Topic Archive: Retirement Plan Investment Menu

For more than a year bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies have been making headlines, and its skyrocketing value has investors asking when it will become an investment menu option for their 401(k) or other retirement savings plans. DWC Managing Partner Keith Clark answers that question in a article published on the Kiplinger website.

Facts

Someone would have to be living under a rock for the last year or so not to have noticed all the talk about Bitcoin and other cryptocurrency.  The values have fluctuated quite a bit, but all the press makes it sound like cryptocurrencies are a great investment that can generate significant returns.

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When we first established our 401(k) plan, the company didn’t have a lot of discretionary income, so we went with a low-cost provider and set it up so the plan would pay for its own fees. We have since been told that paying fees out of the plan isn’t that straightforward.

Regulated exchanges such as the Chicago Board Options Exchange, CME Group, and Nasdaq are either already trading or planning to trade bitcoin futures, an asset that is known to be particularly volatile and risky.

If Roth IRAs offer a legitimate long-term savings strategy by allowing people to generate tax-free income, why do less than a third of IRA investors have such an account? The short answer is income limits; taxpayers above certain levels can't invest directly into a Roth IRA.

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Like many 401(k) plans, ours allows employees to decide where to invest their accounts among a menu of approximately 20 different mutual funds. For employees who do not make an investment decision, their contributions are invested in a default fund recommended by our investment advisor.

Participants could potentially be losing a portion of their retirement savings due to some tricky 401(k) administrative issues. In a recent article for Kiplinger, DWC Managing Partner Keith Clark explains three of the basic areas participants can monitor to avoid having their funds unnecessarily drained over time.

Clark notes that most issues lie in the participant's lack of knowledge about eligibility, rampant fees, and company match calculations.

"Your 401(k) may be your biggest retirement asset," he writes. "When it comes to fees, contribution matches and eligibility, don't just trust: verify."

Clark provides readers with specific tips for catching these mistakes and additional reminders for how to do so. For example, he advises you to check your company match formulas to confirm that you're collecting your full company match rather than taking it at face value. 

Want more tips on how to properly track the condition of your 401(k)? Read Clark's article in Kiplinger to learn more.

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We have selected a new recordkeeper for our 401(k) plan. We are told that there will be a period of eight business days when our participants are not able to log in and manage their accounts. We know that we have to provide notice at least 30 days ahead of time to everyone who is affected.

"Bitcoin may be the hottest thing going in the investment world, but 401(k) plan participants aren’t likely to see it on their regular investment menus anytime soon," writes Jasmine Ye Han in Bloomberg BNA.

If exchange-traded fund assets are hot among individual investors, why are employers slow to add them as an option for employees?