The Spark

Small businesses that don’t have many employees have struggled to offer retirement plans — often because starting a retirement package from scratch can be expensive.

The SECURE Act (Setting Every Community Up for Retirement Enhancement Act of 2019) that became law last year, created a new type of 401(k) called pooled employer plans that allows multiple employers to join one single retirement plan.

Conrad Siegel Investment Advisors has launched the first pooled plan in the region called Central PA 401(k) that is geared toward employers with fewer than 70 workers. The plan will be managed by Conrad Siegel and is advertised as hands off for the employer.

Conrad Siegel Partner and Consulting Actuary Trevor Bare provides details of the new Central PA 401(k) on Thursday’s Smart Talk.

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The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection says a third of the state’s streams are impaired or polluted — meaning those waterways are unsafe for aquatic life, recreation, fish consumption and water supply. All told, Pennsylvania has 27,

Pennsylvania’s Supreme Court last week blocked an inspection of voting machine equipment in heavily-Republican Fulton County – a county where former President Donald Trump won easily. The machines Republicans want to look at have been decertified bec...

A poll by Muhlenberg College and Keep Our Republic finds that Pennsylvanians continue to be polarized when it comes to elections and voting. Perhaps the biggest takeaway from the poll is how Democrats and Republicans view the 2020 presidential election...

The U.S. is in the middle of another COVID-19 surge – this one driven by the omicron variant. Almost two years into the pandemic, one of frustrations for the medical community and — really all of us — is the unpredictability of the virus.

The nation’s blood supplies are at historically low levels and it could have real world impacts when patients need blood to be treated for an illness, condition or injury. The American Red Cross has called the current supply of blood a “national crisis...

The Winter Olympics in Beijing begin in less than three weeks on February 4th. Figure skating will be one of the most watched competitions and one that garners the most interest. Central Pennsylvania has a robust figure skating scene itself.

News is out this week about the new Giant Center for Advanced Agriculture and Sustainability at Harrisburg University of Science and Technology. When in operation, the center will provide “research, education, career pathing in sustainability,

Fourteen percent of American farmers were Black a century ago. Today, only 1.4% of farmers are African-American. An organization that is trying to change that and help other minorities become part of the agriculture industry is MANRRS – Minorities in A...

Agriculture is touted as Pennsylvania’s number one industry. It has a wide-ranging impact from the food we eat to the businesses that sell or serve that food. The Pennsylvania Farm Show, that is going on now,