Smart Investments with ShareBuilder 401k
401(k) plan investment expertise at your service!
At ShareBuilder 401k, we offer investments and oversight that is truly uncommon
in the industry today. We have three goals for every client in helping owners and
employees successfully save for retirement:
- Keep fund expenses low because costs matter when it comes to saving — a pillar
of our investment philosophy
- Make it simple to manage the fund line-up available in your plan — we do it
for you
- Lower your business risks of offering a plan — we have a skin in the game
with you, unlike most
ShareBuilder 401k is an advisor that selects and manages the investments and model
portfolios available in every ShareBuilder 401k plan. As we are not a fund provider,
we take an unbiased approach in determining the investments with your best interests
in mind. And it's all done by financial professionals – aka The ShareBuilder
Investment Committee. Our committee continually monitors the investment options
offered in your plan and will adjust the five model portfolios with a laser focus
on:
- Diversification to help minimize losses while optimizing the potential for strong
returns
- Low-expense funds so your money has the opportunity to work harder over time
- Long-term wealth building strategies that avoid short-term fads
How we lower your risk
In a typical 401(k) plan, the owner or designated plan sponsor for your company
plan is responsible for selecting and reviewing the investment options offered in
the plan. If there are concerns, or in worst case, an employee lawsuit about the
fund offerings in the plan, the owner and other "fiduciaries" of a company plan
are liable. Most 401(k) providers will take no responsibility, let alone a fiduciary
role, in supporting your plan. Rather, these risks and responsibilities fall squarely
on their clients' shoulders, many who are not financial experts nor have the time
to be.
We take a very hands-on approach that is quite uncommon in the industry today. To
minimize the issues
employers face and to offer what we believe is a better 401(k) plan, we share the
fiduciary responsibilities for the investment line-up of every ShareBuilder 401k
plan with our customers. We are what is known as an ERISA 3(38) advisor. Investment expertise provides real
value for most any company's 401(k) plan and that's why ShareBuilder's financial
experts are here to help!
How we manage your investment options
To provide you with a great investment line-up, the ShareBuilder Investment Committee
oversees the investment options available in our plans along with managing the make-up
of the five model portfolios (from conservative to
aggressive) at least quarterly. The committee consists of seven investment professionals
including three CFAs (Chartered Financial Analyst). To assist in our analysis,
we use a model from ASI employing a Markowitz mean-variance technique designed to
produce the highest expected return given the variable constraints (e.g. loss limits,
historical returns, etc…) for each model portfolio. With this and other data, the
investments line-up and model portfolios are managed in line with Sharebuilder 401k
Investment Philosophy and Policy.
Essential policy objectives are asset diversification and keeping fund expenses
low.
In a nutshell, this means that we take this role very seriously. It's a service
few providers offer and we automatically include it in our
pricing. We are here to provide you superior investment support and help
you and your employees build a meaningful nest egg come retirement.