Fidelity Self-Employed 401k Account Review

My Money Blog has partnered with CardRatings and may receive a commission from card issuers. Some or all of the card offers that appear on this site are from advertisers and may impact how and where card products appear on the site. MyMoneyBlog.com does not include all card companies or all available card offers. All opinions expressed are the author’s alone.

I’ve mentioned several times I have a Self-Employed 401k account. It’s a somewhat unique thing, so here’s a little bit more about it.

What’s a Self-Employed 401(k) and who’s eligible?
A Self-Employed 401(k) is a tax-advantaged 401(k) retirement account that is available to self-employed individuals or business owners with no employees other than a spouse, including sole proprietors, partnerships, corporations, and S-corporations. It is also referred to as an Individual 401(k) or a Solo 401(k). You can even get them in Traditional or Roth versions.

For more details, see these other posts:

I chose a Solo 401k over other options like SEP-IRA due to the increased contribution limits for those with relatively low self-employed incomes. I ended up picking Fidelity Investments as my plan administrator, and here are my experiences after using it for the last year:

Application Process
It’s been a while, so I don’t have a rundown of dates or anything, but I remember the application being a bit long, but very straightforward. You can either print the forms out online, or have them mail you a nicely bound copy. I mailed it in, they set it up, and I had my own Solo 401k. No hassles.

Account Fees
There were no setup fees, no maintenance fees, no minimum balance requirements, no annual fees. I only thing I’ve ever paid is for the expense ratios in the mutual funds I bought. As you’ll see below, that’s barely added up to $20 so far!

Administration
Whenever I want to make a salary deferral contribution to my Solo 401k, since my business is a corporation and I am an employee, I first have to use my payroll provider and make sure the deduction is accounted for in my paycheck. After that, I print and fill out a contribution form detailing the amount of the contribution, the tax year it is for, and whether it is a salary deferral or a profit-sharing contribution. Finally, I just write a check from my business to Fidelity. With the profit-sharing contribution, I just note it in my books and write the check and mail it in. A few days later, it shows up online at Fidelity.com.

I think Fidelity also files a IRS Form 5500 once a year when the plan’s asset value exceeds $100,000. I think they file it either way, which helps during tax time. Otherwise, there is not really any other paperwork to mess with.

Investment Management and Options
My contributions show in my default cash sweep account that pays decent interest (FDRXX) and stays there, it does not automatically invest in some pre-set mix of mutual funds like many other 401k plans. Basically, it is like having a full brokerage account at Fidelity. I can buy mutual funds, individual stocks, ETFs, even individual bonds like TIPS and Treasury Bills. Lots of flexibility.

One downside as compared to other 401(k) plans is that I am subject to all the usual mutual fund minimums as a retirement account. As I primarily invest in low-cost index funds, here are the funds that fit that criteria:

Stock Funds ($10,000 minimum, 0.10% expense ratio)
Spartan 500 Index Fund (S&P 500)
Spartan Extended Market Index Fund (Wilshire 4500 Completion Index)
Spartan Total Market Index Fund (Wilshire 5000 Composite Index)
Spartan International Index Fund (MSCI EAFA Index)

Bond Funds ($10,000 minimum, 0.20% expense ratio)
Spartan Short-Term Treasury Bond Index Fund
Spartan Intermediate Treasury Bond Index Fund
Spartan Long-Term Treasury Bond Index Fund

In addition, there is a 4-in-1 Asset Allocation index fund, a Nasdaq index fund, and a U.S. Bond Index Fund as well. All the asset classes aren’t covered, and they have high entrance minimums, but they are cheap! 0.10% of $10,000 is only $10 a year. There are also many other Fidelity funds like Contrafund and Magellan and the Freedom 20XX All-In-One Funds that are also available with no transaction fees.

As for stock trade commissions, they range from $8 to $20, depending on activity and total balances across all accounts. I’m personally aiming for the $10.95 per trade tier with $50,000 in household assets. This way, I can diversify into ETFs at a somewhat reasonable price if needed.

