Author Topic: best i401k providers  (Read 2898 times)

wearfannypacks

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best i401k providers
« on: June 25, 2017, 09:58:20 PM »
Looking for a different brokerage for my i401k. I want an easy interface and process to make contributions. Access to S&P 500 mutual funds. No fees. Roth option is not needed - high income earners looking to tax defer. Unhappy with Schwab after 2 months.

Anyone have experience with E-trade or Fidelity? Unfortunately I can't test drive the interface before signing up.

 I can't remember why, but when I researched it, Vangaurd had weird fees. We ended up going with Schwab. Turns out I have to call in every month when I make a contribution to specify the tax year. Which is dumb, since with i401ks you can only contribute for the current calendar year anyway. The logistics are annoying. There are 4 steps to get the money into my account and invested into thier S&P 500 index fund. Great cuz fees are so low, annoying to go through so many steps to get the money in there each month. Business checking-Schwab Checking-scwab brokerage-call into make i401k- buy S&P 500 index fund.

Rollovers to a different brokerages are no fee. I'm willing to go through the sign up process again to reduce this headache.

khizr

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Re: best i401k providers
« Reply #1 on: June 26, 2017, 12:07:48 AM »
I rec Guideline.com, super low fees.

DavidAnnArbor

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Re: best i401k providers
« Reply #2 on: June 26, 2017, 07:36:51 AM »
 I use Fidelity. But now I realize I want to do the megabackdoor Roth so now I have to do a different company.

Kriegsspiel

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Re: best i401k providers
« Reply #3 on: June 26, 2017, 08:25:00 AM »
Looking for a different brokerage for my i401k. I want an easy interface and process to make contributions. Access to S&P 500 mutual funds. No fees. Roth option is not needed - high income earners looking to tax defer. Unhappy with Schwab after 2 months.

Anyone have experience with E-trade or Fidelity? Unfortunately I can't test drive the interface before signing up.

 I can't remember why, but when I researched it, Vangaurd had weird fees. We ended up going with Schwab. Turns out I have to call in every month when I make a contribution to specify the tax year. Which is dumb, since with i401ks you can only contribute for the current calendar year anyway. The logistics are annoying. There are 4 steps to get the money into my account and invested into thier S&P 500 index fund. Great cuz fees are so low, annoying to go through so many steps to get the money in there each month. Business checking-Schwab Checking-scwab brokerage-call into make i401k- buy S&P 500 index fund.

Rollovers to a different brokerages are no fee. I'm willing to go through the sign up process again to reduce this headache.

If I'm remembering correctly, the weird Individual 401k fees are waived if you have enough money with Vanguard in all your accounts.

Heroes821

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Re: best i401k providers
« Reply #4 on: June 26, 2017, 09:36:25 AM »
I use Vanguard and I haven't seen any weird fees yet, but I definitely contributed for 2016 tax year in 2017 before April 15th 2017.

wearfannypacks

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Re: best i401k providers
« Reply #5 on: June 26, 2017, 01:04:09 PM »
With Vanguard, I'm disappointed that they don't allow you to invest in Admiral shares...it's Investor shares regardless of how much is actually in your account. Has anyone here heard otherwise?

With Fidelity, I'm seeing that I can't contribute online and instead need to send in a check...is this true?

For TDAmeritrade, also seeing that you either have to send in a check or do a wire transfer (not ACH).

Basically looking for a solo-401(k) company that has an online interface that doesn't require talking to someone every month and allows everything to be completed online with investment options that include said company's lowest cost index funds (would be nice to have an ER of 0.04% like Vanguard 500 Admiral).

Heroes821

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Re: best i401k providers
« Reply #6 on: June 26, 2017, 01:33:11 PM »
With Vanguard, I'm disappointed that they don't allow you to invest in Admiral shares...it's Investor shares regardless of how much is actually in your account. Has anyone here heard otherwise?

With Fidelity, I'm seeing that I can't contribute online and instead need to send in a check...is this true?

For TDAmeritrade, also seeing that you either have to send in a check or do a wire transfer (not ACH).

Basically looking for a solo-401(k) company that has an online interface that doesn't require talking to someone every month and allows everything to be completed online with investment options that include said company's lowest cost index funds (would be nice to have an ER of 0.04% like Vanguard 500 Admiral).

No admiral shares in the Vanguard i401k, but I definitely haven't needed to call anyone for anything and can manage the entire thing through the small business login and can track it in my normal vanguard login with my Taxable and IRA accounts.

DavidAnnArbor

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Re: best i401k providers
« Reply #7 on: June 26, 2017, 02:09:48 PM »
With Fidelity, I just deposit money into the cash management account or the brokerage account.

But I do have to call each time I want to buy the Spartan Advantage class or premium class, not sure what it's called now, index funds.

Calling has not been a problem at all.

Calvin

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Re: best i401k providers
« Reply #8 on: July 05, 2017, 04:55:09 PM »
I also am a fan of Vanguard for my i401k, except that there are currently no Admiral shares.

I haven't had any fees with it. I think there may be some minimum. It was easy to set up and it's nice not to deal with a separate account at another brokerage and stay within the Vanguard family.

BigHaus89

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Re: best i401k providers
« Reply #9 on: July 06, 2017, 04:38:29 PM »
We also use Vanguard. Haven't incurred any fees yet, but I recall them being very reasonable. It is easy to contribute online. Since we already use Vanguard for other accounts, it makes it easy to keep everything in one place.

ixtap

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Re: best i401k providers
« Reply #10 on: July 06, 2017, 06:54:09 PM »
I use Vanguard because some blogger recommended it. I was not impressed with the process of setting it up. "If you want to leave everything to your spouse, just check this box and don't fill out everything else." Except, they wouldn't process it like that. They insisted that I name my personal beneficiary via snail mail before they would finish setting the business account up. There were other things, that was just the most annoying one.

Unlike the previous poster, I chose Vanguard in part because we have almost everything with Fidelity and the numbers are getting big enough that I decided to branch out a bit.