Teachers: Who is Managing Your 403(b)?

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With autumn just around the corner, many teachers have returned to their classrooms. The end-of-summer teacher ritual of decorating, stapling and contacting parents has made its return. I know from personal experience, though, that teachers would be wise to use any spare time to investigate their retirement accounts and determine whether their money is being deployed as effectively as possible.

My mom was a public school teacher and single mother. You can imagine how slim her finances were. Still, she managed to save up some money despite her paltry salary. After a while, however, she found out that the managers of her 403(b) plan were not investing her money as effectively as they should have been. A lot of her savings were tied up in a high-cost annuity that could have been invested in much cheaper options. These people, who were employed by the county to help her money grow, were actually eroding her savings. (For related reading, see: Do You Need to Change Your Financial Advisor?)

Digging Deeper Into Your Retirement Account

My mom’s experience is what drove me to operate as an independent, fee-only, fiduciary advisor. Those words mean that a fiduciary will never do to clients what my mother’s managers did to her—we are legally obligated to act only in clients’ best interests. Most schools will offer a 403(b) plan for teachers. However, as with the custodians of my mom’s savings, these plans can often be managed by a third party, non-fiduciary advisor who may not act in clients’ best interests. Non-fiduciary advisors are held only to a suitability standard, which means that they are obligated only to make investments that are suitable for you.

These advisors can buy investment products that are the best for their own pockets, not yours. In fact, the Indexed Annuity Leadership Council is one of the many groups suing the Department of Labor over its new fiduciary rule. Additionally, several big insurance companies are projected to see reduced earnings as a result of a predicted decrease in annuity sales when the fiduciary rule takes effect. (For related reading, see: The Conflicts of Interest Around 401(k)s.)

By contrast, fee-only, fiduciary advisors make only the investments that are the most suitable. We aren’t looking for efficiencies or working for sales commissions on the products we recommend to you. Fiduciaries strive to provide the best advice to investors looking to build a strong foundation, like teachers. These advisors grow with you, not at your expense by profiting off the products assembled for you.

Teachers, we encourage you to spend some time finding out more about the practices of your retirement fund manager. It’s vital to find out whether they are a fiduciary, how they make money (fee-based or fee-only), and how personalized their investment strategy is.

READ MORE: Comedian John Oliver recently did a segment on the subject of retirement planning that addresses this. You can check out our 4 quick takeaways from the monologue.

This article was originally published on Investopedia.com

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The views expressed in this blog post are as of the date of the posting, and are subject to change based on market and other conditions. This blog contains certain statements that may be deemed forward-looking statements. Please note that any such statements are not guarantees of any future performance and actual results or developments may differ materially from those projected.
Please note that nothing in this blog post should be construed as an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to purchase an interest in any security or separate account. Nothing is intended to be, and you should not consider anything to be, investment, accounting, tax or legal advice. If you would like investment, accounting, tax or legal advice, you should consult with your own financial advisors, accountants, or attorneys regarding your individual circumstances and needs. No advice may be rendered by Sherman Wealth unless a client service agreement is in place.
If you have any questions regarding this Blog Post, please Contact Us.

The Conflicts of Interest Around 401(k)s

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A new study in the Journal of Finance has found that conflicts of interest in 401(k) plans can lead to serious losses for individual investors. More specifically, the 2,500 funds surveyed were less likely to eliminate underperforming funds that were their own rather than another provider’s fund. This can be very costly to retirement savers. Clemens Sialm, a professor of finance at the University of Texas at Austin and one of the study’s authors, explained that the bottom 10% of funds continued to underperform by about 4% if kept on the menu of funds available to investors.

With all of the attention lately focused on reducing these conflicts of interest where financial managers invest your money in their own funds (among individual financial advisors rather than institutional), it is surprising to see the bias getting coverage on an institutional level. As of June 2015, $4.7 trillion were invested in 401(k) accounts, plus another $2.1 trillion in non-401(k) defined-contribution plans. As John Oliver recently detailed, these conflicts of interest can cost millions over the course of a single retirement plan’s life. (For related reading, see: Financial Failings of NBA Legend Antoine Walker.)

Why the Conflicts Exist

The reason for the existence of these conflicts of interest is simple. Managers are prioritizing the profits of their institution over the success of the retirement plans they oversee. And there is no question that it is a raw deal for the investor. We’ve previously covered how many actively managed funds don’t even beat the market in the first place, and this study confirms that failing funds aren’t even taken off the menu of options. Imagine if your local restaurant kept undercooking their chicken and everyone was getting sick, but they refused to change the recipe.
Many employees at big asset management firms are now suing their own companies to liberate their own retirement plans from management. These people know it’s a scam, and God forbid that their own money gets caught up in it, but by and large they are OK with selling you inefficient funds. (For related reading, see: 6 Questions to Ask a Financial Advisor and Do You Need to Change Your Financial Advisor?)

