NEA Still Not Practicing What It Preaches

The NEA Valubuster Plan Is Up To 21x The Cost of Their Own 401(k)

Fifteen years ago I exposed the National Education Association's (NEA) poor practices when it comes to the 403(b) in a piece titled "Does The NEA Practice What It Preaches?". Very little has changed. The NEA's wholly owned subsidiary NEA Member Benefits Corporation continues to operate, market and profit from the selling of 403(b) products to their members, all the while installing a top notch retirement plan for themselves.

TRR Podcast #26: How @NTSA403B + @NEAToday make saving in #403b hard

Podcast #26: NTSA & NEA

As a follow up to my recent posts regarding the NTSA and the NEA, Dan and I discuss the latest developments in the 403(b) world. You can find our latest podcast here.

Reference materials:

NEA Making Big Bucks From Members Selling Expensive Annuities

NTSA Continues Shameful Campaign Against California Public Employees

NEA Making Big Bucks From Members By Selling Expensive Annuities

NEA Member Benefits Reported Annual Fees of $2.7 Million

The NEA's wholly owned subsidiary NEA Member Benefits receives a base fee of $2.7 million per year (escalating each year depending on specific unmentioned milestones) to promote the expensive NEA Valuebuilder 403(b) product(s).  

It's Time For The SEC To Regulate Indexed Annuities

Indexed Annuities Need More Regulation

Indexed Annuities are big business and are the path to big profits, yet they are essentially unregulated and sold by people who have no requirement to put their client's interest ahead of their own. It's time that Indexed Annuities and the people who sell them become properly regulated.

403bWise Launches Site Re-Design and Expansion

Top 403(b) education, advocacy and news site 403bWise.com has launched a re-design and an expansion.

Since 2000, 403bWise.com has provided unbiased information on 403(b) plans to our nation's educators. In addition, the site has helped advocate for better 403(b) plans. 403bWise is the best known 403(b) site on the internet (much to the consternation of the insurance industry) and today it just got better, with promises of additional improvements in the future.

NTSA Continues Shameful Campaign Against California Public Employees

There is only one thing more scary to the insurance 403(b) industry than the word Fiduciary, auto-enroll.

This is my opinion.

Back in 2012 I spoke at a Town Hall in North Carolina to announce a new statewide 403(b) program that was just passed by the state legislature (yes, North Carolina did pass one law that we can all get behind). The audience was a group of insurance companies and insurance agents and they were angry, very angry. They did not like that the state wanted to offer a fiduciary based 403(b) program for teachers and they made their displeasure known.

American Retirement Association Opposed CA Auto-Enroll For Public Employees

You'd think that an organization with the word "retirement" in their name would actually support...retirement. This is not the case in California where the American Retirement Association's "premier" associate the National Tax-Deferred Savings Association (NTSA) has written a letter opposing Senate Bill 1297 which is aimed at easing the ability of public employers (including teachers) to auto-enroll their employees into quality supplemental retirement plans.

Teachers Now In Insurance Agents Crosshairs After DOL Rule

The long awaited Department of Labor (DOL) Conflict of Interest rule was finalized this morning.

This is a good thing. In fact, it's a great thing.

The DOL managed to do something many thought impossible in this day of special interests dominating Washington. I am proud of the DOL and wish them a sincere congrats. It was a job well done and a long, hard fight. Unfortunately, the new (some would say revolutionary) rule does not apply to non-ERISA retirement plans such as the 403(b) and 457(b), plans which millions of government employees contribute to instead of a 401(k).

Debunked ASPPA Study Used To Push Industry Agenda in Michigan

Back in 2011 I thoroughly debunked an ASPAA (now the American Retirement Association or ARA) research paper which claimed that reducing vendors in 403(b) plans leads to a drop in contributing participants.

Feeling The 403(b) Fee Bern: High Fees Strike Sanders Wife

Money magazine called me about a month ago to ask if I would go through federal disclosures for Bernie Sanders and help them write a story about the structure of the Sander's family money. I literally dropped everything, spent the next three hours examining the disclosure and briefed the reporter the following day. The resulting article is Bernie Sanders Is A De Facto Millionaire.

While I think the title is a little misleading, it's actually not the most interesting thing about the Sander's finances.

What I found surprised me.

Kiplinger 403bWise Mention: No company 401(k)? No problem

Sandra Block writes about those "other" retirement plans!

