Dirty Little Secrets of Your 401(K): What the “big Money Boys” Don’t Want You to Know

By Brooks Hamilton

FINALLY THE TRUTH, THE WHOLE TRUTH, AND NOTHING BUT THE TRUTH! ABOUT 401k PLANS IN AMERICA is revealed by Brooks Hamilton, an attorney who has worked in the Retirement Game since the beginning, and knows all of the “DIRTY LITTLE SECRETS” that the retirement industry doesn’t want you to know!

Now, in everyday language, Brooks shares these secrets with you so that You Can Be OK When You Retire

If you are in a 401k plan that you don’t understand; if you are among the 80% of workers who feel they won’t have enough money at retirement; if you want to escape the stealthy trap that 401k plans have become, with hidden, excessive fees and expenses; if you want to know where you are on the long road to retirement; and finally, if you want to learn the practical and effective steps you can take to get where you need to be, then . . . .
THIS E-BOOK IS FOR YOU!

With no ties to fees from insurance companies or the mutual fund industry, Brooks has always been able to think and act independently, creating innovative “outside-the-box” solutions.

In his role as a fiduciary, Brooks has written dozens of in-depth papers and been interviewed for articles appearing in publications including the Wall Street Journal, Dallas Morning News, Worth Magazine, Plan Sponsor, Kiplinger’s, Barron’s, and Reader’s Digest. He has also been featured in TV appearances discussing retirement industry issues on 60 Minutes The 401k Fallout, Emmy Award Winning PBS Frontline Can You Afford to Retire?, PBS Frontline The Retirement Gamble, CBS Evening News Guarding Your Money, CNBC Moneyline StreetSmarts, and has given speeches around the United States and in Europe.

Always with one goal - to help his fellow Americans retire in dignity.

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookBaby
• Release date: Aug 10, 2017
• ISBN: 9781543910797

Book preview

Dirty Little Secrets of Your 401(k)

(What the Big Money Boys Don’t Want You to Know)

by Brooks Hamilton

If you are in a 401(k) plan you don’t understand; if you are among the 80 percent of workers who feel they won’t have enough money at retirement; if you want to escape the stealthy trap that 401(k) plans have become, with hidden, often excessive, fees and expenses; if you want to know where you are on the long road to retirement; and finally, if you want to learn the practical and effective steps you can take to get where you need to be, then.…

THIS E-BOOK IS FOR YOU!

I’m going to tell you

in everyday language

• How to find out your plan’s investment return

• How to figure out your personal investment return

and answer these three questions

• Where am I on the long road to retirement?

• Where do I need to be when I retire?

• How can I maximize my chances to retire successfully?

About the Author

Brooks Hamilton is a Dallas, Texas, attorney who has worked in the employee benefit field for over 50 years. Hamilton holds a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Houston, did postgraduate work in computer science at the University of North Carolina, and received a Juris Doctor degree from Southern Methodist University School of Law in Dallas in 1963. He was admitted to the Bar of the United States Supreme Court in 2009. Hamilton founded and operated a firm providing professional employee benefit computer services to major financial institutions, and since the late 1970s has limited his private practice to 401(k) plans and fiduciary liability.

His articles have appeared in over a dozen financial magazines, and ten papers have been published on the Social Science Research Network at http://ssrn.com/author=920853

. He also coauthored an NCPA Policy Paper Reinventing Retirement Income in America

in 2001 - see http://www.ncpathinktank.org/pub/st248?pg=14

.

Hamilton has been a speaker at the University of Chicago, University of Houston Law School, IIR International Benefit Conference in London, the PSCA Conference in Chicago, and sundry employee benefit conferences and seminars.

TV appearances have included 60 Minutes (The 401(k) Fallout, April 2009), PBS Frontline (The Retirement Gamble, April 2013), PBS Frontline (Can You Afford to Retire? May 2006), CBS Evening News (Guarding Your Money 1999), Kiplinger TV Financial News, CNBC Moneyline, and The McCuistion Hour (several times on PBS).

Brooks Hamilton’s approach is exactly what American workers and retirees need to know in order to build meaningful retirement assets. It’s a powerful guide to helping people understand the challenging task of figuring out what their 401k plan is providing them.

Jerry Schlichter, named The Lone Ranger of 401k Plans! by the NY Times. In the last decade Schlichter has recovered over $300 million from major corporations for breach of the fiduciary duty they owed 401k plan participants.

When it comes to financing retirement Brooks Hamilton knows the score and he talks straight to average Americans about both the promise and the pitfalls in our 401(k) system.

His book is full of practical advice. It’s not one of those wonky academic books, or a pitch from an investment company. Brooks is out to help the average person, not some special economic interest. Not only can you learn a lot from his book, but you can avoid some big mistakes and hopefully wind up with much more money in your nest-egg when you retire.

Hedrick Smith, best selling author, Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter, and Emmy Award-winning producer. Smith’s prime-time specials for PBS have won several awards and his books The Russians and The Power Game were critically acclaimed bestsellers.

The secrets exposed by Brooks Hamilton are dirty, but they’re not little. They contribute to the misery the 401(k) retirement plan strategy inflicts on hard working Americans. If you want to avoid what Brooks accurately calls the perfect storm, you need to read and reread this valuable e-book.

Dan Solin, a Registered Investment Advisor, is a nationally known advocate for investors. A frequent guest on national television and radio shows, Solin is the author of the international bestseller The Smartest Investment Book You’ll Ever Read.

Brooks Hamilton has been a great source for my personal finance column for decades. He’s my go-to guy when I need to check what a plan will, or won’t, do for readers. He sees the Big Picture. But he knows the last detail. Now, at long last, Brooks can be your go-to guy, starting with Dirty Little Secrets of Your 401(k). It’s an easy read that will put you on the way to a more secure financial future.

Scott Burns is a newspaper columnist and author who has covered personal finance and investments for over 30 years. He is known for creating the Couch Potato Portfolio investment strategy, which advocates the use of index funds over managed funds or stock-picking. In 2006, he co-founded the Web startup, AssetBuilder, where he serves as chief investment strategist. He is a graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology with a degree in humanities and biology. He also studied writing with poet Archibald MacLeish at Harvard University.

Table of Contents

Introduction

Chapter

1.Brief History of the Retirement Industry

2.401(k) Plans - Answered Prayers?

3.Form 5500 - What It Is, and What It Does

4.Form 5500 - Why You Need It, and How You Can Get It

5.How to Use Form 5500 to Figure Out Your 401(k) Plan’s Annual Investment Return

6.How to Compare Your Plan’s Investment Return with Stock Market Returns

7.How to Figure Out Your Personal 401(k) Plan Account’s Investment Return

8.More is Better? Not Always!

9.Yield Disparity - What It Is and What It Means to You

10.Two Steps You Can Take to Increase Your Retirement Benefit

11.One More Step You Need to Take

12.COMPASS

13.Imagination

14.What You’ve Learned From Reading This E-Book

Conclusion

Postscript

Appendix A

Ideas, Strategies, and Challenges To Increase Your Net Investment Return

Appendix B

Form 5500 Accounting Principle Flaw

Appendix C

Investment Categories and Strategies

Appendix D

How to Figure Your PERSONAL Investment Return

Introduction

Back in the 1950s I was enrolled as a full-time student at the University of Houston and had just gotten married after my freshman year to my highschool sweetheart. Even though we were very young, we had already been going steady for four years and everybody, including the two of us, had just expected marriage to be the logical next step. Then in my senior year, just before I started law school, we started our family, and I needed a job! Now!

I interviewed for anything I could find (including selling vacuum cleaners door-to-door) but my lucky stars led me to a job