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When Bad 403(b) Vendors Offer Good Investing Choices

Ideally all employees have access to one of the following financial companies:

• Aspire Financial Services (non advisor)
• CalSTRS Pension2 (only in California)
• Fidelity Investments
• T. Rowe Price
• TIAA
• Vanguard
• WEA Member Benefits (Wisconsin)

Bad Vendor Who Offer Good Choices

Several of the firms we rate poorly (see our Vendor Rating System), actually offer a decent product, but there are challenges getting access. In most cases these firms don't promote these offerings, and employers don't know much about them. Sales agents attached to these companies will not encourage the use of these products or help in the enrollment process. If the following companies are on your vendor list, you will need to go directly to the company to enroll. The 403bwise Facebook Group is a great source of support for learning about and enrolling in these products. 

Lincoln Investment’s RetirementSolutions Participant Directed Account
Offered mostly in New Jersey, this product which was put together by the New Jersey Education Association is essentially a clone of the Vanguard 403(b). Several of our most active 403(b) advocates use this product. We encourage you to interact with them via the 403bwise Facebook Group to learn more about their experience using this product. Update (11.13.24): It appears that the company has abanded this program to new participants. It also looks like firm has renamed the the product from RetirementSolutions Participant Directed Program to RetirementSolutions Participant Directed Account.

PlanMember Participant Choice
This firm is now partially owned by AXA/Equitable, a notorious player in the 403(b) world. And not notorious in the cool way. This program is not so much “low cost” as it is better cost. It does offer products from American Funds, DFA, T. Rowe Price and Vanguard. A good place to learn more about this product is via the state of California’s K-12 database 403bcompare.com. Again, the 403bwise Facebook Group could be a good source for feedback on this product. 

NEA InvestMyself offered through Security Benefit
We are generally very critical of Security Benefit and the National Education Association for their K-12 403(b) collaboration. The NEA receives more than $3 million annually in exchange for endorsing extremely costly Security Benefit products. To us, this is an unholy alliance. Unions should be looking out for their members, not looking out for themselves. We aren’t alone in this assessment. In fact, the NEA was once sued for this arrangement. They prevailed, but were clearly rattled by the experience. So much so that they rolled out a pretty decent product: NEA Direct Invest. In 2022 this offering was replaced by NEA InvestMyself. It's not as good as green rated vendors but it is not bad. 

PenServe PenSelect (no Advisor)
Available nationwide, they offer a low-cost product featuring Vanguard funds. The key is to leave the advisor portion blank in the application. Fiduciary advisor Scott Dauenhauer, CFP has written about this product.