Bucyrus International, a Milwaukee manufacturer of surface mining equipment, is looking at the fund lineup in its two 401(k) plans to see if there is duplication. The lineup has 18-20 funds in it, said Frank Bruno, operations support v.p. The company recently hired Francis Investment Counsel of Milwaukee as a consultant to assist in evaluating the company’s plans. The company’s recordkeepers for the 401(k)s, which total about $100 million, are The Vanguard Group and Ameriprise Financial.
Bruno said some funds have very little money in them and it is possible they are too similar to others or participants don’t understand them. “We have a bond fund in there with, like, $30,000 in it,” said Bruno. “There are a couple of funds where we say, ‘if there’s no money in it, why do we have it?’”
Bucyrus hired Francis Investment Counsel because it had worked with the consulting firm before, when the company was still private, said Bruno. After going public in 2004 the company returned to looking at its 401(k) plan, which hadn’t been through a thorough examination in some years.