which 403b vendor has the lowest expense ratios?

[Anonymous]

I saw the discussion on vanguard versus fidelity but unfortunately my workplace doesn't offer vanguard as an option for the 403b vendor. Right now I have my money housed in fidelity. The options they provide us with are:

Fidelity Investments
Hendershot Financial
(Lincoln Investments)
ING
Lincoln Financial
Group
MetLife Resources
Morgan Stanley
Wealth Management
T. Rowe Price
TIAA-CREF
VALIC

[Anonymous]

Are you by any chance eligible for a 457b? 403b tend to be annunities and there is nothing left for your heirs and tend to have higher fees.

[Anonymous]

In my 403(b) plans, once you hit retirement, you can choose to buy an annuity with the money, but don't have to. If I die, my DH gets the 403(b) money. If we both die, our children get it (or rather a family trust does on their behalf). You specify heirs for a 403(b), so it is not true that when you die, your heirs get nothing.

We have both a 403(b) and a 457 - both are good options.

[Anonymous]

OP here: Yes, there is an option for the 457 as well with the same vendors listed.

[Anonymous]

TIAA CREF is usually good. After that T Rowe Price or maybe Fidelity

[Anonymous]

I'm 11:09 above - our financial planner (fee based, so not making commissions off of us) emphasizes that one needs to look at the performance of the plan as well as the fees. He also emphasizes not having all your eggs in one basket. We have TIAA-CREF and Fidelity as well as some older plans from a previous job that we no longer contribute to (Lincoln, Nationwide, and VALIC). He has encouraged us to hang onto all of them as he says they give us a diversified portfolio.

We have Vanguard funds within our VALIC plan (Windsor and Wellington). Look at the individual offering of some options and see if Vanguard funds are part of them.

Our planner encouraged us to add Fidelity some years back and it has done great (although as our planner would say - you need to think long term and not get to excited over the current good times).

[Anonymous]

by "older plans" I mean plans we had from a previous job

[Anonymous]

another correction "too excited" not "to excited"

"offerings" not "offering"

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm 11:09 above - our financial planner (fee based, so not making commissions off of us) emphasizes that one needs to look at the performance of the plan as well as the fees. He also emphasizes not having all your eggs in one basket. We have TIAA-CREF and Fidelity as well as some older plans from a previous job that we no longer contribute to (Lincoln, Nationwide, and VALIC). He has encouraged us to hang onto all of them as he says they give us a diversified portfolio.

We have Vanguard funds within our VALIC plan (Windsor and Wellington). Look at the individual offering of some options and see if Vanguard funds are part of them.

Our planner encouraged us to add Fidelity some years back and it has done great (although as our planner would say - you need to think long term and not get to excited over the current good times).

I agree that you should have a diversified portfolio and look at the underlying options being offered, but it doesn't really make sense to me to say that you should be diversified across different fund companies or even funds.

You could have a total stock market fund with one fund and be investing in 4000+ companies, or you could have 4 funds with 4 different companies that all end up in the same 40 companies. I can't imagine what risk you are reducing by diversifying across different plans (your funds should all be segregated even in the unlikely event a company went under).

[Anonymous]

The offerings in each different company (Lincoln, Nationwide, VALIC, TIAA, and Fidelity) are different. Our planner likes something (or several things) from each company and has recommended that we purchase those. We rebalance as needed.

We put the max in both the 403b and the 457, so we also get a significant tax break from that. (Of course the tax break would be the same even if we had it all with one company).

The planner has also helped coordinate our retirement plans with other investments we have, so there is that level of balancing too.

We take a lot of his advice, but not all of it - we don't blindly do everything he says.

[Anonymous]

Since Vanguard is not on the list my runner-up would be T. Rowe Price, but you have to look at what they are telling you the fees will be. For small employers they can be astronomical.

[Anonymous]

Of those options: T. Rowe, TIAA-CREF, or Fidelity are likely your best choices.

However, I would recommend saving in an IRA or a Roth IRA and maxing that out ($5,500 per year) before saving in a 403(b) or 457.

With an IRA, you can choose any provider (I would choose Vanguard btw).

Source:
Teacher Retirement & Finance Expert
http://teachersretirementhelp.com/403b.html