How much is your guys’ fees for your 401k?

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PersianRugs
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How much is your guys’ fees for your 401k?

Post by PersianRugs »

I’m not talking expense ratio for funds, just how much you pay per month/year for your 401k account.

Mine is $1.50 a month, not sure if that’s cheep or expensive or pretty normal. It doesn’t really sound expensive
Last edited by PersianRugs on Wed Jun 12, 2019 6:37 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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life in slices
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Re: How much is your guys’ fees for your 401k?

Post by life in slices »

PersianRugs wrote: Wed Jun 12, 2019 6:35 pm I’m not talking expense ratio for funds, just how much you pay per month/year for your 401k account.

Mine is $2.50 a month, not sure if that’s cheep or expensive or pretty normal. It doesn’t really sound expensive
$56/year paid quarterly at Fidelity
Mr.Mosfet
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Re: How much is your guys’ fees for your 401k?

Post by Mr.Mosfet »

$140/year, pay $35/quarter.
fz583
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Re: How much is your guys’ fees for your 401k?

Post by fz583 »

Paid over $700 last year, and it makes me mad every time I think about it, and this year it will be more, and more and more. I work for a small company of about 50 people, 38 are active in the 401, ADP is the 401 provider, we have 4 Mil in assets currently, and ADP uses an advisor as the middle man, the plan is charged .80% AUM last I was told by the advisor, my 401 is in a Vanguard target 2040. As bad as the fee is it used to be much worse with Great West Financial.
Last edited by fz583 on Thu Jun 13, 2019 5:50 pm, edited 2 times in total.
TropikThunder
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Re: How much is your guys’ fees for your 401k?

Post by TropikThunder »

$0 paid by me, at TIAA.
techlion
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Re: How much is your guys’ fees for your 401k?

Post by techlion »

$21/year paid quarterly
stocknoob4111
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Re: How much is your guys’ fees for your 401k?

Post by stocknoob4111 »

.15% per year, paid quarterly
youngpleb
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Re: How much is your guys’ fees for your 401k?

Post by youngpleb »

I have 3 funds that I am invested in in my 401k, and I pay $60/year split up quarterly.

Not sure if it's $20 per fund or just $60 no matter what.
SweetAeromotion
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Re: How much is your guys’ fees for your 401k?

Post by SweetAeromotion »

$27/year. Actual bleed is $6.75 per quarter.
livesoft
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Re: How much is your guys’ fees for your 401k?

Post by livesoft »

$0.00 for me. I have a solo 401(k) at TDAmeritrade.

$0.00 for my spouse with a company 401(k) custodianed at TDAmeritrade with lots of Vanguard and DFA funds.
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anon_investor
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Re: How much is your guys’ fees for your 401k?

Post by anon_investor »

fz583 wrote: Wed Jun 12, 2019 6:42 pm Paid over $700 last year, and it makes me mad every time I think about it, and this year it will be more, and more and more. I work for a small company of about 50 people, 38 are active in the 401, ADP is the 401 provider, we have 4 Mil in assets currently, and ADP uses an advisor as the middle man, the plan is charged .87% AUM last I was told by the advisor, my 401 is in a Vanguard target 2040. As bad as the fee is it used to be much worse with Great West Financial.
Wow that makes me mad just thinking someone has to pay those outrageous fees!

Sounds like I am lucky that I pay less than $3/mo for my current employer 401k... and that they have some good index fund options for 3 basis points or less.
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willthrill81
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Re: How much is your guys’ fees for your 401k?

Post by willthrill81 »

TropikThunder wrote: Wed Jun 12, 2019 6:44 pm $0 paid by me, at TIAA.
Ditto.
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lakpr
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Re: How much is your guys’ fees for your 401k?

Post by lakpr »

$15 per quarter per participant if the 401k balances are greater than or equal to $25k; $25 per quarter otherwise. Levied quarterly. Incentive to max out the 401k contribution I suppose ;)
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AerialWombat
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Re: How much is your guys’ fees for your 401k?

Post by AerialWombat »

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life in slices
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Re: How much is your guys’ fees for your 401k?

Post by life in slices »

fz583 wrote: Wed Jun 12, 2019 6:42 pm Paid over $700 last year, and it makes me mad every time I think about it, and this year it will be more, and more and more. I work for a small company of about 50 people, 38 are active in the 401, ADP is the 401 provider, we have 4 Mil in assets currently, and ADP uses an advisor as the middle man, the plan is charged .87% AUM last I was told by the advisor, my 401 is in a Vanguard target 2040. As bad as the fee is it used to be much worse with Great West Financial.
We had Great West when my company was smaller with its first 401k plan - it was terrible

Sorry to hear about your fees; hopefully as the company grows you will have better options
Daryl
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Re: How much is your guys’ fees for your 401k?

Post by Daryl »

Megacorp pays the fees. Funds offered include a couple institutional class Vanguard funds (S&P 500 / Total Bond)
DoctorPhysics
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Re: How much is your guys’ fees for your 401k?

