The district sponsors the plan to which Lynette contributed until she left her job as a school librarian in 1986. That means the assets aren't protected from creditors if the sponsor goes belly-up. Furthermore, participants can't roll their money over from 457 plans into other types of retirement plan. Strasser's gripe is that the inability to roll the assets into another retirement vehicle gives administrators such as North Shore an unfair advantage. North Shore says the Strassers are paying 50 basis points for a range of services such as record keeping, performance tracking, distribution withholding and participant education.
Consultants say that is high.
North Shore also says the Strassers have alternatives. Lynette Strasser pays 50 basis points in administrative fees because she has chosen to invest in Nicholas Fund, which doesn't provide North Shore with record-keeping services. Strasser could avoid administrative fees altogether by choosing North Shore Bank products, such as certificates of deposit, Christoffel says. But then she would be giving up the growth potential of equity investments. Strong Capital Management Inc. Since that is not an option, the only other way to move the account is to dissolve it.