Dell complaints

The elimination of the stable value fund and conversion to money market and short duration bond funds seems suspicious at best. The stable value fund has been just fine, and returning more than stable value funds in other 401k programs. Now it will be gone, and so will your returns. We are on the verge of interest rates going up, which will have a huge negative impact on bonds. Interest rates in money market are going to be near zero. Nowhere in the documentation is the fund expenses broken down, nor is there any mention of the amount of gain dell is expected to achieve themselves for this transition. Take a long look at your money.....

I'm so happy I cashed in my 401k almost the day after I left Dhell. People always thought I was nutts for not investing in dhell stock. I knew better and when the tech market crashed I didm't loose more than 200 bucks on my 401k

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Former employee of Dell and can say that they
definitely Suck!

Wow, really on the stable fund? That just seems wrong. I mean, its like a crappy 3%+ (for mine) but you know your money is safe from the market fluctuations. I thought I worked for a sleazy company (before they canned me), but they have nothing on Dhell.

Well, now that the deed is done it appears that Dell stole about $50 out of my account, as the balance is about that much lower this week than last. I don't remember anything in the stuff they sent out saying there would be service fees etc. Check your accounts! Fixed income my ass! It will probably take a year to earn that back in interest.

Did they do away with stable value? I mean 3% is better than 1% (money market). It just blows my mind how friggin cheap these bastards are.

Even being aware that the scam was on the way, they were still able rip me out of several hundred dollars and with what is left, the rate is apparently about 0%. Other than diversification, I see no reason to remain in the Dell 401k at this point.

As an update to this topic, the fund now has a constant slightly negative return rate, essentially a negative interest rate which means that you are paying to keep your money in this "fixed interest savings" account. This transition amounts to a grand theft of your 401K. (a little bit every day). Somewhere, somebody made a huge windfall in this conversion. What used to be a stable decent return on funds is now a constant siphoning of your cash to pay fund management expenses. Any lawyers out there interested in a class action?

I'm willing to bet that "Mikey" got this windfall!

_________________
Former employee of Dell and can say that they
definitely Suck!

So the conversion from stable funds to money market allowed to go Im guessing from about 3% to less than one percent, which I'm sure saved them a nice chunk of change and yeah, since its supposed to be safe, yeah thats the only reason those funds could be getting a negative return with fees people probably don't even know about.

I mean, with the up and downs of the market, at least 3% was a safe 3%. So all you really have is the tax deferral advantage.

Threads like these display the "loser" train of thought, quite well. Just because the Dell 401k plan lost its "stable value fund" doesn't mean that Dell specifically deleted it out of spite. If you people spent more time studying investments instead of ranting about things that stem from your own personal weaknesses, you would have found out that "stable value funds" were not what they were cracked up to be. That is why they have been closed, liquidated and deleted from retirement plans everywhere. And you won't find them available outside of institutional investment scenarios - stable value funds were never available to the retail investor, as they didn't qualify under the Investment Act of 1940. In other words, there is a lack of transparency to their holdings. What some of them did hold were actually risky investments, some of which defaulted during the financial crisis. Though stable value funds were typically touted as a "cash substitute" or a money market fund on steroids, the fact is that many of them weren't the safe investments they were supposed to be, plain and simple.
And to the guy who said he was glad that he "cashed out" his Dell 401k, I have to ask - what does your retirement portfolio look like now?