Most DCP and Plan 3 investment costs reduced in 2024
Every summer, we post annual fee changes for DCP and Plan 3 investments. Fees are based on the cost to manage the investments and vary by fund type. The revised fee tables are available now on the DCP and Plan 3 pages.
DRS investment options are provided by WSIB (Washington State Investment Board). At just a fraction of a percent, most investment fees seem pretty insignificant and many of us ignore them. Because DRS only recovers the cost of administering investment programs, we are able to keep the fees low.
Knowing the true cost of your investments is a critical part of retirement savings. Especially when you are comparing one retirement plan to the value of another. Let’s take a closer look at investment costs.
What costs are associated with DCP and Plan 3 investments?
Investments have two types of costs: administrative and management.
Administrative costs: These include investment services provided by WSIB, recordkeeping, communications and customer service. DCP fees are listed on your quarterly statement under “Expenses.” Administrative costs apply to all customers, are based on the administrative costs of the program and are determined annually. Changes, if any, usually become effective in July.
The fee to cover administrative costs for DCP is 0.1084% (compared with 0.1180% in 2023). This fee is quite low for voluntary retirement savings. For this reason, many DCP participants choose to roll their savings plans from other employers into their DCP savings accounts. This consolidation simplifies retirement funds and can save costs. To see if this option is right for you, be sure to consider any potential costs and investment limitations.
Management costs: Funds are managed by teams of investment professionals. The costs vary with each investment option. Management costs, also sometimes called investment fund fees or expense ratios, are included in the share price and won’t be visible on your statement. See the investment fee tables to view actual management fees for each fund (DCP and Plan 3).
DCP fees applied to a $10,000 balance
This example is simplified. Normally your investments would vary each quarter depending on your contributions and market performance. So every quarter would be calculated based on the exact account balance at the time.
The fee total varies by fund. For this example, let’s use the 2035 Retirement Strategy Fund for DCP. The total cost for this fund is included in the last column of the fee tables above. The total fees for this fund (including administrative fees) is 0.3157% per year.
The formula to estimate your fund cost is: Account balance x Total fee = Annual cost in dollars
2035 Fund annual fee: $10,000 x 0.003157 = $31.57
The total annual fees for the $10,000 balance would be $31.57
More resources
Fee comparison calculator
DCP investments
TRS Plan 3 investments
PERS Plan 3 investments
SERS Plan 3 investments
Investment login
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