Compare your employer's 401(k) quality

[Deleted]

I hadn't been to this site in awhile but the discussion on whether to roll over funds to a new employer's plan reminded me of it.

www.brightscope.com

They use public documents to compare companies' 401(k) plans on criteria such as expenses, quality of investments and generosity of company match. Some of the data is as of 2008, but it's free and it's pretty interesting. My employer's plan is in the 85th percentile, which is pretty respectable.

[Savoir Faire-Demogague in NJ]

XXXXXXX, Inc. Savings Plan is a defined contribution plan. This plan has a BrightScope Rating of 78. This plan is in the top 15% of plans for Company Generosity, Salary Deferral, and Total Plan Cost. Sungard Data Systems, Inc. Savings Plan currently has over 15,300 active participants and over $1.0B in plan assets.

My firm currently has 20,000 employees around the globe. I do not know the breakdown by country.

[daennera]

Hmm.....of course this site can only catalog publicly held companies. My employer is privately held, but I still know their 401(k) is crap.

[soon2bmomof3]

Daennera,

My company is privately held and it shows up. Did you try doing a search for it?

****** is a defined contribution plan. This plan has a BrightScope Rating of 86, placing it in the top 15% of all plans in its peer group. This plan is also in the top 15% of plans for Account Balances, Company Generosity, Salary Deferral, and Total Plan Cost. ******Trust & Thrift Plan currently has over 17,800 active participants and over $3.8B in plan assets.

[tcu2003]

Mine is a privately held company, and it also shows up. Their plan has a rating of 76 - the major thing dragging them down is the "investment menu quality" is listed as poor (no surprised there). The "total plan cost" is rated as "lowest fees," and the "company generosity" and "participation rate" are listed as "great," with "salary deferrals" and "account balances" as "above average."

[spartan7886]

********** is a defined contribution plan with a profit-sharing component. This plan has a BrightScope Rating of 85, placing it in the top 15% of all plans in its peer group. This plan is also in the top 15% of plans for Account Balances, Company Generosity, Investment Menu Quality, Salary Deferral, and Total Plan Cost. ********** currently has over 42,100 active participants and over $8.2B in plan assets.

We also made the top 30 list, and as best I can tell, this doesn't take into account the fact that we have a pension program, too. I my employer.

[daennera]

Yeah, I searched for my company's name. And I went through the alphabetical listing and I didn't find it. I figured that our 401(k) info would have to be filed with some regulating body and hence public info. But I can't find it on there at all.

EDIT: ok, I did manage to find my company, but it's not rated. Says they don't have enough info. Maybe I'll make it my weekend project to gather the info and plug in the numbers.

[MN-Investor]

My DH's company - a Fortune 100 corporation - comes in with a rating of 77. We've been very happy with their 401(k) and with the options available with them. Like many other companies, they've added a Roth option this year.

In '09 they cut their company match from 8% to 4%, but they just now told they employees that that will move up to 5% and gradually back to the 8%, so that's good.

[Sam_2.0]

Mine is rated at a 74 - the investment choices were below average, but everything else was above average. It has the investment options that I wanted, so I can't complain. And we get a 6% match, which I think is pretty great around here.

[Deleted]

My company offers both a 401K and a profit sharing plan. The company is privately held, so it matches 401K contributions with shares/stocks of the company(profit sharing plan).

-> 401k Plan: XXXX Plan is a defined contribution plan. This plan has a BrightScope Rating of 47. This plan is in the top 35% of plans for Total Plan Cost. XXXX 401k Plan currently has over 14,600 active participants and over $93.2M in plan assets.

-> Profit Sharing Plan : XXXX Profit Sharing Plan is a defined contribution plan with a profit-sharing component.XXXX Sharing Plan currently has over 17,200 active participants and over $337.1M in plan assets.


And the reason why I really miss my old job in new jersey: their 401K plan and it was rocking. Yes after 2 years I still miss it But here:

-> XXXX Corporation Employee 401k Plan is a defined contribution plan. This plan has a BrightScope Rating of 80. This plan is in the top 15% of plans for Participation Rate and Salary Deferral. XXXX Corporation Employee 401k Plan currently has over 200 active participants and over $14.7M in plan assets.

[TD2K]

My company is employee owned and it's in there. Score of 78.

[suzwantstobefree]

My company doesn't even match a penny but I am still grateful for a 401K

[Deleted]

Jan 10, 2011 20:46:54 GMT -5 TheHaitian said:

XXXX Plan is a defined contribution plan. This plan has a BrightScope Rating of 47. This plan is in the top 35% of plans for Total Plan Cost.

Just curious- what was the rating so low? Bad investment options?

[Deleted]

Jan 11, 2011 7:48:53 GMT -5 @athena53 said:

Jan 10, 2011 20:46:54 GMT -5 TheHaitian said:

XXXX Plan is a defined contribution plan. This plan has a BrightScope Rating of 47. This plan is in the top 35% of plans for Total Plan Cost.

Just curious- what was the rating so low? Bad investment options?

The Plan component Ratings gave:
a) Total Plan Cost: Low Fees
b) Company Generosity : Poor (no surprise there)
c) Instement Menu Quality: Below Average
d) Participation Rate : Poor (I made a thread about that already... it is poor because my company offers pension and guess what: most people feels because of that they don't have to save on their own)
e) Salary Deferrals : Average
f) Account Balances: Below Average (see d)

[thyme4change]

My company got a 62. The reasons that were average were a low participation rate and salary deferrals. Everything else was above average.

So basically, my co-workers suck at saving.

[Deleted]

Jan 11, 2011 11:01:40 GMT -5 TheHaitian said:

The Plan component Ratings gave:
a) Total Plan Cost: Low Fees
b) Company Generosity : Poor (no surprise there)
c) Investment Menu Quality: Below Average
d) Participation Rate : Poor (I made a thread about that already... it is poor because my company offers pension and guess what: most people feels because of that they don't have to save on their own)
e) Salary Deferrals : Average
f) Account Balances: Below Average (see d)

Yeah, I can see that a combination of a DB plan already available and poor ratings on investment options and investment quality would end up driving down the participation rate and the average balance.

[Deleted]

Jan 11, 2011 15:57:33 GMT -5 @athena53 said:

Jan 11, 2011 11:01:40 GMT -5 TheHaitian said:

The Plan component Ratings gave:
a) Total Plan Cost: Low Fees
b) Company Generosity : Poor (no surprise there)
c) Investment Menu Quality: Below Average
d) Participation Rate : Poor (I made a thread about that already... it is poor because my company offers pension and guess what: most people feels because of that they don't have to save on their own)
e) Salary Deferrals : Average
f) Account Balances: Below Average (see d)

Yeah, I can see that a combination of a DB plan already available and poor ratings on investment options and investment quality would end up driving down the participation rate and the average balance.

Yep!