An employee just got off a difficult phone call with their mortgage lender – they can't afford their monthly payment for the third month in a row. They're frustrated and more than likely, ready to do whatever it takes to keep their home. Their next call is to your client's HR department.

HR professionals are overwhelmed with calls like this; their employee wants to take a hardship withdrawal from their retirement plan and they could use some help communicating the consequences of pulling from one's retirement plan, along with the backlash they get when employees eventually get their tax bill.

But it's not just HR that hardship withdrawals and loans hurt. For the participant, it means a possible and often unexpected tax bill next year. For you, it means depleting your plan's assets.