Customer Service
Fidelity’s customer service remains one of the best that I have ever dealt with. I can usually reach a human within a minute, which is awesome. Overall, I have thrown a lot of questions at them and they have always been courteous and knowledgeable. One person did give me some incorrect information once about the contribution limits, but they might not have understood my somewhat complicated question.

Summary
If you are looking for a simple Traditional Solo 401(k), this is a solid option. (They currently don’t offer a Roth version.) Pros include high flexibility, no setup or maintenance fees, good customer service, and low cost index funds. Cons include high minimum balance for index funds, and $20 stock trades at the basic level. I do expect more competition in this area as time goes on, but for now I am very satisfied with this account.

My Money Blog has partnered with CardRatings and may receive a commission from card issuers. Some or all of the card offers that appear on this site are from advertisers and may impact how and where card products appear on the site. MyMoneyBlog.com does not include all card companies or all available card offers. All opinions expressed are the author’s alone, and has not been provided nor approved by any of the companies mentioned.

MyMoneyBlog.com is also a member of the Amazon Associate Program, and if you click through to Amazon and make a purchase, I may earn a small commission. Thank you for your support.


User Generated Content Disclosure: Comments and/or responses are not provided or commissioned by any advertiser. Comments and/or responses have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any advertiser. It is not any advertiser's responsibility to ensure all posts and/or questions are answered.

Comments

  1. I notice that you didn’t mention any of the Fidelity funds. In my Fidelity 401k account I’m able to purchase any Fidelity fund without brokerage fees and without minimums.

    -Wes

  2. Hey Wes,

    Are you sure you read the whole post? I cut off part of it from the front page, but there is a whole section on Fidelity funds! 🙂

    Do you have a Solo 401k or a 401k through your employer?

  3. I have been using Fidelity since last year for this and since have setup a Fidelity business account and mySmart cash account for personal use. I too am very satisfied.

    I am setup as an S-corp and get a quarterly paycheck of exactly $15.87 each quarter… the vast majority goes to tax withholding and 401(k) contributions. The key thing about the self-employed 401(k) is the company match… that’s what makes it SO much better than the other options.

    With my wife’s and I current salary levels we put away $55,250 a year tax free in the 401(k). It could be more but we’d have to increase our salary which means more payroll tax, it’s a balance there. If you add in our HSA, we have close to $64k in pretax savings alone per year. Almost $18k in tax savings.

    The only thing I’ve heard that could be better than the SE 401(k) is a defined benefit plan, a true pension. The complexity and cost goes up alot with that.

  4. I have had a self-directed 4XXX type of plan for over 20 years, from a personal corporation I once ran. The corporation is no more, but the retirement plan continues as a trust of which I am the sole trustee & sole beneficiary. This is a defined contribution plan, not a defined benefit plan. The bulk of my plan’s funds are with Fidelity. I don’t know what part of the retirement plan rules my plan falls under, it’s not 401(K) but something very similar. I must file my own 5500EZ report annually for everything the plan holds. The rules regarding my trust are complicated & I must occasionally pay legal or accounting fees for advice or to change things. I haven’t needed to do this for years, however.
    With the uncertainty of the current economy, I pulled out all these Fidelity funds out of the stock market & put them into Tbills & CDs until future prospects look better. There is a lot to read about what is & isn’t possible with Fidelity. I am able, online, to buy Tbills at auction almost exactly as I can dealing directly with TreasuryDirect, with no fees or charges paid to Fidelity. I am able to roll a maturing Tbill over and buy at the next auction by contacting a Fidelity fixed income specialist on the phone, again no fee. Fidelity even offers FDIC-insured CD’s directly to trusts like mine, and the interest rates these last 2 months were some of the best available anywhere. Again no fees for doing this. I bought a large CD online last month through Fidelity with Discover Bank for 5.4% for 4 months, just before the CD rates fell substantially. The limits for FDIC coverage are higher for my trust than they would be for me personally.

