Most individual company 401(k) retirement plan investors are confused by the pending fiduciary investment advice new role of independent investment advisors.
Independent, third-party investment advisors can provide investment advice to individual company 401(k) retirement plan participants under the existing investment advice regulations.
If your current investment advisor is affiliated with a broker dealer, he or she may be unable or unwilling to provide company 401(k) advice. For years broker dealers have been reluctant to allow their investment representatives to provide a fiduciary level of investment advice.
Registered Investment Advisors (RIA’s) are required to provide a fiduciary level of investment advice to all their individual investor clients. That same level of fiduciary investment advice is available for after-tax brokerage accounts as well as individual company 401(k) retirement plan accounts.
An RIA can help an individual company 401(k) retirement plan participant focus on “what to buy.” RIA’s analyze and rank the default company 401(k) retirement plan mutual fund menu options.
There are usually better investment options available on your company 401(k) retirement plan menu than all of the ones that you currently own.
There is a huge investment performance gap between the mutual funds you currently own and the ones you should own now. That gap has cost you money during the recent stock market advance.
More important is the investment management decision on “when to sell.”
The U.S. stock market averages are near all-time highs. Most likely so is your individual company 401(k) retirement plan account. An RIA company 401(k) investment advisor can help you put a stock market risk management plan in place to make sure that you don’t fully participate in the next great stock market decline.
It is easy to not pay any attention to your individual company 401(k) retirement plan account. This is especially true when the stock markets are rising.
Before the next great stock market decline, think about adding a 401(k) investment advisor to your financial advice team.
Ric Lager
Lager & Company, Inc.
