Best solo 401K Provider

[Aquaman29]

Using solo 401K but thinking of switching providers, whos best?

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[ThoracicGuy]

It seems like the best solo 401K provider is shaking out to be etrade vs ameritrade? Ameritrade has free etfs. Etrade has slighly higher fees. Does one versus the other have better record keeping or ease of use? Has anyone found any reviews online about this?

I picked Fidelity for mine. There are no fees, I have access to their Spartan funds, and I could put my traditional IRA money in there. Vanguard did not give me that opportunity.

 

[WisNeuro]

I picked Fidelity for mine. There are no fees, I have access to their Spartan funds, and I could put my traditional IRA money in there. Vanguard did not give me that opportunity.

What wouldn't Vanguard let you do, specifically?

 

[ThoracicGuy]

What wouldn't Vanguard let you do, specifically?

I could not put my Vanguard based traditional IRA into a Vanguard solo 401k. That would have prevented me from being able to do the backdoor Roth.

 

[WisNeuro]

I could not put my Vanguard based traditional IRA into a Vanguard solo 401k. That would have prevented me from being able to do the backdoor Roth.

Ah, ok, that makes sense. I misread that and I thought you were saying they wouldn't let you also have a traditional IRA. Been a long day so far, words are starting to blur together. Time for some afternoon coffee.

 

[Stroganoff]

It seems like the best solo 401K provider is shaking out to be etrade vs ameritrade? Ameritrade has free etfs. Etrade has slighly higher fees. Does one versus the other have better record keeping or ease of use? Has anyone found any reviews online about this?

What do you mean by "shaking out to be"? This seems like a matter of personal preference. Plus it may change if you want a Solo Roth 401k.

I went with Fidelity for my Solo 401k because I wanted to transfer in all my Rollover/Traditional IRAs to position myself for the backdoor Roth IRA, and Vanguard doesn't accept incoming IRA rollovers into their Solo 401k. I've been happy so far, especially since Fidelity revamped their offering of index funds to better compete with Vanguard, and my future taxable account will likely be with Vanguard as well. (Disclosure: My Roth IRA is at Vanguard. I'm content being with both companies.)

@dpmd can maybe discuss E*Trade's offering.

 

[dpmd]

Etrade allowed rollover of my traditional IRA and rollover IRA. Also allowed solo Roth 401k option and allows loans for the 401k (not that I plan to use that option, but it is nice to have the option). Not sure what fees the OP is referring to. No fee to set up and you just pay trade commissions if you select something besides their no load mutual funds or commission free ETFs. Discounted commissions if you have 30 trades in a quarter. Nice online interface for planning and trading and a very helpful financial consultant assigned to you to help you from account set up to management as much or as little as you like (just don't ask him tax paperwork related stuff). Speaking of tax related paperwork don't forget to file your 5500 once assets reach 250k (which if you rollover from other accounts may be sooner than you anticipate). It is easy to file, but isn't part of your regular tax paperwork so easy to forget.

 

[PistolPete]

I have Schwab for my 401k and will probably use it for my solo 401k also. They allow rollovers, unlike Vanguard, and their funds have the lowest ER on the market, I believe.