Herbie Glass, MBA, CPC, CFP, ChFC, CFG, CLU

Interesting question! But, before I would move your money from the 401(k) Plan to an IRA, and assuming you can based on the plan document provisions and you having already checked with your employer, I would recommend the following:

1. Pick which IRA investments you would choose which would make up your whole portfolio and determine how much money you would be investing in each fund.
2. Determine how much the total investment and/or fund fees would be for your theoretical IRA portfolio, and compare that amount of fees to the amount of fees that you would be paying in your 401(k) plan (a) assuming that you were investing the same dollar amount you just assumed that was being invested in the IRA portfolio, and (b) assuming a similarly designed portfolio (fund choices) as you picked for the theoretical IRA portfolio.
3. Make sure that you are getting all the proper fee information for all investments you are using in No. 2. , above.
4. Then determine what value added, if any, the benefits of investing in a 401(k) plan provides, such as, the fact that professional investment managers and/or the 401(k) plans' fiduciaries have added by selecting funds, in which you may invest, from the whole universe of funds that are available, etc.
5. Then you should determine if the value added to your portfolio by the factors in No. 4 above and the time you may be saving by not "doing it yourself" if you we're investing in an IRA offset the extra fees you may be paying in the 401(k) plan.
6. Keep in mind that fees and expenses should always be just one of the factors you take into consideration with most buying decisions unless you are getting the exact same product or service from each vendor. And when investing, it is easy to understand that if the amount being earned is higher after taking into consideration the fees being paid, then it would make sense to pick the more costly alternative because the extra results will offset any extra expense being paid.
7. So, the conclusion is that there is more to reaching a conclusion to your question than just comparing fees and expenses. You must do some more work and thinking about what you think would be better for you to do, and then either move the money to an IRA or don't based on your complete analysis of all the factors and issues I have described here.
8. With respect to your question as to how often you should move money to an IRA, assuming that you want to, just make sure that you first get your match that is a gift from your employer, and take into consideration that you have to overcome the $30 extra fee eventually by any expense savings and extra earnings (if there are any), then you can transfer money as often as you like as long as the plan has no restrictions to how often you can make such withdrawals.

I hope some of these details I have mentioned here are helpful to you when you are making your decision of what you believe the right choice is for you.

Have a Happy and Healthy New Year,

Herbie Glass Certified Pension Consultant

Yes, because you are very young and your Current tax bracket is probably very low, I think that you are in a perfect position to make use of the 401k Roth benefits. In fact, you should consider not only rolling your pretax 401(k) monies to the Roth 401(k) account, but also, you should consider making your new employee elective deferrals to the Roth 401(k) account choice as well.

Just one more thing, because tax free compounding is so powerful, and that you are young, and that the Roth account has such good features that will benefit you long into the future, I recommend that you further consider trying to save the maximum amount of employee payroll deductible elective deferral possible and put it into the Roth 401(k) account. All studies have shown that savings plans started at an early age are infinitely more powerful then savings made at a later age. Therefore, you are in a very enviable position to take advantage of the the Roth features and Benefits.

Good luck to you for many years to come.

Herbie Glass

Mary Ann,

Without knowing anything about your company, your objectives, or your investment experience, it is difficult for me or anyone else to know your service and investment product needs and therefore which company would be better for you and your employees. Furthermore, the service charges, the investment expenses and any other charges quoted by each company is extremely important to understand before you can expect that a wise decision can be made.

I have been a Pension consultant since 1974 and have worked with many 401(k) plan companies since the late 1980s. I have worked with and investigated many insurance companies during that time. Although, I do not know much about Mass Mutual as a 401(k) product provider and record keeper, however I have always known them to be a very fine Life Insurance company. Coincidentally, I just switched my own company's 401(k) plan over to Great West because when I compared them, in many categories, against a number of other companies, I found them to have the best pricing and their investment products, services and service features compared very favorably to all the other companies I received proposals from.

To arrive at a reasonably good decision, I would suggest that you find a good 401(k) plan consultant that is able to first understand your needs, goals and objectives and can also review any current plan you may have and then put together some alternative plan designs for you to review and choose from, he should then make a list of specifications that meet your needs. The next step would be to have your consultant contact a minimum of three companies that he thinks would be a good fit with you and your plan and request proposals from each of them. He should then be able to show you an easy to understand comparison of each companies' pros and cons. Only after going through a comprehensive process such as that, would you have the information that you need to be able to make a decision as to which company you think would be good to select.

I hope the above answer helps you with understanding a prudent process to go through that would help you make the best informed decision you can with respect to this matter.

Good luck with your search.

Herbie Glass