Trying to get a clear story, what did Biden do with 401k's?

[Averageman]

I'm hearing a bill was proposed and Biden veto'ed it saying 401k's need to be tied to "Green" Investments?
Why don't we just stand around the burn barrel and feed it $20.00's ?

[kerplode]

My basic understanding of the situation is that .gov wants to hobble your potential returns by forcing your plan's custodian to tie their decisions to ESG scores.

TBH, I haven't been paying too much attention, though. I rolled my 401(k)s to an IRA and now I get to be the one that decides what shitty investments to make and how much money to lose... ;-) I am interested in the full story, though, so hopefully one of our investment professionals will chime in.

And yeah, give it time...We'll be burning $20's before too much longer. That isn't very ESG, though, but I'm sure we'll come up with something.

[signal4l]

Good explanation here:

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/manchin-blasts-bidens-esg-veto-accuses-putting-radical-policy-agenda-ahead-economic-security

It's absolutely nuts. The leftists are in full control of, not only our cognitively impaired leader, but our 401k plans as well

[FromMyColdDeadHand]

From what I understand, it ALLOWS financial people to use ESG as criteria for investments. You don’t have to, yet. And that may come more from the SEC saying that public companies must use ESG criteria when running their businesses.

So for now, find out what your fund managers are basing their decisions on. Where you are screwed is if you have a retirement plan where you don’t get to pick your plans. I think the unions will use this to push money to silly leftist companies- and when those investments go tits up, get the public to bail them out.

[utahjeepr]

In a nutshell, fiduciaries are currently required by law to act in your best financial interest. Biden has put forth a rule that fiduciaries can make decisions giving woke, environmental and social justice factors equal weight to your financial interests.

So, stock X is a better financial investment but they are "icky". Stock Y may not be that smart financially but they are green BLM supporters who only hire trans, organic, free-range chipmunks. So seeing as how they are "equal" on the balance sheet we are gonna invest your retirement savings in stock Y.

[Averageman]

In a nutshell, fiduciaries are currently required by law to act in your best financial interest. Biden has put forth a rule that fiduciaries can make decisions giving woke, environmental and social justice factors equal weight to your financial interests.

So, stock X is a better financial investment but they are "icky". Stock Y may not be that smart financially but they are green BLM supporters who only hire trans, organic, free-range chipmunks. So seeing as how they are "equal" on the balance sheet we are gonna invest your retirement savings in stock Y.

This was my understanding also.
So, what's next?
I tell you what, when I saw this guy was going to be POTUS I emptied my investiment accounts 401k and IRA and paid every bill I had. I have no confidence when it comes to this guy and my money.

[Sidneyious]

This guy is English and he knows his stuff.

He's got a series of about 10 videos about this now and people in the know are using his videos to explain to normies wtf is going on

https://youtu.be/tmCiQMwtO0c

[utahjeepr]

I was being a bit over the top in my example. It doesn't force anyone to invest in ESG but it does begin to justify making bad financial choices in order to support the "proper way".

I mean we literally just had the perfect example of real world financial management following ESG principles. Silicon Valley Bank.

[Renegade]

Theoretically this rule should naturally sort itself out, with woke 401k managers who invest based on ESG having poor returns and customers fleeing to those 401k managers who do not.

Moral of story is watch your 401k and know what your manager is investing in.

[utahjeepr]

Theoretically this rule should naturally sort itself out, with woke 401k managers who invest based on ESG having poor returns and customers fleeing to those 401k managers who do not.

Moral of story is watch your 401k and know what your manager is investing in.

This should be true, but many folks have very little control over their employer sponsored 401k. One of the recent trends in virtue signaling amongst companies is to put employees 401k management into the hands of more "progressive" managers. That way they get to virtue signal with someone else's money.

Now one way to deal with that is what is called an "in service rollover". Not all funds allow it. Basically you roll over your 401k funds from your current employers plan into a different plan, just like when you leave one company for another. You cannot touch the money, it just has to transfer to the new fund. But you can gain more control of how it is managed. Your contributions and any match keep going into the employer account while the balance is somewhere else. You just have to wash-rinse-repeat. I'm not well versed in this one, but the option exists.

[glocktogo]

Theoretically this rule should naturally sort itself out, with woke 401k managers who invest based on ESG having poor returns and customers fleeing to those 401k managers who do not.

Moral of story is watch your 401k and know what your manager is investing in.

Theoretically yes, but most people will never know whether their fund management is using ESG or not. Also, individual 401k owners have virtually no power to direct how company or .gov engaged fund services invest. Don't want your individual 401k to utilize ESG in investment decisions? Fine, take your 401k elsewhere and lose employer matching funds. Either way you take a hit.

I don't think ESG should be banned per se. I do think ALL investors should be given full disclosure as to whether ESG is utilized by their fund on investment decisions. They should have the option to "opt out" of ESG being utilized for their investments. At the end of the year, the ESG and non-ESG returns should be provided to all clients. If the ESG fund had better returns, more people will opt in. If not, more people will opt out. That's capitalism at its finest. :)

[Buckaroo]

This should be true, but many folks have very little control over their employer sponsored 401k. One of the recent trends in virtue signaling amongst companies is to put employees 401k management into the hands of more "progressive" managers. That way they get to virtue signal with someone else's money.

Now one way to deal with that is what is called an "in service rollover". Not all funds allow it. Basically you roll over your 401k funds from your current employers plan into a different plan, just like when you leave one company for another. You cannot touch the money, it just has to transfer to the new fund. But you can gain more control of how it is managed. Your contributions and any match keep going into the employer account while the balance is somewhere else. You just have to wash-rinse-repeat. I'm not well versed in this one, but the option exists.

This is what we are doing at the suggestion of our advisor. Wife will continue to fund her employers 401k to get the match but otherwise we are pulling out.