Post by DoctorPhysics »

$100/year by Fidelity. I honestly don’t think it’s right because they already steer us towards Fidelity funds in the 401k. Feels like double dipping.
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Wiggums
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Re: How much is your guys’ fees for your 401k?

Post by Wiggums »

Was $0 Prior to 2009 and then $75/year for past 10 years
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HawkeyePierce
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Re: How much is your guys’ fees for your 401k?

Post by HawkeyePierce »

$0. 401k is at Vanguard and includes institutional share classes of the S&P500, extended market and total international funds.

AFAIK our plan doesn't charge a fee if you leave money in your 401k after leaving the job.
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Pete12
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Re: How much is your guys’ fees for your 401k?

Post by Pete12 »

$0 at Fidelity for solo 401k
HomeStretch
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Re: How much is your guys’ fees for your 401k?

Post by HomeStretch »

Former employer 401(k) fees are $22/quarter regardless of account balance.

Current (small) employer’s 401(k) adds 0.5% for admin fees to investment funds’ ERs.
ExitStageLeft
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Re: How much is your guys’ fees for your 401k?

Post by ExitStageLeft »

$0 for me, wife's 457(b) is 0.17%.
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KSOC
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Re: How much is your guys’ fees for your 401k?

Post by KSOC »

Mega @ Prudential. $52 per year. Institutional ER's on Vanguard funds so that's ok.
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dbr
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Re: How much is your guys’ fees for your 401k?

Post by dbr »

Zero at Megacorp.
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Stinky
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Re: How much is your guys’ fees for your 401k?

Post by Stinky »

Zero. I was on the company’s Retirement Committee, and company decided to pay full cost to incent participation.
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Re: How much is your guys’ fees for your 401k?

Post by Vanguard Fan 1367 »

I pay 12 dollars a year. The best fund I have access too has an ER of .65% so that is how they pay the bills with my account.
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jhfenton
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Re: How much is your guys’ fees for your 401k?

Post by jhfenton »

I work for a mini-megacorp (S&P 600 company). Mine is $0 per year at Fidelity with a mix of Vanguard and Fidelity Index Funds, Vanguard Target Retirement Funds, a handful of old-school active funds, and one DFA fund (Small Cap).

My wife's is something like 0.169% per year (variable) at Empower Retirement with a similar, but slightly varied lineup of funds, including one DFA fund (Small Cap Value). I find the quarterly fee deductions annoying, but it won't stop us from maxing it out this year. But next year, when we both turn 50, we'll almost certainly be unable to max out two 401(k)s, two Roth IRAs, and an HSA. So we'll max out my 401(k), the Roth IRAs, the HSA, and let whatever shortfall we have come in my wife's 401(k), since it's the only account with extra fees.
Aku09
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Re: How much is your guys’ fees for your 401k?

Post by Aku09 »

I pay 0.6% (outrageous I know). Small independent healthcare group of less than 20 employees although we all are high earners (>100k). Divided quarterly as 0.15% balance. We use Empower Retirement.
DA200
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Re: How much is your guys’ fees for your 401k?

Post by DA200 »

My spouse pays 1.0% in fees ($1,500 per year and going up as she continues to contribute). Small 25 person medical practice with a crappy 401k. She will be rolling to an IRA at Vanguard after retirement!
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Re: How much is your guys’ fees for your 401k?

Post by LadyGeek »

This thread is now in the Personal Finance (Not Investing) forum (401(k) fees).

$30 / quarter, no AUM (Assets Under Management) fees.
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Blackwood
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Re: How much is your guys’ fees for your 401k?

Post by Blackwood »

I'm retired now and have rolled my 401(k) into and IRA. When I was working, I was lucky enough to have a 401(k) where all fees (except the published expense ratio for mutual funds and any brokerage trading fees of course) were paid by my employer (mid-sized company with a few thousand employees).
mpsz
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Re: How much is your guys’ fees for your 401k?

Post by mpsz »

$0 or 0.25% annually (charged monthly). Seems like they switch between charging a fee or not a few times a year, I don't get it.
limeyx
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Re: How much is your guys’ fees for your 401k?

Post by limeyx »

0.75% :(
sawhorse
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Re: How much is your guys’ fees for your 401k?

Post by sawhorse »

anon_investor wrote: Wed Jun 12, 2019 7:03 pm
fz583 wrote: Wed Jun 12, 2019 6:42 pm Paid over $700 last year, and it makes me mad every time I think about it, and this year it will be more, and more and more. I work for a small company of about 50 people, 38 are active in the 401, ADP is the 401 provider, we have 4 Mil in assets currently, and ADP uses an advisor as the middle man, the plan is charged .87% AUM last I was told by the advisor, my 401 is in a Vanguard target 2040. As bad as the fee is it used to be much worse with Great West Financial.
Wow that makes me mad just thinking someone has to pay those outrageous fees!

