funds far more per year, deductibly, than someone in their thirties.
Most pension cost and complexity comes from covering staff: coverage testing, nondiscrimination, contributions for employees who may not stay. Just you — or you and your spouse — and none of that applies. Owner-only plans are also generally exempt from PBGC coverage and its premiums.
Contributions are largely required once the plan exists — you are funding a promise, and underfunding carries excise tax. It needs an enrolled actuary, an annual valuation, and a Form 5500. Best for income that holds up year to year; a plan can be designed with a range and frozen if things change.
Who it fits
The Cornerstone Method
Every plan we design moves through the same five faces — qualify, design, fund, protect, rescue. Nothing improvised, nothing left to chance.
01
Consistently profitable business, owner income comfortably into the $200,000+ range, typically age 40+. We confirm the fit before anything is drafted.
02
An enrolled actuary translates your age, compensation, and target benefit into a maximum deductible contribution — and a range you can live with year to year.
03
Contributions are deductible against business income. Paired with a 401(k) and profit sharing, total annual deductible contributions for an older owner can approach or exceed $400,000.
04
The plan can hold life insurance within the incidental-benefit rules — premiums paid from deductible contributions, with only the economic-benefit cost reported as income.
05
Overperformance can overfund a plan and put the deduction at risk. Actuarial defunding — including IRC 412(e)(3) approaches — repositions the plan and restores the deduction.
2026 Contribution Limits
Official IRS figures for the 2026 plan year, per IRS Notice 2025-67.
| Limit | 2026 | 2025 |
|---|---|---|
| Defined benefit annual benefit limit — IRC 415(b) | $290,000 | $280,000 |
| Compensation that can be counted — IRC 401(a)(17) | $360,000 | $350,000 |
| Total additions to a DC plan — IRC 415(c) | $72,000 | $70,000 |
| 401(k) / 403(b) employee contribution | $24,500 | $23,500 |
| Catch-up contribution (age 50+) | $8,000 | $7,500 |
Deductible Capacity
A 401(k) caps what you put in. A defined benefit plan funds a promise — so the older and more profitable you are, the more the IRS lets you deduct.
For illustrative purposes only. Figures shown are illustrative of plan designs we have built, are hypothetical in nature, and are not a guarantee of future results. Your own numbers depend on your age, income, and plan design. Contribution limits reflect IRS Notice 2025-67 for the 2026 plan year. Holding life insurance in a qualified plan is governed by the IRS incidental-benefit rules (Rev. Rul. 2004-20), which cap how much protection a plan can carry. This is general information about how these plans work, not tax or legal advice — please consult an independent tax or financial advisor before acting.
Pension Calculator
Move the three dials. This is an illustrative model of what a cash balance plan, paired with a 401(k) and profit sharing, could deduct against your business income this year.
Total deductible contribution
$337,000
Deducted against business income for the 2026 plan year.
Estimated tax deferred
$124,690
at a 37% marginal rate
Plan balance by 62
$3,232,518
10 funding years at a 5% crediting rate
Illustrative only. Actual limits depend on plan design, compensation history, staff census, and IRC 415(b) maximums — not a guarantee of a deduction.
The Pension Rescue Engine
Overperformance can overfund a plan and erase the deduction. Guaranteed 3.0% whole life suppresses the plan's yield — mathematically forcing the IRS to allow larger deductible contributions.
It's not an investment; it's a yield suppressor. By shifting assets to guaranteed 3.0% whole life policies, we lower the plan's overall yield — mathematically forcing the IRS to allow larger tax-deductible contributions.
Move corporate profit into a death benefit whose pure insurance amount passes to your heirs income-tax-free, sidestepping the income tax and RMDs they would otherwise owe on inherited retirement assets. The policy's cash value is still taxed to them as a plan distribution, and proceeds count toward your estate.
Funding protection alongside your retirement benefit can support a larger contribution — the insurance just has to stay incidental: broadly, premiums under 50% of contributions for whole life, 25% for term or universal.
The Strategic Difference
| Capability | Cornerstone Method | Generic providers |
|---|---|---|
In-House Actuarial Desk Direct access to our actuaries for rapid plan design and 72-hour rescue response. | Included | Outsourced / 3rd party |
Pension Rescue (Whole Life) Proprietary actuarial defunding math to restore vanished tax deductions. | Included | Not supported |
Joint Defense Protocol IRS audit representation for every plan we design and certify. | Included | None |
ERISA Asset Fortress The highest level of federal creditor protection available in the US legal system. | Federal level | State level only |
* Comparison based on internal actuarial audit of top 5 national TPA firms.
Tax Deductions & FAQ
How and where pension contributions hit your return — S-corp, sole proprietorship, and partnership filers.
Employer contributions for the owner-employee are deducted by the corporation on Form 1120-S as a pension/profit-sharing expense, reducing the income that flows through to your personal return. Because the deduction sits at the entity level, it lowers your pass-through income rather than appearing as a personal itemized deduction.
For a sole proprietor, the contribution is taken as an above-the-line deduction on Form 1040 and reduces income tax, but it does not reduce self-employment tax. In an S-corp the interaction with payroll is different — reasonable compensation still drives FICA. This is where plan design and entity structure are worked together.
It depends on your age, compensation, and plan design. As a rough guide, annual cash balance contributions commonly range from roughly $100,000 for younger owners to well over $300,000 for owners in their late 50s and 60s — on top of what you put into a 401(k). Your exact number is actuarially determined.
Contributions are largely required once the plan exists, which is why we design with a funding range rather than a single figure. If circumstances change materially, a plan can be amended or frozen. We model the downside before the plan is adopted, not after.
Usually, yes. Overfunding is a good problem caused by success, but it must be managed before year-end. Actuarial defunding using guaranteed whole life lowers the plan's assumed yield, which restores deductible space. Our desk targets a 72-hour rescue response.
Yes. Plan design can differentiate benefit levels among partners within nondiscrimination limits, which is one reason partnerships often get more value from a custom design than from an off-the-shelf plan.
Insights
Plain-language education on limits, deductions, entity mechanics, and pension rescue — written for owners and the CPAs who advise them.