Fidelity Self-Employed 401k Account Review
Thursday, October 4th, 2007
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!
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