How can I avoid my 401k participating in the SpaceX IPO?

[QED]

My 401k is managed by my bank. When I was with Fidelity I decided where to put my money and if I were still there, I'd probably move my money to bonds. But I really don't know anything about any of this.

I don't trust Elmo one bit and think this is just a ploy to further line his pockets.

[bucolic_frolic]

1. Lots of research to do.

Know the policies and timing of the options available to you under that bank's 401k terms for your specific plan.

Know the rules of when 401k's are required to invest in the S&P 500 with Elmo added. I seem to have read something about it being 2 weeks or more after the IPO. Could even be end of quarter, I didn't pay close attention.

Ask the administrator about it, they're likely getting a lot of calls on the subject.

[in2herbs]

2. You can't because of "discretionary investment authority." You might try moving it to a self-directed

IRA. In that way you have and retain control. There are videos out there. It's pretty straight forward. Be aware that in a self-directed IRA you must make investment choices.

Depending on how much $$ you have invested, whether or not there are beneficiaries and you don't want to make investment choices required in a self-directed IRA, there's always POD accounts. Each beneficiary in a POD account is FDIC or NUCA insured up to $250,000 enabling you to deposit $1 million into your one POD. This insures you and insures the beneficiaries, as long as each POD beneficiary's account does not exceed $250,000.

[lastlib]

3. I suspect not much you can really do, beyond.....

...moving to a self-directed IRA, which will be more headaches for you than you'd ever want. Or move entirely into a bond-only portfolio. Without knowing more about your individual situation, I can't really advise you. The previous suggestion of talking to your bank is your best starting point.

[QED]

4. Credit Union guy said I don't have indexed funds.

All that stressing for nothing.

Thank you to those who responded.

[Fiendish Thingy]

6. What do you have?

I hope it’s not Mutual Funds, which have high fees and low returns.

[bucolic_frolic]

7. That's a bit of a generalization and not accurate in all cases

Some investors prefer managed mutual funds (not tied to an index) and seek to try to outperform the indexes, and some prefer ETFs which are in many cases mirrors of their mutual fund ancestors. Some great managers have enviable records in their managed funds which give better control over sector investing, geographical investing. There are times that provide opportunity for say small cap international stocks, specific regions or countries, commodities, or emerging market tech. You don't get much of that in an index fund. Some advisors say index funds have grown too large because of big tech and face headwinds from size alone.

[Fiendish Thingy]

5. Going all bonds would be a bad move, especially now

If you can move your account into a self directed one, having a balanced, diversified portfolio of funds, including bonds, is the best way to weather the volatility of the Trump era.

You would have to examine the prospectus of each fund, and likely have to drill down through several levels to determine which specific stocks are held. In my 457 plan with Fidelity when I click on a fund, it shows the percentage breakdown of types of companies whose stock is held (10% technologies, 15% energy, 12% retail, etc) and then a listing of the top 5-10 companies the fund holds stock in, such as Nvidia, Apple, Tesla, Exxon/Mobil, etc.

Unless a particular fund really loads up on SpaceX, it’s probably going to be hard to determine if they hold any shares. I recently rebalanced my 457, and reduced my holdings of funds that were overweighted (>15%) in tech stocks, or listed Tesla as one of their major holdings.

We can only do our best to tailor our investments to align with our values, and they don’t make it easy.

Good Luck!