"These plans, typically offered to teachers, resemble 401(k) plans, with the same tax benefits, maximum contribution thresholds and catch-up contributions. But while private-sector plans usually contain a suite of mutual funds selected by a management committee, the primary offerings in many 403(b) plans are high-cost investments, such as equity-indexed annuities. That's because many school districts have little desire to negotiate with financial-services firms.

Still, there have been some positive developments. For example, the board of education in Montgomery County, Md., has contracted with no-load mutual fund company Fidelity Investments to administer its 403(b) plans. For advice on how to advocate for a better plan, go to www.403bwise.com. In the meantime, teachers with a lackluster plan may be better off investing in a Roth IRA."

Wait, That's Legal?: The Annual American Fidelity Dance Ripoff

I come across a lot of ridiculous things in the 403(b), but some things rate off the chart, a real WTF event or moment. That's why I'm creating a new segment on the blog titled "Wait, That's Legal?".

In this first edition of WTL I'm going to focus on a situation that should be illegal. In fact, when I tell people about it they almost always come back with "wait, that's legal?" (yes, I'm very creative with my titles).

My wife's school district offers a Section 125 plan. For those not familiar, this is a plan that allows an employee to defer money pre-tax to be used for qualified medical expenses and for qualified child care. Not only is the money taken out of the paycheck on a pre-tax basis, if used for qualified expenses it is not taxed when withdrawn. It's tough to find a pre-tax and tax-free benefit and we use ours every year.

The administrator of my wife's plan is an insurance company, American Fidelity (yes, I've written about this before). It turns out that American Fidelity runs the Section 125 plan for free, meaning they don't charge the district for their services. Running a Section 125 is not cheap, so how is it that American Fidelity can do it for nothing? Coercion.

Most Americans have their health insurance premiums paid for out of their paycheck. The advantage is that if paid through a paycheck, the premiums come out pre-tax for both State and Federal taxes (it might vary on the State level). This is a perk of the tax code and one need not do anything to receive...unless of course you are an employee in my wife's school district (or other American Fidelity plans that are run in a similar fashion).

In my wife's school district every employee is assumed to NOT want their health care insurance premiums taken out pre-tax. If they want this "perk" they are forced to meet with an insurance agent from...American Fidelity. When they meet with that agent they are in a room with just that agent and the agent attempts to sell the employee any number of needless insurance policies and 403(b) products.

American Fidelity sells Accident, Cancer, Disability, Term Life Insurance, Whole Life Insurance, Youth Life Insurance and Critical Illness Insurance in addition to a terrible 403(b) product. Taxing your health insurance benefit is a ploy to get every school district employee to meet one-on-one with an American Fidelity sales rep. American Fidelity even pays for substitute to take over Teacher classes while they meet. Folks, this is nothing short of coercion.

I had the unfortunate problem of having my wife NOT meet with one of these sales reps one year and guess what, the district started taxing our health insurance benefit. A benefit that everyone receives for free and almost no one would refuse is suddenly taken away because we refused to meet with a person selling crappy insurance products during school hours.

I asked the district why anyone would want their health insurance taken out after-tax and the response was "There are employees who do not pre-tax the premium due to social security credit needs." This is not only a lame excuse, it's not true. Pre-tax health insurance has no affect on social security credits. Even if this were true, it's a tiny minority of employees who would want their health insurance taken out after-tax, they should be the ones required to meet with the agent (though a simple form would take care of it).

I believe the only reason the district forces every employee to meet with an American Fidelity sales agent is so that they can guarantee American Fidelity a steady flow of leads to sell their crappy products and make up the costs of running the Section 125 plan.

To which my response is "Wait, that's legal?".

Every year my wife has to do the American Fidelity dance...leave her classroom in the middle of the day to march up to the front office to meet a sales agent who has no interest in protecting her best interest, solely to say "please deduct my health insurance on a pre-tax basis" and change my Section 125 elections (we can't do this online...?). This year was interesting because the sales agent didn't even ask her if she wanted her health insurance premiums taken out pre-tax, my wife reminded the agent that she wanted her premiums pre-tax and the agent said "we already took care of it!". Even the agents know it's a ploy and have it automatically marked pre-tax and they don't even take the time to ask otherwise. If that's not proof of a sales scam, I really don't know what is.

School Districts everywhere are feeding their employees to the wolves simply to pay for a program that most employees would gladly pay for out of pocket (we paid $6 per paycheck for our Section 125 plan at another district). This practice needs to stop and the state insurance commissioner needs to look into these sales tactics.

Don't believe me, here is the receipt from my wife's meeting yesterday. I also have proof of when our benefits were taken out after-tax.

This has to stop. This is not ethical and it certainly shouldn't be legal.

