Another Help Me With My Allocations!

[brokescientist]

I currently have a 457b through Nationwide.  Currently I have my allocations as follows

10% Vanguard(R) Total International Stock Index Fund - ER 0.22

15% Vanguard Small-Cap Index Fund - Admiral Shares - ER 0.09

25% Vanguard(R) Mid-Cap Index Fund - Investor Shares - ER 0.23

50% JPMorgan US Equity Fund - Class R5 - ER 0.59

All other international, small cap, and mid cap selections have a high ER >0.9.

I have another option for large cap which I am thinking about transferring some of the other allocations into called
State Street Equity 500 Index Fund - Administrative Shares which has an ER of 0.34.

Should I move some of these other funds into the  State Street fund?   Is this allocation spread too messy?  What should I do?


I also have 3 bond choices.  Which I opted out of due to having an option to invest in Vangaurds Total Bond index through my 401k.

Hartford Inflation Plus Fund    0.52

Loomis Sayles High Income Fund - Class Y 0.87

PIMCO Total Return Fund - Institutional Class    0.46


Any feed back or discussion would be nice and helpful!

[Another Reader]

Amazing that the parasites at Prudential that manage 457 plans actually offer these funds.  I had a 457 plan managed by them with truly awful fund choices. 

In your shoes, I would skip the bonds and dump JP Morgan for the State Street 500 Fund, if it really is an S&P 500 index fund.

[mizchief]

Check whether Prudential is adding an additional fee on top of these expense ratios.  I mistakenly had my investments in Valic for many years without realizing they were adding a 1% additional charge on top of expense ratios of the mutual funds I'd selected.  1% of total assets per year!!!!

Read the prospectus carefully for the plan.  If it is an annuity, it is could well have an additional annuity wrap fee.

If this is the case, your plan may allow you to transfer your fees to another option.  Look for surrender fees too if you choose this option. 

[brokescientist]

Sorry its Nationwide not Prudential.   I don't know why I keep saying Prudential, however I am sure they are all the same being that they are both insurance companies.

[Joel]

I strongly recommend looking at your entire asset allocation as a whole, and then what is available in each account. Sometimes it may make sense to only hold certain funds in each account. (Like you are doing with bonds) I never set the asset allocation for individual accounts, but rather I look at how all my assets are allocated.