Isola: Why Can’t 3.6 Million Teachers Get a Group Discount on their 403(b) Plans?

My friend over at Ritholz Wealth Management, Tony Isola, is out with a new blog post today revealing the disappointing fact that Public School Employees don't get the benefit of their collective bargaining when it comes to their defined contribution 403(b) plans.

Tony elaborates:

"Companies like Walmart are able to receive massive discounts from their suppliers. The reason for this enormous competitive advantage is they buy in tremendous bulk. They maximize their gargantuan resources to get the lowest prices from their vendors.

Contrast this with teachers’ 403(b) plans, that do just the opposite. Instead of collectivizing the investment needs of millions of teachers, spindly individual contracts with plan vendors are the rule."

There is one union that I'm aware of that does use their collective power and the collective bargaining process to help teachers and that is the Wisconsin Education Association, the WEA Trust. www.weatrust.com.

Read Tony's article at his blog, A Teachable Moment.

Wild West: Providing Fiduciary Advice To Public School Employees | Now Available

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Wild West: Providing Fiduciary Advice to Public School Employees

I've submitted my book to the distributor and it's in the e-book formatting stage. If all goes as planned you'll be able to purchase Wild West mid January.

Wild West is a book for financial advisors who want to work with public school employees, but don't know where to start.

I've been working with public school employees for nearly twenty years and they are an underserved demographic who are taken advantage of by salesman hawking poor fee and commission laden products.

You can read my blog for teachers, here. I've been blogging on educator retirement issues since 2003.

If you are interested in consulting, please e-mail at scott at meridianwealth dot com.


Scott Dauenhauer, CFP, MPAS, AIF