Our 401K plan is currently in a blackout period due to a change in the 401K administrator. The company decided to change the administrator of the plan and it is causing huge headaches in our household. The blackout period is the time when the plan is being switched from the old 401K administrator over to the new one, and it is a time when we have no access to our 401K at all. It is scheduled to last 2 weeks.

First, since we are in this blackout period we have no means through which to track money that is being deducted from the paycheck for 401K contributions. The old 401K account shows that it is empty now and the new 401K account cannot be accessed yet.

Secondly, in an effort to track things on our own, we made a printout of the 401K on the last day before the blackout period started. This allowed us to see the overall balance as well as the allocation of the money by mutual funds. The new 401K plan calls for a complete selling of all the current mutual funds followed by a purchase of the mutual funds that the new administrator offers. I have to say that the new choices are by far inferior to the prior plan and the amount of fees involved have significantly risen.

After contacting the Human Resources Department multiple times, Mr. Not Made Of Money was assured that this new 401K administrator was good for the company because it was saving the company a great deal of money per year. Notice I said good for the company but not necessarily the employees, because the fees are being passed on to the employees. The fees for this new 401K administrator are significantly higher, and the mutual funds they are offering not nearly as good as the prior options under the old 401K administrator.

What we would like to see is a documentation trail showing what the old mutual funds sold at, the purchase prices of the new funds, as well as to see the additional paycheck contributions for the 401K. We’re not holding out much hope that we’ll get to see any of this though, as we’ve been unable to get anyone involved at the company level or the new 401K administrator to commit that we’ll see anything other than a new 401K balance when the blackout period ends.

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