The World’s Best 401(k) Plan
Dubbed “The World’s Best 401(k)” by Dr. Jim Dahle, founder of the renowned White Coat Investor, a website dedicated to helping medical professionals and others gain financial literacy. This plan was meticulously designed to meet high standards for both employees and employers. Dr. Dahle, an advocate for financial empowerment, came to us with a comprehensive vision for his 401(k) plan. His extensive 16-point checklist aimed to create a plan that balances cost-efficiency, ease of use, and robust investment opportunities:
- Lowest possible costs for employees
- Reasonable costs for employer
- Plan expenses to be paid by the employer, qualifying as business expense
- Access to best-in-class investment options
- Excellent default investment options
- Seamless, automated investment processes
- Automatic rebalancing
- Automatic enrollment (opt-out model)
- Automatic contribution increases
- Roth contribution options
- Access to 401(k) loans
- Capability for employees to maximize contributions
- True self-directed accounts (at least for owners)
- Ability to make after-tax contributions
- In-service withdrawals or rollovers
- In-plan Roth conversions
We were proud to achieve 11 out of the 16 objectives, delivering a powerful and flexible 401(k) plan. The features not implemented—items 5, 6, 7, 9, and 13—were due to limitations of the chosen framework, which avoided using a dedicated recordkeeping platform. However, these could be included under a different plan framework if desired. This partnership highlights our commitment to meet even the most rigorous requirements. Click here to read Dr. Dahle’s full post on this robust plan.