Search the Community

I work for a suburban New Jersey school district with roughly 1500 employees. Our local association has established a working group to explore our 403(b) plan vendor choices as we want to effect positive change. I am a long-time member of this board but haven’t posted much and wanted to reach out to everyone today for your thoughts our working group is starting its work soon. Here is some background information. We have a TPA that the board hired after the IRS rewrote 403(b) regulations about 10 years ago. We have a handful of 403(b) vendors. Most offer either mutual funds or annuities at retail prices- the typical K-12 options. The TPA has an option to buy American Funds’ institutional class shares with no loads and fees somewhere in the range of 70 to 90 basis points. (In addition, the district has a single-vendor 457 plan which is administered by VOYA. I believe the options are annuities priced similarly to the typical K-12 products and may have deferred sales charges.) We would like to review our 403(b) vendor options as we work towards working with our board and business office. Can anyone share your experiences with Vanguard, Fidelity, or NEA Member Benefits working with K-12 districts? Or experiences with other vendors that proved favorable? Thanks, Jeff