  5. I think you mixed these up in your post 🙂

    Spartan Total Market Index Fund (MSCI EAFA Index)
    Spartan International Index Fund (Wilshire 5000 Composite Index)

  6. Anyone have anything experience with setting up a Roth-401k for a small business? I’m finding that I may have to explore this.

  7. You missed a couple of funds.
    1. Four-in-one fund is 0.21% ER with a $10K minimum is 55% S&P 500, 15% Extended market, 15% Intl Index, & 15% US Bond Index.

    2. US Bond index is 0.32% ER and is the equivalent to Vanguard Total Bond Market both of which are based on the Lehman Aggragate Bond Index. Ignore Fidelity’s Total Bond fund which is a managed fund.

  8. so can people who’ve already maximized company 401k and roth ira open an “empty shell” company so that they will be eligible to open a solo 401k?

  9. MobileDeveloper says

    aa : Thats what I would also like to know.

    Jonathan : could you shed some light on that, i.e. in addition to the company 401k can we open a company .. “empty shell” / or maybe just a basic web page, so that we can open a S 401k.

  10. I’d like to know as well. I would think not.

  11. aa: I actually sent in the paperwork for my own Self-employed 401(k) at Fidelity just yesterday. I spoke with a retirement specialist there and he said that the 401(k) annual limits (somewhere in the neighborhood of $55,000, I believe) apply to all 401(k) products. In other words, if you contribute $40,000 through your company’s plan, you’d only be allowed to contribute an additional $15,000 to your SE plan.

  12. MobileDeveloper says

    Nick : How can one contribute 40K through the company’s plan? Isn’t 401K limited to 15K max for 2007, not adding the company contribution. and Catch-Up Contribution Limit (only for those over 50 years old): $5,000

    So not sure how u can get 40K as u stated above.

  13. Re: “empty shell” – Not really.

    There are two parts: employee contributions (salary deferral), and employer (profit sharing).

    If you already put $15,500 in salary deferral into a 401(k) from your “regular” job, then you cannot defer any more salary into a Solo 401(k). The total max is $15,500 for elective contributions across all accounts.

    The max profit-sharing contribution is 20-25% of your self-employed business income (depending on if you’re incorporated), so if you have no profits, you can’t put any more away.

    The total cap across each 401k plan per employer is $45,000 in 2007. (Annual Defined Contribution Limit)

    This is ignoring catch-up rules for older workers. Hope that helps…

  14. Paul – Thanks, I’ve updated the post. I wonder why Fidelity doesn’t list the US Bond Index fund with the rest of the index funds. I guess it’s not cheap enough to be “Spartan”, but still you’d think they’d group them together on their index fund page.

  15. I think this is a good option for wrapping the rollover IRAs in preparation for the 2010 non-deductible IRA to Roth conversion. If someone has a large rollover IRA (from previous 401k) right now, the non-deductible IRA to Roth conversion in 2010 won’t work very well because all IRAs are treated as one. If you claim $100 self-employment income, then roll the rollover IRA back into the solo 401k, you only have the non-deductible IRA left. Then the Roth conversion will work much better.

  16. Jonathan,

    Excellent post and one I was hoping you would cover. I have set up a Solo 401K at Schwab and I found it to be extremely easy to set up and run.

    I have a question for you. Do you make profit-sharing contributions throughout the year, or do you wait and make a larger contribution near the end of the year?

    I’ve been waiting until the end of the year to see what I feel comfortable with. Also, I’m not sure what the rules and limits are for the profit sharing component. It is confusing because how do you know what 25% of you Self-Employed income is until the end of the year? I have an amount I’m going to contribute, but I don’t think I can contribute that amount yet…

  17. If you are incorporated then you are doing payroll it’s a non-issue, you can contribute 25% of your W-2 income in profit sharing up to a limit (high)… you’ll know your W-2 income as your do payroll. I’m not sure how this applies to single member LLC’s who are considered disregarded by the IRS.

