Fiduciary standards

Big surprise. Senator Dodd caved in to what I imagine was great political pressure and most of us won’t become fiduciaries, at least for a time. There was a great risk that we would, and the move was backed by diverse people and groups that included John Bogle, who founded Vanguard, and the Financial Planning Association.

While I’m very respectful of both the FPA and John Bogle, I would note that Vanguard, the company he founded, is a bit difficult when it comes to releasing 401(k) participant funds, especially when folks want to move dollars from a former employer’s plan to, say, an individual IRA. It is not the only custodian/administrator so challenged. I observed another custodian who hemmed and hawed and messed about for two or so months in 2008, after being presented with signed transfer paperwork, which resulted in the participant losing half his money, which had been in a portfolio of his own devise.

Before picking on reps, big companies might want to address some of their own moral blemishes: For example, if a participant files signed paperwork to transfer from an employer 401(k) plan (Vanguard, I believe, administers thousands) to a rollover IRA or SEP, move the money! It’s not fair, reasonable or moral for any custodian to retain money against a customer’s wishes. Did I mention Merrill Lynch? It sometimes does the same thing with regular brokerage transfers — losing paperwork, playing form tag and anything else it can think of to avoid even losing a paltry $5,000 or $10,000.

To change the subject — Forbes gratuitously added a dig at variable annuities in its current issue. Gee, I made 26-28% for the last 13-14 months, net of fees, in many of my VAs. Did I mention living benefits? Apparently not good enough for Forbes, even though one of its columnists — who apparently does not use variable annuities — lost, it’s reported, something over $2 billion of client money in 2008.