Your benefits are your largest talent expense and your most under-leveraged tax tool. Opuera designs them as one integrated system — so every dollar spent on employees also builds owner wealth.
Five service areas. Each one coordinated with your tax strategy, your personal wealth plan, and your long-term business goals.
Most benefits advisors manage benefits. Opuera manages the relationship between your benefits program and your entire financial life — as an owner, as an executive, and as an individual planning for retirement and legacy.
When Opuera designs your 401(k) plan, we are also thinking about your personal contribution strategy, your Roth conversion window, and your RMD exposure at 73. When we structure your executive compensation, we are coordinating it with your tax plan and your exit timeline. Every benefit decision informed by every other decision.
| DECISION AREA | CONVENTIONAL BENEFITS BROKER | OPUERA WEALTH APPROACH |
|---|---|---|
| 401(k) Design | Standard plan from broker shelf. Contribution limits mentioned in passing. Owner contribution rarely optimized. | Plan engineered to maximize owner's tax-deductible contribution — adding $30K–$66K+ per year. Coordinated with personal tax plan from day one. |
| Health Plan Selection | Carrier comparison on premium cost and network coverage. Payroll tax impact never modeled. HSA strategy an afterthought. | Full premium analysis including payroll tax impact, HSA/HRA/FSA coordination, and owner out-of-pocket strategy. Structure reviewed before carrier is selected. |
| Executive Compensation | Outside scope. Client referred to someone else — another relationship, another silo, no coordination. | NQDC, SERPs, Section 162 bonus plans designed in coordination with exit timeline, personal tax strategy, and key talent retention. One integrated design. |
| Key-Person Coverage | Raised only when the client brings it up. Sized to a round number, not actual business exposure. Rarely reviewed again. | Proactively sized against current enterprise value. Reviewed annually. Coordinated with the buy-sell agreement and the business's succession plan. |
| Benefits as Tax Strategy | Benefits and taxes are two separate conversations with two separate professionals. The gaps between them are where money disappears. | Every benefit election modeled for its tax impact — on the owner, on the business, and on the exit. One advisor holds the full picture. |
| Renewal Management | Annual renewal email. Carrier comparison. Done. No year-round cost management, no utilization review, no proactive redesign. | Year-round cost management, claims utilization review, and proactive plan redesign 90 days before renewal — not 5 days before. |
| Exit Planning Coordination | Never mentioned. Benefits wind down when the business is sold. Opportunity gone. | Benefits and compensation structured years before exit to support maximum valuation — NQDC timing, retention bonuses, and plan termination strategy all coordinated. |
Every engagement begins with a comprehensive benefits audit. These are the kinds of outcomes that audit consistently surfaces — anonymized from actual client reviews.
Results are client-specific. Outcomes vary based on plan structure, industry, and employee demographics. All cases anonymized.
Every dollar in employer-paid benefits that is not structured to maximize the owner's tax position is a dollar that could have been sheltered, invested, or transferred. Over 10 years, the difference between a well-coordinated benefits strategy and a conventional one is often measured in hundreds of thousands of dollars — not in premium cost, but in what the owner keeps.
Most owners are shocked when they see exactly how much they're leaving on the table. Your first benefits audit with Opuera is complimentary — no pitch, no obligation, just a clear picture of what your current program is actually costing you.