Sounds like I am lucky that I pay less than $3/mo for my current employer 401k... and that they have some good index fund options for 3 basis points or less.
My husband works for a very small company, and their 401k is also through ADP. The unfortunate truth is that small employers don't have the options that large employers do. Vanguard wouldn't even offer my husband's company a plan when they inquired a few years ago because they were so small. They also don't have the bargaining power to bargain for lower cost options.

But mainly what's going on is that the employer is passing the cost of administering the plan onto the employees. And since there are few participants, the cost per participant is larger. This can happen with larger employers too though not as commonly
When you see an S&P index fund with a fee of 0.80%, you can be sure that the company is passing administrative costs onto the employees.

My husband also gets no match, again not uncommon at small employers.

But at least they offer a plan. Many companies their size do not, and his company didn't until a few years ago.
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FrugalProfessor
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Re: How much is your guys’ fees for your 401k?

Post by FrugalProfessor »

Workplace sponsored Fidelity 401a, 403b, & 457.

$0 in fees, but they've actually reimbursed me $68 YTD in "revenue credits".

0.015% ER total domestic (FSKAX) and 0.06% ER total international (FTIHX).

$0 fee individual HSA at Fidelity. 0% ER funds there.

Not a bad setup.
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YoungBogle
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Re: How much is your guys’ fees for your 401k?

Post by YoungBogle »

$5.50/quarter at T Rowe
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gr7070
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Re: How much is your guys’ fees for your 401k?

Post by gr7070 »

Max of $3.50 about per month for each 401k and 457.
smectym
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Re: How much is your guys’ fees for your 401k?

Post by smectym »

Well it’s IRA converted from 401(k) and all we pay is the ER, so if you’re excluding ER we pay zero. The ER is about 0.09%
katnok
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Re: How much is your guys’ fees for your 401k?

Post by katnok »

0.8%/year of AUM. This year, I will be paying about $2400.
jharkin
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Re: How much is your guys’ fees for your 401k?

Post by jharkin »

My plan has a $110/yr participant fee, paid quarterly.

I keep all my investments in the plan in Vanguard institutional class shares which have very low ERs (i.e. VINIX at 0.035%) , but there are some high cost active fund options.

Overall the expenses are so low as not to bother me and absolutely worth it to capture the companies generous full 6% match and mega backdoor option.


For actionable purposes of comparison to other posters responses, this plan is Schwab administered for a midcap privately held tech employer. The plan manages somewhere around 700MM in employee assets.
dsmil
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Re: How much is your guys’ fees for your 401k?

Post by dsmil »

No fees other than expense ratios. Our lowest expense ratio is .52% on a S&P 500 fund.
dalbright
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Re: How much is your guys’ fees for your 401k?

Post by dalbright »

Was 0, for a year, then went up to 100/yr this year with fidelity.
aclindsa
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Re: How much is your guys’ fees for your 401k?

Post by aclindsa »

Mine (Principal) charges 0.37% of the account balance each year.
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CyclingDuo
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Re: How much is your guys’ fees for your 401k?

Post by CyclingDuo »

PersianRugs wrote: Wed Jun 12, 2019 6:35 pm I’m not talking expense ratio for funds, just how much you pay per month/year for your 401k account.

Mine is $1.50 a month, not sure if that’s cheep or expensive or pretty normal. It doesn’t really sound expensive
$1.50 a month is not bad at all.

We pay...

$40 a year for one 401k
$0 a year for one 403b (employer covers the annual charge)
$.18% wrap fee for one 403b
$.18% wrap fee for one 457b
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mmmodem
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Re: How much is your guys’ fees for your 401k?

Post by mmmodem »

Current 401k: $4/mon or $48/yr
Previous 401k: $15/qtr or $60/yr
Previous previous 401k: $0

I was complaining loud about my previous employer 401k fees but I guess judging from this sample size, it was mid pack.
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goingup
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Re: How much is your guys’ fees for your 401k?

Post by goingup »

The plan administration fee for my SO's 401K was .135% of assets. That worked out to be about $815 last year.
deltaneutral83
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Re: How much is your guys’ fees for your 401k?

Post by deltaneutral83 »

Came out to about 43bps AUM for me (custodian charges tiered AUM based on total held by company); plus $75. Plenty of index funds offered at less than 5 bps on the ER side of things.
MotoTrojan
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Re: How much is your guys’ fees for your 401k?

Post by MotoTrojan »

$0. Guideline. Fairly certain the company only pays $96/employee-year + $500. Small company.
doug1022
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Re: How much is your guys’ fees for your 401k?

Post by doug1022 »

I'm impressed so many know the answer to this question. How would one find the answer to this question? I have a 401k through Fidelity, and have perused through the plan documents in the past, but it's not clear to me where this would be spelled out.
lscntr51
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Re: How much is your guys’ fees for your 401k?

Post by lscntr51 »

My wife and I both work for a public school system and we pay 0.21% on the managed assets. That is paid quarterly. The best fund option is VINIX (0.035% expense ratio), so we only contribute to that fund in our 403B's.
Last edited by lscntr51 on Tue Mar 23, 2021 12:25 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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