I have two 403b accounts, one from my current employer and one from a former employer. Both roughly 200k now. They are in the same insurance company and were invested in the same securities. Basically total stock market. The ER for the funds is about .40 the last time I looked. I never merged the accounts because the former employer covered all the administrative expenses. My current employer has added administrative expenses of about 0.35 of the account balance divided and taken out monthly. Currently I’m losing over 50 dollars a month out of the active account and it keeps going up as the balance grows.
A little over a year ago I convinced my current employer that the 403b plan was expensive and a poor product for the employees. They have been planning to change it but at the time the business was hemorrhaging money due to an expensive new clinic building and they had bigger problems. We have since sold that building and are now back in the black but with little savings. I am not sure of the timeline for changing plans but believe they would like to do so in the next year.
In March my former employer pulled the unvested amount from the old 403b account. Just last month all of the securities changed to equally weighted fidelity index funds. Again mimicking the total market, but at a much lower ER. My former employer changed their 403b plan to fidelity I believe. However as a former employer, I’m still in with the insurance company and from this month forward they will deduct administrative fees from the account like my current employer does, but at .37 of the account balance monthly.
I see several possibilities:
1.Leave things alone for now and when my employer changes plans consolidate everything into the new plan.
2.Consolidate the old plan into my current employers plan. Again planning to move into a new plan when able.
3.Ask my former employer if I can move the account to their new 403b provider. Not sure I can do this but will plan to ask next week when they are open.
4. Try to open a solo 401k to try to roll the account into. I don’t currently have a separate income stream and am not sure I have the energy to do this.
I could of course roll this into an individual IRA. I already have one at Vanguard but have converted the entire balance to 0 so I can do a backdoor roth every year. I don’t have the funds to pay the taxes on the 403b at this time.
Note that I really like my current job and employer despite the poor financial decisions they have made. They are very open to making things better and I’m emotionally invested in caring for my patients (I’m a primary care doctor) and I don’t want to change jobs. The math here boggles me! What’s the best path forward? I’m currently in analysis paralysis!
A little over a year ago I convinced my current employer that the 403b plan was expensive and a poor product for the employees. They have been planning to change it but at the time the business was hemorrhaging money due to an expensive new clinic building and they had bigger problems. We have since sold that building and are now back in the black but with little savings. I am not sure of the timeline for changing plans but believe they would like to do so in the next year.
In March my former employer pulled the unvested amount from the old 403b account. Just last month all of the securities changed to equally weighted fidelity index funds. Again mimicking the total market, but at a much lower ER. My former employer changed their 403b plan to fidelity I believe. However as a former employer, I’m still in with the insurance company and from this month forward they will deduct administrative fees from the account like my current employer does, but at .37 of the account balance monthly.
I see several possibilities:
1.Leave things alone for now and when my employer changes plans consolidate everything into the new plan.
2.Consolidate the old plan into my current employers plan. Again planning to move into a new plan when able.
3.Ask my former employer if I can move the account to their new 403b provider. Not sure I can do this but will plan to ask next week when they are open.
4. Try to open a solo 401k to try to roll the account into. I don’t currently have a separate income stream and am not sure I have the energy to do this.
I could of course roll this into an individual IRA. I already have one at Vanguard but have converted the entire balance to 0 so I can do a backdoor roth every year. I don’t have the funds to pay the taxes on the 403b at this time.
Note that I really like my current job and employer despite the poor financial decisions they have made. They are very open to making things better and I’m emotionally invested in caring for my patients (I’m a primary care doctor) and I don’t want to change jobs. The math here boggles me! What’s the best path forward? I’m currently in analysis paralysis!
Statistics: Posted by chasingbutterflies — Sat Jul 06, 2024 6:55 pm — Replies 0 — Views 139