Recently FedSmith’s John Grobe posted a list of ‘TSP Allocation Services’ offering advice (at a subscription fee) for TSP participants. This includes the TSP’s own L Funds plus 3rd party allocation service providers. Among the most popular 3rd party advisers are:
I’ve been asked by some of the 3rd party TSP allocation advisers above if I would provide a link to their service- Here is my overview and rationale for not doing so below. Continue reading
TSP’s Executive Director is having a change of heart.
Recently the Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board (FRTIB – the group who runs the TSP) announced that it will finally (and they really mean it this time) consider adding a Mutual Fund Window option to the TSP. FRTIB is commencing a study that will last through 2015 on how best to implement the Mutual Fund Window option. Continue reading
Recently the non-partisan (cough, cough) GAO conducted a study investigating large (> $5 Million) IRA balances.
According to WSJ, this study was prompted by the disclosures of Mitt Romney and Silicon Valley entrepreneur Max Levchin that they each have IRA balances worth tens on millions.
The GAO concluded in its preliminary study (GAO-14-878T):
In 2014, the federal government will forgo (emphasis mine) an estimated $17.5 billion in tax revenue from IRAs.
GAO will release a separate report with its final results on individual retirement accounts later this fall.
What prompted this study? Congress is reportedly upset about the super-sized IRA balances because (according to GAO) :
Congress limited annual contributions to IRAs to prevent the tax-favored accumulation of unduly large balances, but concerns have been raised that tax benefits accrue primarily for higher -income individuals.
Back to the cases of Mitt and Max… Continue reading
John Hechinger and John Turner recently published an article picked up by Bloomberg and Businessweek alerting TSP and TSP participants to the well-known TSP ‘IRA Rollover Scandal’.
In the TSP Rollover Scandal, brokerage houses recommend any retired or separated TSP participant take their TSP balance and roll it over to their Brokerage House IRA. In most cases, this benefits the Brokerage House much more than it does the former TSP Account Holder, as the Brokerage house can collect lucrative fees by managing the participant’s retirement balance in-house. The article was well researched and rightfully took some jabs at ‘GoldBug’ IRA Brokerage Houses, but I think the author went a bit far by bashing NFCU and USAA. USAA and NFCU are Friend- Not Foe- of the Veteran’s wallet.
In defense of NFCU, USAA, Schwab, Fidelity, and Vanguard, I present the following…
5 Reasons Why Thrift Savings Plan Sucks Continue reading