Hi guys, my company asked me to look into fund selections since we are going to change 401k providers. This is obviously a great chance for me to get involved and I'm a little nervous since this could potentially have a huge effect on all the company's employees. I have written an article on my blog which you can access here.

Please comment on any suggestions you have regarding this since I really need help! I would really appreciate it if you can post a link on your website about the link so more people can see this as any suggestion would be great. I would welcome comments on the forum too and I will copy and paste them into my blog so everything is in one location.

I realize we probably shouldn't promote specific blog posts here (and I'm indirectly doing so) but I really don't want to screw this up and would like any information anyone can give.

Thanks!

Consider visiting http://www.employeefiduciary.com/. They are a very low cost 401(k) provider that shuns revenue sharing and administrator kick-backs, and they embrace fee transparency. Open fund platform including Vanguard. Very progressive.

Great! I will check into it. Thanks for your help!

Do you know of anyone that is using this provider right now?

Do due diligence, but make sure the funds provided are low cost (Vanguard comes to mind) and have a long history.

I’m working with someone presently considering using Employee Fiduciary. I don’t directly know anyone that has a history with them, but they provide a long list of references for what ever that's worth. They were also just featured in Money Magazine and Forbes.

That's the problem I have with going to Merrill Lynch. Their expense ratios are higher than the current ADP ones (~ 1.5%) but however they provide better service and past performance aren't bad (on average the last 1, 3, 5, 10 years have outperformed the funds currently available to us). I understand that past performance is not an indication but 10 years would be a good indication of the fund manager's creditibility and track record.

I used to be a broker at Merrill and I’m familiar with their 401(k) offerings and how they’re sold. You’re welcome to PM me for more info.

On the past performance, resist the urge to give it any weight! There will always be funds that have great past track records as a matter of chance, but such funds are added to 401(k) platforms after they’ve performed well to make them easier to sell. There is absolutely no reason to conclude that the performance will persist, but brokers count on that belief to make it easier to sell.

It did not sound like Merrill Lynch had many index funds available for us to choose from (they had 2 S&P 500 index funds available but that's it). Is there any way we can request some to be added since Merrill Lynch in general must have some type of index funds available for their general clients.