[utahjeepr]

This is what we are doing at the suggestion of our advisor. Wife will continue to fund her employers 401k to get the match but otherwise we are pulling out.

I'm told that these transfers really rankle HR and the fund managers, but F 'em. It ain't their money it's yours.

[ABNAK]

My 401K is the TSP, which is the Federal version. My wife and I, being paranoid of losses as we close on retirement age, have every dime going into the "G-fund", which hardly makes shit for interest returns but is VERY safe and under the TSP you are guaranteed your principle if deposited in the G-fund. Not making much money in returns but safe as hell. It's a fund made up of bonds and the like, so I don't think there is a PC/woke component to those (if someone knows better please let me know). We both max it out, like $1153 each per two-week pay period ($30K per year per person).

[AndyLate]

In a nutshell it relieves the fund manager of fiduciary duty and leaves investments ripe for fraud.

Andy

[titsonritz]

He taking 10% for the big guy.

[utahjeepr]

My 401K is the TSP, which is the Federal version. My wife and I, being paranoid of losses as we close on retirement age, have every dime going into the "G-fund", which hardly makes shit for interest returns but is VERY safe and under the TSP you are guaranteed your principle if deposited in the G-fund. Not making much money in returns but safe as hell. It's a fund made up of bonds and the like, so I don't think there is a PC/woke component to those (if someone knows better please let me know). We both max it out, like $1153 each per two-week pay period ($30K per year per person).

The G fund is very safe and has yields similar to private bond funds. All 5 TSP funds are managed by Black Rock, just so you know.

[Waylander]

This should be true, but many folks have very little control over their employer sponsored 401k. One of the recent trends in virtue signaling amongst companies is to put employees 401k management into the hands of more "progressive" managers. That way they get to virtue signal with someone else's money.

Now one way to deal with that is what is called an "in service rollover". Not all funds allow it. Basically you roll over your 401k funds from your current employers plan into a different plan, just like when you leave one company for another. You cannot touch the money, it just has to transfer to the new fund. But you can gain more control of how it is managed. Your contributions and any match keep going into the employer account while the balance is somewhere else. You just have to wash-rinse-repeat. I'm not well versed in this one, but the option exists.


This is what we are doing at the suggestion of our advisor. Wife will continue to fund her employers 401k to get the match but otherwise we are pulling out.

I had no idea this was even possible. I get a match and my only investment option is BLACKROCK! [emoji2961] so I’ve been sweating for a while as you might imagine.

But then who do I invest with for low fee index funds or target date? Vanguard? Schwab? I’ve use either or in my Roth but I’m hearing they are leaning the same way.

[SteyrAUG]

When I watched people get their 401ks halved under Obama, I made a conscious decision to make firearms my 401k. I've been outperforming most people I know.

[Buckaroo]

I had no idea this was even possible. I get a match and my only investment option is BLACKROCK! [emoji2961] so I’ve been sweating for a while as you might imagine.

But then who do I invest with for low fee index funds or target date? Vanguard? Schwab? I’ve use either or in my Roth but I’m hearing they are leaning the same way.

Look at www.strive.com "Our mission is to restore the voices of everyday citizens in the American economy by leading companies to focus on excellence over politics"

[ChattanoogaPhil]

ESG... I think it's mostly about the E. The so-called Inflation Reduction Act will be throwing hundreds of billions of dollars at 'green companies'. There's going to be a ton of money to be made with money managers who understand where the government dollars will be flowing.

[Averageman]

I wouldn't be basing a lot of my long term finacial advice on whet Biden's doing, I don't think he will be around that long.
With all of the drama happening around him, he better back off and bolster his position. I'm not sure why, but instead it's a series of blunders, trips and falls as they develop a bad hodge podge of Woke ideas; that in this case is called policy.
No, at worst he is run out of office in shame while "Orange Man Bad" dances the Cha-Cha in to the Oval Office. At best he finishes his time and some poor SOB spend four years as POTUS unraveling this mess.
Money doesn't care, Money doesn't sleep, Money just wants to keep growing, but Biden is stepping on the neck of the economy rather than let market forces dictate the day.
I don't care how Liberal you are, you're not immune to greed.

[AndyLate]

ESG... I think it's mostly about the E. The so-called Inflation Reduction Act will be throwing hundreds of billions of dollars at 'green companies'. There's going to be a ton of money to be made with money managers who understand where the government dollars will be flowing.

The fund managers could leverage those potential gains without Biden's administration removing fiduciary responsibility.

I know next to nothing about finance, but I know Biden's administration is blunting a long followed principal that a fund manager is required to act in the best financial interest of the investor. The marxists are trying to kill off individual retirement accounts to be replaced by retirement pensions distributed by equity considerations only.

The f••king Russian Jewish grandmothers will be sending us money to stave off starvation if this continues.


Andy

[glocktogo]

I had no idea this was even possible. I get a match and my only investment option is BLACKROCK! [emoji2961] so I’ve been sweating for a while as you might imagine.

But then who do I invest with for low fee index funds or target date? Vanguard? Schwab? I’ve use either or in my Roth but I’m hearing they are leaning the same way.

BlackRock, Vanguard and State Street OWN Wall St. All three are on the ESG gravy train. :(


ESG... I think it's mostly about the E. The so-called Inflation Reduction Act will be throwing hundreds of billions of dollars at 'green companies'. There's going to be a ton of money to be made with money managers who understand where the government dollars will be flowing.

Only if they time the dump before those "green companies" go belly up once they piss away all that free money. Meanwhile your 401k fund managers can't short stocks, but other market force can. For example, the past year every fund managed by BlackRock is in the red. That doesn't mean no one's making money though.

[prepare]

The economic collapse is getting closer and closer...