Comments on: The 401(k) presentation from hell

By: Diane

Diane — Fri, 08 May 2009 12:32:34 +0000

A good representative and human resources employees will encourage participation ESPECIALLY when the market is down, highlighting why we should buy now.

By: Cean Rogers

Cean Rogers — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 01:19:06 +0000

Doris,

An HR director at another company sent me your message. I thought I would reply. I’m an independent investment advisor and I help companies evaluate thier 401k plans. It is your companies fudiciary responsibility to look into plans that give good service for a resonable fee. If you’re plan is really paying $30 for $100 being invested then you are clearly paying too much. You should not be paying 30% in 401k fees. Fees are based primarily on the plan’s asset size and number of participants. If you would like help or would like to get me in touch with the investment commitee, I would love helping evaluate your current plan and compare it to others available. Please contact me at cean.rogers@ironwoodfinancial.com if you would like help.

Bullish Regards,
Cean

By: Doris

Doris — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 17:58:59 +0000

My question to anyone who can answer is this – the family owned company I work for switched our company managed retirement fund over to a 401K. They had a rep come to give everyone information concerning the plan. The guy spoke way above our heads – yes he did ask for questions BUT if you have no idea what he was talking about or have no prior knowledge about 401K plans, how can you ask intelligent questions? Another question that most all employees have is this: At no time were we informed of how any administrative fees were calculated. The person who is the “go to guy” if employees have questions comes across as not knowing what he is talking about or else he refers you to the web site. We all knew we would loose money because of the drop in the stock market but had no idea the “cost” of this firm handling our 401K funds. It has averaged out for myself that every $100 I put in they take $30 for fees of one sort or another. Is this usual? The answer I get at work is “you don’t get anything for nothing! did you think it would be free”. Any comments would be appreciated.

By: K in KY

K in KY — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 20:04:39 +0000

It must be a company training tip, because our “duck-spokesperson supplemental insurance” company used the phrase “dollars for body parts” too. Someone should really tell them its a huge set back when your employee cringe at the rep giving the presentation!

By: Beatty

Beatty — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 20:21:43 +0000

Our 401 K rep is always late for presentations, but the worse rep we had was when we switched companies for our FSA plan. The rep was late, did not have enough materials for everyone (even though we were asked several times how many people were attending), she did not seem to know her information very well. The worse part was when she actually said she bought benadryl for her dog and claimed it was for herself on the form. That’s not only being illprepared – that is fraud! We reported her to her supervisor.

By: Sylvia

Sylvia — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 23:05:55 +0000

Good timing!

Our rep will be doing a 401(k) presentation in the next few days. I am forwarding your article to give him a “heads up” on what “not” to do…..

Thanks!

By: SE

SE — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 21:49:24 +0000

I have a similar story but this one was my fault. At the time I worked for a distribution company. The only time all of our drivers were in the building at the same time was at 4:00 am. So every time I needed to present something to the company I had to always schedule one of the meetings at 4:00 am. We were presenting some new insurance so I made sure we had a rep. available at each meeting for questions. On this day I either forgot to set my alarm or didn’t turn it on or something like that. In addition, I forgot to give the rep. my cell number. So at 3:30 am she was at the hotel waiting for me to pick her up for the meeting. One of the managers finally called me at 4:15 waking me up and asking where I was. I was so embarrassed and felt awful. We rescheduled the meeting for the next morning and the rep. called my cell at 2:30 am to make sure I was up and getting ready. How pathetic, huh?

By: James Grosheider

James Grosheider — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 19:09:57 +0000

I was once giving a presesentation in Welch, WV when gunshots broke out. It seems someone was blasting away at ducks in the creek just outside the window. I was frazzled. No one else seemed to notice.

By: alk

alk — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 19:48:00 +0000

My experience was not with the 401 reps, instead it was with another benefit that we had offerd through our company for a several years. We was assigned a new rep, and he also was late for his initial contact meeting with the employees. He did however bring “home-made” cookies for the group to enjoy. However, upon one look at his clothing (covered in some sort of animal hair – not sure if it was cat or dog) no one was interested in his so called tasty treats. He actually stopped his presentation on several occasions insisting that employees help themselves to the cookies, he couldn’t get past his cookies to make a presentation, therefore it turned out to be a completely worthless meeting that wasted all employees time. During the presentation, I contacted the company that he was a representative for, filing a formal complaint.

By: Patrick

Patrick — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 23:40:33 +0000

I had a bad experience with a 401(k) rep also. I had arranged for two presentations and a manager from a separate facility we oversaw was going to listen in with his employees on speakerphone. Ten minutes before the first presentation, I already had the other manager on the line and the rep had not arrived. I called the rep, whom I had only met once before, to get an update and he said he had emailed my boss (who was out on vacation and not checking her email) to let her know he couldn’t make it. With all the employees already assembled, I made a completely unprepared presentation myself.