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wife's 403b

CrashCrash
in Fund Discussions
It's in VEIRX. Vanguard Equity Income. Customarily, the employer provides a big dump into the account in April. But I see that the fund spun-off a distribution just yesterday. How is that accounted for, I wonder? There is also a small bi-weekly "match" from the employer, with each paycheck. Wifey is up to 7% of pay being assigned to go into the 403b. Employer is Baystate Health. Baystate Medical Center, to be precise. The 403b administrator is lovely MassMutual.

Comments

  • johnNjohnN
    edited March 2019
    Nice... Will look into it.. May add for mama retirement portfolio
  • Old_JoeOld_Joe
    What makes you think that your wife's employer would be as generous as Baystate Health?
  • CrashCrash
    edited March 2019
    @Old_Joe Baystate Health is her employer.:) I was writing about her employer, her employer's 403b plan. And the fact that there was a recent distribution from the fund, but she can't see it directly. I just wonder how that dividend somehow reaches her account. April is the annual "dump" into the 403b. It's a few thousand dollars, each year. Then there's the twice-per-month match, with each paycheck.... I hope that's clear, now.
  • msf
    edited March 2019
    Does the 403(b) plan hold the VEIRX shares directly (i.e. is your wife buying shares of the fund), or does the plan offer "units" (shares) which use VEIRX as the underlying fund? That's the way annuities tend to be structured, and since Mass Mutual is an insurance company, I'm guessing that the plan is an annuity.

    With annuities the funds never make distributions. Instead the "units" (shares) just go up (hopefully) in price. When the underlying fund makes a distribution it gets automatically and invisibly reinvested, and the price of a unit is unchanged.

    It's as if you held a fund, and it made a distribution, and you reinvested automatically. The total value of your total holdings wouldn't change. With an annuity, before and after distribution from the underlying fund you've got the same number of annuity units with the same price, so the value of your total holding is likewise unchanged.
  • johnNjohnN
    Hi crash... Glad she got 7%...usually these firms are very good and no mistakes made... Maybe monthly distribution from 403 work +other div +fund div that may have made the 7%...
  • Old_JoeOld_Joe
    @Crash- Sure, I understood that. My question was for JohnN, who seems to be thinking that he can exploit that situation.

    (V. sorry about the confusion.)
  • CrashCrash
    edited March 2019
    No worries.:) Thanks for the details, @msf. I have found out that when the time comes, my wife COULD choose to annuitize what's there... This may help: The other day, my wife owned 102.52 shares through the Plan in VEIRX. That's what appeared after logging-in to the Plan's website.

    ... But after just now looking, post-dividend, I see her share-balanced is up to 103.23 shares, and there's been no paycheck in between--- so, no 7% of paycheck going to buy shares, and no match from the employer. (I think @JohnN misunderstands? My wife's profit is not 7%, she's putting IN that much of her pay, every two weeks. ) But I sometimes discover the share balance is down unexpectedly--- no doubt a reflection of money taken to "administer" the Plan, taken by MassMutual.
  • johnNjohnN
    edited March 2019
    @crash hi sir... Right. glad you found the solutions. if we get confused, last option maybe to call company... Always clear up things for us
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