This type of plan provides for deferred sharing of employer profits with employees. Contributions to the plan are usually discretionary, a feature many employers find desirable if they are not certain how much they can contribute to a plan from year to year. Profit sharing plans may be designed to allocate profits based on a percentage of pay, job classifications or units based on a combination of salary and hours worked.

This type of plan allows for pre-tax employee salary deferral contributions. The annual employee salary deferral is limited by law to $18,000 for the calendar year 2015 and 2016. Employees over age 50 may defer an additional "catch-up" amount of $6,000. Employers may contribute discretionary matching and/or profit sharing contributions. The employer is limited to 25% of total eligible compensation between all forms of contribution, although individuals within the group may have higher contribution rates. Salary deferrals are not included in this limitation. The plan should be communicated in such a way as to encourage high levels of participation, both initially and in the future, by employees at all levels of the organization.

In this type of 401(k) Plan, the employer Safe Harbor contributions are defined as a percentage of compensation and are determined prior to the start of each plan year. By committing to the fixed profit sharing or matching Safe Harbor formula the Employer is able to avoid the complicated discrimination testing which often limits contributions by the highly compensated employees under traditional 401(k) Plans. The annual employee salary deferral is limited by law to $18,000 for the calendar years 2015 and 2016. Employees over age 50 may defer an additional "catch-up" amount of $6,000.

This plan type pre-defines the dollar amount of employees' retirement benefits. The employer has minimum funding requirements, regardless of profitability. Benefits received at retirement are limited to $210,000 per year (2015 and 2016). This maximum amount increases each year for cost of living adjustments.

A traditional Defined Benefit Plan defines the retirement benefit in terms of a monthly benefit that each participant will receive at retirement. The monthly benefit is usually based on a participant's compensation, the benefit formula and their years of participation. A Cash Balance Plan defines the retirement benefit in terms of a theoretical account. The plan defines what the theoretical contribution (pay credit) and interest accumulation rate will be for each participant. A Cash Balance Plan is usually easier for participants to understand and appreciate the value of their benefits, since the participant statements reflect an annual account balance, while the statements for a traditional Defined Benefit Plan reflect the value of a monthly annuity commencing at Normal Retirement Date. Defined Benefit Plans, including Cash Balance Plans do not allow for participant investment direction.