    If you are not incorporated (self employed) and just taking everything on Schedule C, you should be keeping accurate books. That will give you a very good approximation of your self employed income… you must have some idea of what your income would be otherwise what are you doing for quarterly withholding (since it sounds like you aren’t doing payroll)?

    Fidelity’s site has a good overview. http://personal.fidelity.com/products/retirement/getstart/newacc/keogh.shtml.cvsr?refpr=sb006

  18. Maury – I do the same as you, I wait and see what my total income will be as it is not predictable. I think as long as everything works out at the end of the year, the IRS should be happy. But I’m no accountant!

  19. Actually, I’m just like Jonathan. I have an S-corp paying myself a reasonable salary and kicking back the rest to me in distributions. The vast majority of my salary is going into my solo 401K, but I’m currently only doing the employer contribution and not doing an employee match each month.

    I figure I’ll do the profit sharing component at the end of the year. I have money said aside in my business money market account for the entire year’s profit sharing contribution, but I don’t think I’m allowed to contribute it all at this point until I’ve been paid for the entire year.

  20. If you are an S-Corp then you are not self-employed. You are a W-2 employee of Maury Enterprises (I took a guess on the name).

    You asked “It is confusing because how do you know what 25% of you Self-Employed income is until the end of the year?”.

    Since you are an S-corp, this question does not apply to you. Your profit sharing contribution limits are 25% of compensation which in your case means your W-2 salary. Since you know what your salary is, your know your contribution limit is right now. In my case (S-Corp), I pay myself a salary of $80k so my contributions for this year are $15.5k in salary deferral and $20k in profit sharing (25% x 80k). I happen to do payroll quarterly but you can do it as often or infrequently as you’d like.

    If you prefer to keep the money sitting in your business money market account that’s fine, that’s your choice but it’s not required. I don’t think I have to argue the merits of putting that money to work on a tax deferred basis now versus later especially if you know it’s going to get contributed anyway.

  21. Yeah, now that I think about it, I figured all that out at the start of last year… I’m paying myself $60K, so I can put in around $15K in profit sharing. I think my logic at that time was wait until the end of the year to see if I can afford to drop in another $15K in addition to the $15.5 I’m putting in as the employee portion. Thanks for reminding me.

    Odd that you do payroll quarterly… It is my understanding that at that salary range, the IRS gets ticked if they don’t get their tax contribution each month. I started off the year paying quarterly, and got an IRS penalty for not giving the IRS FICA taxes for the first two months. (I paid them all in the third month.)

    Maybe it is a Texas thing, but employees need to be paid at least monthly down here. If you pay them enough, the government wants its share and it wants it sooner than later!

  22. The IRS does indeed get upset if you don’t get your deposit in by the 15th in the month following your payroll (assuming you are a monthly depositor, not semi-weekly. They hit you with a 10% penalty. However, don’t confuse deposits, payroll, and 941 filings. The timing can be and is different for each.

    I just happen to pay salary 4 times per year at the end of the calendar quarter and make my deposit by the 15th of the following month. For example I just deposited my 3rd quarter payroll related deposits and I only have one payroll for the quarter. I did screw up once and filled out the 941 wrong, the IRS dinged me for 10% but I pleaded my case and they removed the penalty. I had simply said I was paid in month 1 when in reality it was month 3, honest mistake and they were reasonable about it.

    It’s confusing because some people think of it as quarterly estimated payments… it’s not that at all. It’s payroll withholding and taxes.

    On top of it all, the IRS has different deposit schedules, semi-weekly and monthly. You are monthly until you reach a certain level of payroll liabilities, I have been monthly so far but will be semi-weekly next year.