Scott Dauenhauer, CFP, MPAS, AIF (This is an opinion piece)

5 Top IRS Concerns for Higher Ed 403(b) Compliance

Thompson's HR Compliance Expert site recently analyzed a Higher Education compliance program that the IRS began in 2011. The top five concerns the IRS have are as follows:

Number of Higher Education 403(b) Plans Drop

Chart from Transamerica Study

There appears to be a downward trend of the use of 403(b) plans in Higher Education institutions according to a new Transamerica study.

"Perhaps the main finding from the 2015 edition of the study is the incidence of 403(b) plans among institutions of Higher Education. For the first time, fewer than two out of three institutions (64%) sponsor a non-Roth 403(b) plan. To this day, 403(b) plans have been the dominant type of plan in the Higher Education sector (75% in 2014), but 401(k) plans have become more common and are now offered by nearly half (46%) of institutions to at least some segments of the workforce. Greater workforce mobility between corporate and Higher Education among researchers and staff, the rise of the for-profit Higher Education sector, and economic pressure to streamline retirement benefits all contribute to the trend. The rise of the 401(k) plan will likely continue into the future as Higher Education institutions compete for talent in the labor market." 

Money Mag: A College Administrator Reveals How Her Diligent Saving Has Paid Off

Nice profile of a college administrator by Money Magazine.

"At Fordham, she participated in the school’s mandatory 403(b), a retirement plan commonly available at nonprofit organizations and state and local governments. Her salary was soon double what it was just ten years earlier. But that wasn’t the sweetest part of her new gig.

She contributed the school-designated maximum 5% of her salary to her 403(b), which was matched by Fordham dollar-for-dollar. The school later raised its contribution to 11%, thus enabling her to save 16% of her salary in a low-cost, tax-advantaged fund."

Click to read the full article: A Mighty Saver Reaps Her Rewards

How Is This Still A Thing? Annuity Ads

John Oliver has a segment on his HBO show Last Week Tonight named “How is This Still a Thing?” and lately I’ve been scratching my head wondering the same thing about annuity advertisements.

8% Annuity Returns? Hmmm…curious.

I received an e-mail from this company (above) the other day advertising “Annuity Returns” of 8%+. If you are a consumer and you see such a high interest rate compared to what the rest of the world is paying ($7 Trillion in assets globally currently trading at negative rates) are you not likely to click to investigate further? Who wouldn’t.

TIAA-CREF Becomes TIAA, But Not "tee-ah"

TIAA-CREF, a company that everyone I know refer to as TIAA (or tee-ah) has now become TIAA.

But don't call them TIAA (tee-ah), no, that is a bridge to far, they are T.I.A.A. (tee-eye-ay-ay).

Note: "ay" is simply a long "a".

While there are no periods between the letters, you are not supposed to pronounce TIAA as a word, instead you are still supposed to say each letter, so much for simplification.

The CEO, Roger Ferguson says they are "shortening the name, modernizing it and making it more contemporary," but are they? Yesterday it was "tee-eye-ay-ay CREF" and today it's "tee-eye-ay-ay" with the CREF dropped. I have no idea why you have to say each letter, T...I...A....A, but then you can get away with saying CREF (pronounced...cref) without having to say those letters. Well at least you won't have to say "CREF" anymore (though CREF is not disappearing).

Yes, "tee-eye-ay-ay" is shorter than "tee-eye-ay-ay-CREF", but why not just TIAA (tee-ah), wouldn't that in reality be "shortening, modernizing...and..more contemporary"?

Isola: Why Can’t 3.6 Million Teachers Get a Group Discount on their 403(b) Plans?

My friend over at Ritholz Wealth Management, Tony Isola, is out with a new blog post today revealing the disappointing fact that Public School Employees don't get the benefit of their collective bargaining when it comes to their defined contribution 403(b) plans.

Tony elaborates:

"Companies like Walmart are able to receive massive discounts from their suppliers. The reason for this enormous competitive advantage is they buy in tremendous bulk. They maximize their gargantuan resources to get the lowest prices from their vendors.

Contrast this with teachers’ 403(b) plans, that do just the opposite. Instead of collectivizing the investment needs of millions of teachers, spindly individual contracts with plan vendors are the rule."

There is one union that I'm aware of that does use their collective power and the collective bargaining process to help teachers and that is the Wisconsin Education Association, the WEA Trust. www.weatrust.com.

Read Tony's article at his blog, A Teachable Moment.

