Nonqualified Deferred Compensation

You want to go the extra mile for your highest paid executives and key employees, to link their personal financial objectives closely with company goals. A Non-qualified Deferred Compensation plan arrangement can give these key contributors the ability to defer receiving a certain amount of compensation until a point in the future, with potentially powerful tax and investment benefits.

Your key employees are likely to have financial plans for the future that would typically center on long-term objectives such as:

• Supplemental retirement savings
• Life events, such as college tuition
• Purchase of a vacation home
• Second Acts or charitable giving

In the near term, a non-qualified plan can give employees the ability to better manage tax liabilities triggered by restricted share awards.

For plan sponsors:

Bank of America Merrill Lynch can help you navigate the requirements necessary to make this benefit effective for your company and your key employees, regardless of your plan size. Key advantages include:

• A single point of contact for all plans served by Bank of America Merrill Lynch
• Payroll coordination
• Tracking and reporting of beneficiary information and vesting schedules
• Monthly asset and liability reporting to facilitate accounting and financial reporting
• Class year accounting
• Distribution calculations
• Consulting, investments, investment management and recordkeeping services
• Financing and cash flow review
• Rabbi Trust services to provide an extra measure of assurance for participating executives.

For key employees:

With our powerful integrated benefits capabilities, key employees can take active control of their non-qualified deferred compensation plan benefits, with a more holistic view of other plans and resources. Advantages include:

• Integrated views of other retirement and equity plans serviced by Bank of America Merrill Lynch
• Web-based enrollment and distribution management
• Unified views of in-service and retirement accounts, and investments.

A team of registered representatives in our Retirement & Benefits Contact Center is trained and able to answer participant questions and help them make informed choices regarding enrollment, how much to contribute, distribution elections, and how investment-tracking decisions affect their deferrals.

Specially designated Merrill Lynch Financial Advisors are also available to assist executives in understanding and using the plan, structuring tax strategies, distribution elections, and other complex decisions.