    I used to live in TX but don’t remember anything about the ‘must be paid monthly’ rule but Texas is sometimes a country all it’s own. Where I’m at there is no rule… you can do it annually if you’d like (and I did once).

    I should have a pro do this but I tried once and wasn’t happy. Since it’s only 4 time a year, no big deal and Quickbooks does the heavy lifting.

    Good luck with everything!

  23. Jonathan
    Do you have to be incorporated to open a self-employed 401(k)? What if you get paid with a 1099?
    Thanks.

  24. Yes, sole proprietorships are included and are eligible.

    “A Self-Employed 401(k) is a tax-advantaged 401(k) retirement account that is available to self-employed individuals or business owners with no employees other than a spouse, including sole proprietors, partnerships, corporations, and S-corporations.”

  25. This is a very good and informative discussion. I also have a S-Corporation and me and my wife are the only employees. I am also planning to setup SOLO 401K. I am planning to do only the employer contributions (it is called profit sharing portion I think). I want to know how to record it in the QuickBooks. I think I will have to create a new account for it, but what TAX line should be assigned to it, so that it flows correctly to the tax return.
    Thanks in advance.

  26. I assigned it to tax line Deductions:Pension/profit-sharing/etc. I use Quickbooks so you should have the same tax categories.

    Any reason why you aren’t doing the salary deferral? I would use caution if you planned on not doing the salary deferral but setting up a tax deferred IRA. I believe there are special rules on contributing to an IRA 9tax deferred at least) if you are covered by a 401(k) at work whether you choose to participate or not.

  27. Can I do the Self-Employed 401k if I get my pay by 1099 from one employer only? I split my time 50/50 between two employers; one calls me an employee, the other calls me an “independant contractor;” neither offers 401K.

  28. I was considering between Define Benefit Plan and Solo 401k. But now decided to go with solo 401k. One question I have is that I haven’t do any salary deferral so far. Can I still do it? I have only one payroll period left. Can I just mail a check of $15000 to Fidelity as this year’s employee contribution and a check of $25000 (assuming I have $100K as salary) for profit sharing?

    Thanks,
    Dennis

  29. Technically you can if your last payroll will be enough to cover the contribution ($15k). You don’t have to have any net, just $15k plus enough to cover FICA. Since you have the cash, there’s not reason you can’t. Raising your salary to cover the contribution will raise your FICA a bit but that will be more than offset by the benefit on the $15k contribution.

    The rule is you can’t make contributions on previously paid salary so if this period is less than $15k, you can’t make the whole contribution.

    I don’t believe there is any restriction on the profit sharing as you can just pay it annually.

  30. I opened up a Fidelity Solo 401(K) but today when I logged in to their web site (after I created a new login), I saw the account is called PROFIT SHARING KEOGH. Are these same? Are my limits the same (15,500) from employee deferral + 25% of gross (to a max of 45000)?

    Thanks for your help.

  31. Yes, online it is marked as a profit-sharing Keogh, but it is their Solo 401k. I forget the exact reasoning, but they explained it to me over the phone… something about having very similar characteristics.

  32. Here is my situation: I created a single-member LLC this year and made about $10,000 profit for the year. I’ve just put all the money into a business checking account. I’ve not payed myself anything yet. I set up a SE 401k with Fidelity and am now trying to figure out exactly how much to contribute.

    I have a couple questions about this:

    1. What is the contribution deadline for somebody in my position? The Fidelity site is a bit confusing to say the least. Here is what it says:

    – The deadline for depositing your employee 401(k) salary deferrals for owner-only plans is generally by your tax-filing deadline, plus extensions.

    – Incorporated business owners (including spouses) must make a written salary deferral election by the end of your tax year.6

    – Unincorporated business owners must generally make a written salary deferral election by the end of your tax year.

    2. Can I just write a check for the entire amount I profited and contribute that as an Employee Contribution? I don’t have any other 401k’s. Since I made less than the maximum employee contribution, I don’t see why I should even mess with the employer profit sharing stuff. Would I still owe some self employment tax if I contributed 100% of my earnings?