Inga Chira on CSU Transistion to Single Vendor - Fidelity

I recently met a CSU Professor who has opened a Registered Investment Advisory firm to work with Higher Education employees, her name is Inga Chira. She wrote a short piece on the transition that the Cal State system is currently undergoing from five 403(b) vendors to just one, Fidelity.

How Do We Survive All These Investment Choices... and a BONUS: Upcoming 403(b) Changes

By Inga Chira

Big changes are coming to the Cal State 403(b) plan on April 1st. 

Right now, there are FIVE 403(b) providers. In April, there will be only ONE. And that will be Fidelity. You have probably been getting letters about this if you are enrolled in the 403(b) plan. If you are not sure how to feel about it, I am going to tell you right now: you need to feel GREAT. This is especially true of people who are not currently participating in a voluntary plan but are thinking about doing it in the future. Your life will become so much easier as the result of this consolidation.

Back in November, I was wining about how I love Fidelity but how I had to decide against them, and go for the Savings Plan 401(k) because of the expensive investment options within Fidelity. Well, my friends, that is changing. This is a big enough change to make me wish I got hired about a year later and you should appreciate this big moment. A few things you need to know about the change and what it means to you:

A. Here is the link that will give you more info on the transition: https://nb.fidelity.com/public/nb/calstate/transition-home

B. If you are a current participant in the 403(b), you will get information sent to your house in February.

C. There will be workshops and educational resources available on campus between February and April and you better go!

D. The investment choices are getting expanded and for someone (me), a passive investor who believes that a 403(b) account is not the place to do active management, this is really exciting. Starting in April, there will be 5 index funds you can use to build a really good diversified portfolio. All the available choices are on the website I mentioned above. Take a look and celebrate (just make sure you press the investments tab to see all the choices).

E. This consolidation is REALLY good for you because now, instead of getting sales pitches, you will be getting education advice. The 403(b) market is pretty messed up because the “advisors” you see on campus are really salesmen trying to convince you to choose their provider over the other bunch (see more on this on #4). When you only have one provider, it is so much easier to do what is best for employees. Fidelity will no longer have to put its efforts into snatching you as a customer from Voya or MetLife. Instead, it can focus on helping you understand what is going on in that 403(b) of yours. This is really good news.

F. On a related note, next time when you are power walking, listen to this podcast: http://teachandretirerich.com/podcasts/2015_13_fidelity.m4a in an interview with Fidelity going through the consolidation for 403(b) providers in the marketplace in general and it can explain many of the things you will be experiencing soon. I don’t want to hear that you don’t have time for this (there is always that one hour of Real Housewives of Atlanta you can trade for some 403(b) fun)!

G. The crazy idea that the more providers you can offer within your 403(b) plan, the more diversified your retirement plan is, can finally die. Having 1 or 55 providers is irrelevant; the choices you have within the provider is what matters and now you got good choices.

It's a F**k n' Great Life at F & G Life - Puerto Rico!

http://wealthmarkadvisors.com/fg-2016-power-producer-conference

St. Regis in Puerto Rico Anyone? Just Sell F&G Annuities...Sad.

If you want a great vacation in Puerto Rico all you need to do is sell $1.5 million in annuity products from F & G Life.

Yes, that's right, for selling on average only $125,000 per month of annuities (that's maybe 1  - 5 victims) an agent can get a 4 night stay at a top resort in Bahia Beach, Puerto Rico.

It's an F'n Great Life at F & G Life! But for the teachers it's just F'n Gallows.

The Safe Income Plus Fixed Index Annuity sold by F & G, the surrender period is 11 years. The commission is 7.25% AND also may qualify for the trip featured in this post.

Let's review. An agent sells $1.5 million of this product to its base of clients and receives potentially over $100,000 in commission plus a trip to the St. Regis in Puerto Rico. That's quite an incentive to sell F & G Life Indexed Annuity products. I wonder if this product would sell at all if not for the high commission and potential for an amazing vacation? My opinion is that it wouldn't.

Do you know what's behind the recommendation of your "advisor"? This type of incentive needs to be stopped. The insurance industry is hooked on Indexed Annuity products and the commissions and incentives that come with those sales, it's their crack.

If F & G has such great annuity products, wouldn't they sell themselves? Wouldn't real advisors WANT to recommend their products?

In this low interest rate/high volatility environment the ability of an index annuity provider to support a decent rate of return to the end client is severely restricted. Add in generous commissions and luxurious trips and it's nearly impossible for the end client to get a reasonable rate of return.

Yes, index annuities are great for retirement, just not yours (they're great for the agents retirement)!

Scott Dauenhauer, CFP, MPAS, AIF