Retirement. We all know about it, and depending on where you are in your career, you look forward to it or dread it. Maybe you dread it because you love your job so much, or maybe (like many) you are terrified and wonder if you have enough saved. Do you lay awake at night and wonder if you saved enough or are saving enough now? It does not matter if you are 25, 45, or 65, these questions haunt many of us as we wonder if we have enough to survive.
One thing is certain: you are not alone in this quest and 401k Educate is here to help.
Like many things, investments change over time. An investment strategy that worked at one time may not work now. It is important to make regular adjustments consistent with your goals to optimize your outcome.
401k Educate does not directly cost you any money. We only earn money from commissions or advisory fees. As a fiduciary, you can be assured any decisions made will be made in your best interest.
With a fiduciary responsibility, 401k Educate is legally and ethically bound to make sure your financial best interests are put first. This is important because you cannot borrow your way through retirement.
Managing money is difficult and making investment decisions is stressful. That is why we can do it for you. Plus, people with a professional money manager, typically make an additional 3% on their returns—and that adds up.
Technically you can, but there are two main factors why your financial professional will not assist with your 401(k). First, because your individual financial professional is not likely the provider of your 401(k) plan, they are probably unwilling or unlikely to give advice that they are not compensated for providing.
Second, because there is no other form of investment that is more protected and scrutinized than a 401(k) retirement plan, many advisors shy away from giving advice. 401(k)s are protected by the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) of 1974 and governed by three separate entities which include Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), the US Securities Exchange Commission (SEC), and the Department of Labor (DOL). In May of 2005, ERISA laws were made even more stringent with the new requirement of being a fiduciary to provide direct advise to participants.
This is not to say some advisors will not give advice, but it usually comes in the form of guided direction and may sound something like this, “I can’t give you any direct advice on your 401(k) plan, but given the options you have available, I would likely be investing in…”
All 401k Educate personnel have taken the necessary steps to meet the ERISA 401(k) retirement plan guidelines of a fiduciary by becoming Investment Advisor Representatives. This provides us the ability to directly assist active 401(k) participants on a continuous basis to help them more effectively reach their retirement planning goals.
No, not at all. We can work hand in hand with other financial professionals to ensure you are getting adequate diversity to your overall investment portfolio. As a fiduciary, 401k Educate will ask to have regular visibility into all of your investment assets to make sure you are continuing to meet your overall investment goals. While you are not required to provide this information, as a fiduciary we are obligated to notify you that we are only able to provide educational assistance for assets we have access to. We are willing to assist you with however little or how much you feel comfortable providing us with.
As a fiduciary, we provide you with the advice we would personally take or give to those closest to us. It is our duty to make sure your needs come before anyone else’s—including our own. Because of this, we are precluded from providing specific investment advice solely for our personal financial gains. Instead, our advice is focused on your goals and not our commissions. As an independent firm, we do not have any requirements to promote and sell any specific products for a vendor we would be associated with.
We put an emphasis on educating clients on the pros and cons of their investments. Every investment comes with risks and it is important investors know what those are before investing. These risks will range from purchasing power risk to market risk (see below for definition). The value of working with a fiduciary is having someone that can assist you with finding a proper blend of investment selections to help satisfy your financial objectives within your risk tolerances.
Purchasing Power Risk – Picking an investment that minimizes the risk of loss of principal investment at the risk of missing out on higher potential gains and possibly even losing value due to inflation.
Market Risk – The potential to lose principal investment for the potential of gaining higher potential returns.