    This is my first year and I feel like I still have a lot to learn. Any mistakes I make along the way I’ll just chalk up to learning a valuable lesson.

    Thanks!

  33. This is a great thread. Thanks a lot.

    Q. I have a 2 person llc which has elected to be taxed as a C corp. This year one of the 2 members has taken a salary of 60K (gross on W-2). Employee deferral has been 15.5K out of this 60K. The employer portion should be 15K – is that right (25% of 60K)? This question is for solo 401K.

    Q. I am looking at Fidelity Contribution Remittance Form and it has an ’employee cont’ column and ’employer profit sharing cont’ column. Within Employee column, there are 2 sub-columns – current year (CYP) and prior year (PYP). Where will I put 15.5K? In CYP or PYP?

    Q. Even if I send all the contributions to fidelity together around mid Feb, will the LLC be able to deduct them on the return for 2007?

    Thanks

    A

  34. Q. I have a 2 person llc which has elected to be taxed as a C corp. This year one of the 2 members has taken a salary of 60K (gross on W-2). Employee deferral has been 15.5K out of this 60K. The employer portion should be 15K – is that right (25% of 60K)? This question is for solo 401K.

    A. Yes. As an aside, why a C corp paying extra tax at the corporate level???

    Q. I am looking at Fidelity Contribution Remittance Form and it has an ?employee cont? column and ?employer profit sharing cont? column. Within Employee column, there are 2 sub-columns – current year (CYP) and prior year (PYP). Where will I put 15.5K? In CYP or PYP?

    A. The way I’ve done it is if the contribution is within the tax year I use CYP, if in the next year for the previous tax year, PYP. I’ve also handwritten the specific year to be clear. So when I made a contribution in September, it was CYP. When I make one in January 2008 (for 2007), it’s PYP.

    Q. Even if I send all the contributions to fidelity together around mid Feb, will the LLC be able to deduct them on the return for 2007?

    A. Per the Fidelity website:

    ? The deadline for depositing your employer profit sharing contributions for the current calendar year is your tax-filing deadline, plus extensions (for unincorporated businesses, this date is usually April 15 of the following year, plus any extensions).
    ? The deadline for depositing your employee 401(k) salary deferrals for owner-only plans is generally by your tax-filing deadline, plus extensions5
    ? Incorporated business owners (including spouses) must make a written salary deferral election by the end of your tax year.6

    6 Under no circumstances may a salary deferral election apply to compensation you have already received.

  35. How do you make a written salary deferral election? Who do you send it to?

  36. Also, can you make a $15,500 contribution for yourself AND $15,500 contribution for spouse if they are employed by the business?

  37. For Jonathan or other qualified people, I s- corped this year and opened a se 401 w/ fid. but am confused on how to max it. the corp made 160k, I put the max 20500 in the 401 portion but my cpa ( I’ve gone to 2 looking for a good one) wants to only w-2 me for 60k leaving me w/ the 15k I’ve already sent to the profit sharing portion. I realize more w-2 means more fica but wouldn’t it be worth it if I could put the full 29.5k in? I’m new at this but am lucky enough to have the $ and want to max my savings and min taxes. thanks

  38. Hi,

    Quick question, my s-corp made 80,000 last year I maxed out the salary deferal at 15500, took my payroll, and took the rest of the corporation money as deductions. At the end of the year I only had 4000, left in my corporate account.
    My question is now that I have made money in 2008 can I contribute it to my 401K as 2007 Profit sharing, even though I made the profit in 2008, or can I only add the 4000 that was left over at the end of 2007?

    Thanks ahead of time.

