Finding, And Battling, Hidden Costs Of 401(k) Plans This is not one of NYTimes better articles. It strongly implies that this is a vanilla case of excessive fees for 401(k) services. But that's not what's going on here.
Observe that the trial court awarded $37M. The appeals court reversed the $1.7M judgment against Fidelity, and affirmed $13.4M to be paid by ABB. Notice anything missing, like, say, $22M (actually $21.8M)?
That $22M amount was ruled speculative and excessive (ABB, when it swapped in a series of target date funds to the 401(k) plan, swapped out Wellington, for which the trial court penalized ABB). I believe it was sent back down (remanded) to the trial court for a better analysis.
The only award that was affirmed was the $13.4M. This was not the "usual" high-fees issue. What ABB and Fidelity did here went beyond the pale (IMHO). They agreed that Fidelity would charge above market rates (so the issue is
not that prevailing market rates were excessive), and in exchange, Fidelity would not charge ABB fees for other services that Fidelity was providing
that had nothing to do with the 401(k) plan.
(Specifically, Fidelity was providing some payroll and record keeping services.)
In short, when the numbers don't add up (literally), it's best to do some fact checking. Here's the
appellate ruling, for anyone interested.
Fairholme and Sears Update Thanks Charles.
Regarding the Sears bonds, are these senior bonds? If so, I wouldn't be as worried. In bankruptcy the senior bonds are ahead of unsecured bonds and common stock.
The bonds in the ridiculously complex rights offering are unsecured. Lampert has secured and I'm not sure what Fairholme currently has (I'm guessing secured?)
http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2014-10-30/sears-has-a-deal-to-offer-its-shareholdersGet a $
500 bond (five-year maturity, 8 percent coupon, senior unsecured at Sears Holdings)
With Dollar On A Tear, Gold And Silver Rout Far From Over Ted, thanks for posting.
I think the article makes some good points.
This is the very reason I recently just opened a starter position in SGGDX as I plan to position cost average this into a full position, over time, within the specialty sleeve of my portfolio.
In review of a recent portfolio Instant Xray analysis I am currently holding about a 5% allocation in the materials sector. In checking some of my reference sites, I am finding that the two most oversold sectors currently are the energy and the materials sectors. Combined these two sectors currently account for about 15% of my equity allocation ... and, in compairing this to the weightings found in the S&P 500 Index (13%) this puts me currently at about a 15% overweight to these two sectors. If I add only one more percent then this will put me at about a 25% overweight to these two sectors when combined.
For long term oriented investors like myself I feel it is better to buy when things are out of favor. So look for me to do a little more buying in funds that have a good weighting in these two sectors. One fund that I own PGUAX has about a 30% weighting to the energy sector and is kicking off about a 4.25% dividend yield and another fund SGGDX is heavly exposed to the materials sector by holding about 70% of its assets in the miners.
I wish all ... "Good Investing."
Old_Skeet
Vanguard Not Shy About Pressuring Companies Good Firm to maintain your portfolio with:
Article Highlights:
We're permanent shareholders," good times and bad, McNabb said. So Vanguard, the Malvern-based mutual fund giant that manages $3 trillion in assets, feels obliged to pressure bosses to help "create as much wealth for our investors as we can."
McNabb said that earlier this year Vanguard sent messages to 350 companies saying, "Here's something we don't like."......
About 80 companies "have already made the changes" at Vanguard's request this year, McNabb said. "A bunch more are under discussion," he added.
That's my boys....tb
Investors Find Better Balance In Their 401(k)s FYI: Less than 10 percent of 401(k) accounts administered by Fidelity Investments were invested entirely in stocks last quarter. It's the latest step in a yearslong march toward more balanced nest eggs. Fidelity keeps records for 13.1 million 401(k) participants, and its figures reach back to 2001, when the dot-com bubble was deflating and 33 percent of 401(k) plans were entirely in stocks. The percentage has dropped every year since then.
Regards,
Ted
http://bigstory.ap.org/article/3d7de4a5cb98423a944a345cde175e95/investors-find-better-balance-their-401ks
Q&A With Taizo Tshida, Co-Manager, Matthews Japan Fund FYI: From hot to not and back again, Japanese stocks have been a confusing lot the last couple years.
Japan's stock market is flying after the Bank of Japan surprised the world last week by increasing its bond-buying stimulus program. The Nikkei 22
5 index jumped nearly
5 percent the day of the announcement, and it's back in the black for the year. In the spring, it was down nearly 1
5 percent. That follows a stellar 2013, where the Nikkei soared nearly 60 percent.
Underlying all the market moves is investor confidence in whether Japan can jumpstart its economy's too-weak inflation. Japanese shoppers and companies have grown accustomed to prices staying the same, which encourages them to delay purchases and investments. That weighs on consumer spending and restricts the economy.
To raise its inflation rate and jolt Japan, the country's central bank is pushing stimulus. Last week's surprise move caused the value of the yen to drop. That serves to make imported goods more expensive for Japanese shoppers and also boosts revenue for Japanese exporters.
Even after the big jump for Japanese stocks, they remain cheaper than their U.S. counterparts, says Taizo Ishida. He is the lead manager of the Matthews Japan fund, whose $683 million in assets makes it one of the biggest to focus solely on Japan. He recently discussed what U.S. investors can expect from the market. Answers have been edited for clarity.
Regards,
Ted
http://bigstory.ap.org/article/039ca5a0a61e457397f041c017b307fd/what-japans-stimulus-jolt-means-investorsM* Snapshot Of MJFOX:
http://quotes.morningstar.com/fund/f?t=MJFOX®ion=usa&culture=en-USLipper Snapshot Of MJFOX;
http://www.marketwatch.com/investing/Fund/MJFOX?countrycode=USMJFOX Is Rank #3 In The (JS) Fund Category By U.S. News & World Report:
