NU Online News Service, Aug. 4, 2003, 6:15 p.m. EDT – Nationwide Financial Services Inc., Columbus, Ohio, is trying to make 401(k) plan flexibility a little cheaper.
The company is setting up a vehicle called a "fund window" for plan participants who want to invest in funds outside their plans without paying high fees.
Most other plan providers that let participants invest in outside plans require participants to set up special accounts to do so, Nationwide says. The fees for those accounts can be relatively high.
By opening a fund window, Nationwide is giving plan sponsors the ability to offer participants the ability to use their regular 401(k) accounts to invest in outside funds without paying extra fees, the company says.
The typical plan menu lists fewer than two dozen funds. Adding the fund window will give Nationwide plan participants access to more than 600 funds, Nationwide says.
Nationwide reports all of the investments on a single statement and gives employees access to the investments through a single Web site.