  39. does anyone know if the solo401k contributions lower payroll taxes for the employee/employer ?

    or does the plan just defer federal income taxes? thank you

  40. Richard Edmonds says

    Re: “empty shell”

    Your explanation of setting up an ’empty shell’ LLC regarding contributions was very helpful. However, what if I want to set up the ’empty shell’ to have access to the 401k plan funds for ‘self directed’ investment purposes. I am not concerned with contributing to the fund. I want to invest the 401k plan funds that I will be rolling over from other retirement funds. I also want to take advantage of the 50% loan provisions.

    Any info you can provide on this type of solo 401k ’empty shell’ would be appreciated.

  41. I have maxed out self employed 401 contribution for 2008. $15,500 for elective deferral. 25% of earned income. Max total of both up to $46,000. I have done this. Whats next? Can I open up an IRA and contribute to it? My wife is part of my S-corp. VP. Name only. She has a fulltime W-2 job that she has 401k with. How can we maximize her contribution with my company?

    Thanks so much.

  42. I have an S-corp (own 100% of the stock) with 2 full ime employees but they are not eligible for a 401 K contribution since they have not been employeed with me over 3 years.
    I currently have a SEP account but would like to open a solo 401K plan so that I can contribute more than 25% of my salary. Is this possible?
    If not, can I contribute to a 401 K plan and also the SEP and take the full deduction of both on my taxes? If so, how much can be contributed to a 401K in addition to the 25% I put in the SEP?
    I’m over 55. Please advise

  43. Hello,

    Thanks for the review, it’s very useful for a beginner to 401k like myself. What do you use for your payroll? We’re a C-corp with no employee and use ADP. ADP also has a small-biz 401k plan but I don’t know how it’s compared to Fidelity.

  44. Really enjoy your blog, very informative.

    My wife and I work as independent contractors and we have an LLC. We are paid every 2 weeks by our broker. We each receive a check made out to our LLC to our attention. Our office mgr. says that we will each receive a 1099 under the LLC’s EIN.

    The LLC will net around $175k. I want to open an Individual 401(k). To max our contributions, can our LLC 1099 my wife and 1099 me so we can each open our own Individual 401(k)?

  45. Beware of Fidelity when opening a Solo 401K….

    I am a one owner small business and filled out the paperworrk to open a Solo 401k at Fidelity. (I have a Solo 401k & Roth 401K at Vanguard but restricted to mutual funds and want more choise of investments.) Vanguard mailed me all the info & papers after my account was opened. I have a true Solo 401K with them.

    Fidelity opened a ‘Profit Sharing Keogh’ instead of a Solo 401K. I called them 2 weeks after opening it to inquire why they opened such and account and was told it is ‘a form of self employed 401k.’ I asked when I would receive the paperwork and was told I had signed up for email communication and it was already sent. I had never received anything and requested it be emailed again so the person emailed me ‘the actual form’ I filled out to open up the Solo 401K!! Is that the paperwork they send out???

    No where is the Profit Sharing Keogh plan mentionned on Fidelity’s website for self employed. A Keogh plan limits you to only 25% per year contribution according to the IRS. A major difference between that and a Solo 401k. I was told that I can also contribute up to $16,500 under that Keogh plan but I can’t get it in writting to verify. I am not going to just take the word of someone over the phone.

    Anyone can offer advice? I have decided not to transfer my Vanguard accounts over and looking to open up my Solo 401K at another brokerage.

  46. Back ground:

    My first job as an Independent Contractor from 1st December 2011.

    questions:

    Can i open an Solo/Individual 401 (K) in January 2012?

    If i open a fidelity or T Rowe price or Schaub Solo 401 (k) when can i start sending checks for the plan?

    When i file 1040 ES estimated taxes ( Federal, State, self employment ) quarterly can i deduct the 401 k contributions for federal and state ( connecticut ) tax purposes and send the money to IRS via EFTPS ?

  47. Do you know anything about self directed solo 401k’s?
    http://www.broadfinancial.com/solo-401k
    They appear to have allow more diversification like investing 401k funds into real estate. Which is something fidelity does not allow.
    What is your opinion about it?

Speak Your Mind

*