Your TAG 401(k) Plan

Yesterday was 401(k) Trustee Meeting Day. Some of the newer stats on the Plan:

The Animation Guild 401(k) Plan
Total Participants -- 2,321
Average Account Balance -- $69,170
Average Number of Investments -- 6.8
Total Assets -- $160.5 million

Nationwide, the trend among 401(k) Plans is to more transparency and lower costs. (This isn't altruism as much as it is new federal regulations and fear of litigation. But hey, it's a good trend.)

I have been telling participants for a while now that their best investment choices are the Plan's index funds and the Vanguard Target Funds. Happily, the different index offering are being used by participants. The top funds used by participants are:

Top Five TAG 401(k) Funds
SAGIC (bond fund) -- 15.73%
PIMCO Total Return (bond fund) -- 14.55%
S & P 500 Index (stock fund) -- 11.35%
Vanguard Target Funds (stock/bond) -- 10%

One last factoid for members: The TAG 401(k) Plan and the Motion Picture Industry Pension Plan -- and many of our members are active in both -- have one thing in common: The costs for both are borne by the participants. This is pretty typical of multi-employer pension plans.

The good news is the costs are not high ... and they're coming down.