Let’s be honest here: something for nothing is what we commonly believe to be the definition of free. However, even free offers have a cost. In the area of your 401k plan, your employer will likely offers free tools. Common among them will be informational brochures on how the plan works, how you opt-in, what investments are available on the main menu and perhaps investment choices off the main menu. You may have free access to retirement calculators which will generate the familiar pie-chart. photo © 2010 Riki Maltese | more info (via: Wylio)Your employer may even offer free educational seminars to guide you through the process. What they will not do however is give you specific investment advice. Period.

What is advice? Advice is an ongoing process. It is not an event. The reason your employer offers a 401k plan vs. a pension plan is because the idea was to shift the burden of saving and investing for retirement directly to you, the employee. Advice is making specific recommendations as to what products to use and exactly how much money to put into each product. It is basically helping you construct a portfolio designed for you, personally. Advice includes a mutual understanding that as things change, in your life as well as in the investment markets, adjustments must be made.

The simple answer to the question above is your employer cannot give you advice ~ free or otherwise. However, as a result of the Pension Protection Act of 2006,  your employer can now modify your plan so that you can use pre-tax dollars directly from your plan assets to hire your own independent investment adviser. The benefit to you is that your adviser will not have any obligation to please Fidelity or Schwab or Hewitt or whichever company was hired to provide your 401k platform. Your adviser will be indifferent to their profit motive to keep you invested at all times and in all markets, particularly in the mutual funds offered on the main menu of investment options.

Regardless of whether your company will modify the 401k plan to allow payment for these services out of your own assets, you have always been free to contract investment advice on your own. With the Pension Protection Act of 2006 however broker-dealers are even more diligent in telling their representatives that they are NOT to give plan participants advice on those assets. They have always been careful to avoid the Fiduciary Liability that would come with such advice. So, if you can see the value of having face-to-face, ongoing, personal advice on your plan assets, you will be looking for an independent investment adviser ~ unaffiliated with any broker-dealer ~ to help you with your own 401k strategy

Want more?

Enjoy unlimited access to 7 short, video tutorials which will quickly take you step-by-step through this easy process. Videos range in length from 4 to 13 min. averaging about 10 min. Just click here. 

Disclaimer