Monday, May 16, 2016

The City of Greensboro shafted their own employees; "401(k) Fees, Already Low, Are Heading Lower"

"Employers, advisers shave retirement-plan costs as they face pressure to monitor expenses

Companies are stepping up efforts to offer lower-cost 401(k) retirement plans, a trend that has already sharply driven down average fees and is likely to continue.

But the City of Greensboro didn't lower costs
with the help of Tony Wilkins, Nancy Vaughan and Hoffmann, Jamal Fox, 
Mike Barber, Sharon Hightower, Marikay Abuzuaiter, and Yvonne Johnson
for the benefit of Jim Westmoreland's plan management providor

An explosion of information about plan fees has helped increase bargaining power for companies in negotiations with fund providers. And a wave of successful lawsuits against companies alleging their plans had high charges has also led many to seek out lower-priced options for employees.

Yet the City of Greensboro chose to betray their own
for Wall Street

...Plan administrative costs fell to their lowest level in a decade last year..

Except the City of Greensboro's fees went up

While the changes are adding up a few hundredths of a percentage point at a time, the reduction can make a big difference. According to Vanguard Group, investors in a plan that charged 0.25% a year could in theory amass 20% more money over a four-decade career than they could in one that charged 1.25%, all else being equal...

On average, the fees 401(k) participants pay for funds that invest in stocks fell from 0.77% of assets in 2000 to 0.74% in 2009, before dropping sharply to 0.54% in 2014...

But not th City of Greensboro with the help of Tony Wilkins, 
Nancy Vaughan and Hoffmann, Jamal Fox, Mike Barber, Sharon Hightower,
Marikay Abuzuaiter, Connie Hammond, Yvonne Johnson and Jim Westmoreland

Chobani LLC, a Norwich, N.Y. yogurt manufacturer, reduced its annual plan expenses from about 1.5% of assets in 2013 to about 0.50% in 2014 as it switched mainly to index funds...

Which was suggested and ignored by the City of Greensboro

More than 60% of 144 large employers said they were very or somewhat likely to move money this year into less-expensive share classes of the mutual funds on their plan menus

Not Greensboro

14% said they would switch some or all of their investment options from actively managed funds to index funds, which generally cost less.

Not Greensboro

...an Edwardsville, Kan., food distributor, reduce administrative fees from about 1% of plan assets a year to 0.41%. In all, the plan will save more than $17,000 a year in fees on the $2.9 million employees have invested...

Not Greensboro

http://www.wsj.com/articles/401-k-fees-already-low-are-heading-lower-1463304601

Tony Wilkins, Nancy Vaughan and Hoffmann, Jamal Fox, Mike Barber, Sharon Hightower,
Marikay Abuzuaiter, Connie Hammond, Yvonne Johnson and Jim Westmoreland
betrayed their employees by keeping fees high

These folks are thieves

They stole from those who they are supposed to look out for