I am a self employed consultant and have an ira at Vanguard. I want to
take advantage of the new provision for solo 401Ks, but Vanguard at
the moment has not yet decided to administer these. I've been told by
Vanguard that if I work with a 3rd party administrator that my funds
can stay in Vanguard, yet I can use them as a 401K and be able to
borrow, etc, it's just that I'd have to go through a 3rd party to
execute this. Here's my question: Who are some 3rd party
administrators who can set this up for me (please list 4 or more), and
are there differences in policy from one administration company to the
next. e.g., fees, maximum percentage of assets that can be borrowed
against, etc.

Thanks

Dear boomering,

These are really exciting investment options. 

Did you realize that you can roll your IRA money into
these plans and then borrow up to 50% of the plan
assets (up to $50,000)?

I did some looking for you - and, at the bottom is a PDF report
with a list of more companies. The fees vary widely. 

The big difference is, if the company that administers the plan
is also the fund, they charge much less. So, it's a real pity that
Vanguard doesn't administer them. (See note below about Pioneer.)

The best price I've found is InvestSafe:

http://www.investsafe.com/financing3.html
Set Up Fee: $0 
Administrative Recordkeeping Fee: $100/yr
Per participant Fee: $0
Trustee Fee: no additional fee 
Loan Fee: $100/loan
IRS 5500 Filing Fee: $250 (needed for plan size over $100,000, 
they let you do it yourself and save that fee) 


https://www.theonline401k.com/schwab/Singlek/what/
Through Charles Schwab - so you can invest in Vanguard
Setup: $250 
Annual Fee: $250
Additional Family Member: $125 / year
Loans: $75 initiation / annual fee



http://ekeogh.com/e_K_plan.html
$50 setup.
$300 per year for Plan Document. 
Self-Directed Asset Recordkeeping:
	½% of asset value up to $100,000 = up to $500
	.25% additional above $100,000 


http://tsc401k.com/ezk.htm
$500.00 installation 
$300.00 Annual administration  


The best value is Pioneer Funds - but you can't invest in Vanguard, through them
http://www.pioneerfunds.com/uni_k/home.jhtml
Pioneer doesn't post their fees. So, I called them. 
$100.00 per year per participant. (No additional document fees)
Loan fee is $100. 
But you must invest your money in Pioneer's funds



For a compiled list of more Solo401k Vendors, please click here
http://www.401khelpcenter.com/pdf/Solok_Vendor_List.pdf


Note: It appears that Intuit offers administrative services through
their payroll unit. They don't post prices. It may be worth looking 
into, since you may need to do a payroll, as well, if you're incorporated. 
http://cp.payroll.com/benefit_hr.shtml

Search strategy:
solo-401k self-directed

This is a great idea. I have been recommending these plans to 
all my self-employed clients. 

Your TaxMama-ga

Great answer, and delivered quickly. Thanks.

On February 20, 2003, Kathleen Pender of the San Francisco Chronicle,
in a story about these "solo(k)" plans, wrote: "Before last August,
only a handful of organizations offered solo(k) plans; today almost 50
do. You can find a list of them at
http://www.401khelpcenter.com/solok_vendors.html ".

Here's another article:
http://mutualfunds.about.com/library/weekly/aa123002a.htm

Since I am also a self-employed consultant, as well as a real estate
broker, and day trader, I have been looking for somewhere to rollover
my 401k from my previous employment. I looked at most of the offerings
on the list from the 401khelpcenter.com, and found none I liked.
Almost all of the plans offered very little flexibility in terms of
type of investments. Most offer only a few mutual funds, or high
trading commissions, or both, and most would be worse than what I have
now at Fidelity (who also offers a solo 401k with no loan features and
no stock investments outside of mutual funds- but no commissions). My
own preference is to pay slightly higher fees, and be able to invest
in high-yield investments that I manage and choose myself.

I found one adminstrator at

 http://www.entrustadmin.com/entrust/welcome.html 

that offers to allow real estate investment, as well as letting me
utilize my discount online broker. There is a fee for each 'asset' in
the account, so one real estate investment and one brokerage account
would incur two fees of $195/yr each, but to me at least, this seems
much better than most of the less expensive plans out there, that are
either making up the difference in fees with hidden commissions or
offering very simple plans that are restricted for the purpose of
making plan administration easy. Nothing in the IRS regulations
requires these limited investment offerings. Depending on your
willingness to self-direct your plan, I suggest looking further than
the list you have been provided. The solo 401k's are hard to find, but
many more options exist than have made the 401khelpcenter list.

Try www.401kBrokers.com, they have Solo 401k plan for the
self-employed. It uses Vanguard Funds but also permits investment in
all exchange traded stocks, bonds, options, 2600 mutual funds and
government and municipal securities as well as money market funds and
certificates of deposit. It has no ($0) start up costs.