These current events—and the study—indicate that conflicts of interest are pervasive in all aspects of the retirement planning industry, whether it’s a 401(k) through your employer or via traditional financial advisors. Dealing with this reality requires vigilance on your part. To return to the analogy of the undercooked chicken, it would be an easy case to deal with since everyone could tell that the chicken was making them sick. But what allows traditional asset companies to get away with conflicts of interest is that many people are simply too busy to monitor their accounts—that is, to find out if they are sick or not. If the undercooked chicken gave you an illness that was hard to detect, it would be much easier for the restaurant to get away with it.

Luckily, the tide is beginning to turn, and you can impact change, even with your 401(k). You should become an advocate for your own money. Contact your HR department and ask to see the performance of the menu of funds. See who’s managing it, how the menu has changed and evaluate the extent of conflicts of interest.

Ultimately, independent, conflict-free advice and management is the best cure for the industry’s problem. (For related reading, see: Why Investors Can Be Their Own Worst Enemy.)

This article was originally published on Investopedia.com

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The views expressed in this blog post are as of the date of the posting, and are subject to change based on market and other conditions. This blog contains certain statements that may be deemed forward-looking statements. Please note that any such statements are not guarantees of any future performance and actual results or developments may differ materially from those projected.
Please note that nothing in this blog post should be construed as an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to purchase an interest in any security or separate account. Nothing is intended to be, and you should not consider anything to be, investment, accounting, tax or legal advice. If you would like investment, accounting, tax or legal advice, you should consult with your own financial advisors, accountants, or attorneys regarding your individual circumstances and needs. No advice may be rendered by Sherman Wealth unless a client service agreement is in place.
If you have any questions regarding this Blog Post, please Contact Us.

Why Go Where Your Money’s Not Wanted?

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In the film The Shining, a ghostly bartender tells Jack “your money’s no good here,” while other ghosts are planning to do away with Jack and his family. In December it was Wells Fargo doing the “ghosting.” By urging its brokers to get rid of clients with a minimum balance of less than 65,000, Wells Fargo Advisors sent a clear message to younger investors that, going forward, their money is “no good” at Wells Fargo.

In a company statement quoted by Janet Levaux in Think Advisor, Wells Fargo, which is the most valuable financial institution in the world according to the WSJ,* said that, in 2016, “bonuses will be awarded to FAs with 75% of their client households at $250,000.”

Wells Fargo isn’t the only large institution effectively ignoring Millennials and other smaller and entry-level clients. Most of the corporate institutions prefer high-net worth clients because it creates “efficiencies of scale” and a higher profit margin on larger trades.

As frustrating as the requirement for a high minimum balance is for first time investors, it has also inspired a new breed of smaller independent RIAs, like Sherman Wealth Management (“SWM”), as well as the the new “robo-advisor” firms.

Younger, breakaway firms like SWM aren’t looking for “efficiencies” or working for sales commissions on the products we recommend. Our focus is different. We strive to help investors build a strong foundation then grow with them, not by profiting off the trades, good or bad, we recommend for them.

Where large brokerages currently see a “revenue problem,” we see a growth potential and are building long-term lasting relationships. By the time Wells Fargo and the other firms with traditional models get around to investing their time and attention in younger investors, it may just be too late. Those Millennial clients will be growing their wealth with firms that didn’t “ghost” them and, like Jack – spoiler alert! – may end up being “frozen out” of the largest wealth transfer in the history of the world as capital shifts from Boomers to Millennials.

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The views expressed in this blog post are as of the date of the posting, and are subject to change based on market and other conditions. This blog contains certain statements that may be deemed forward-looking statements. Please note that any such statements are not guarantees of any future performance and actual results or developments may differ materially from those projected.
Please note that nothing in this blog post should be construed as an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to purchase an interest in any security or separate account. Nothing is intended to be, and you should not consider anything to be, investment, accounting, tax or legal advice. If you would like investment, accounting, tax or legal advice, you should consult with your own financial advisors, accountants, or attorneys regarding your individual circumstances and needs. No advice may be rendered by Sherman Wealth unless a client service agreement is in place.
If you have any questions regarding this Blog Post, please Contact Us.
*http://www.wsj.com/articles/wells-fargo-co-is-the-earths-most-valuable-bank-1437538216