Books by Russell McNorton
401(k) fiduciary books for sponsors, CPAs and advisors
Books from 29 years of working with retirement plans, sold on Amazon in paperback and Kindle. The newest one, for plan participants, is on its way.
New · For employees and plan participants
The 401(k) Participant’s Guide
How to Use Your Retirement Plan, Make Smarter Decisions, and Prepare for Retirement
Most people get an enrollment form and never a real explanation. This book walks employees through their 401(k) from the first paycheck to the last one: what the match really pays, how to read a statement and a fee disclosure, what the default investment holds, Roth or traditional, loans, job changes, and how to turn the account into income.
260 pages, with worksheets and checklists. It’s written so an employer or advisor can hand it to every person in the plan.
Paperback and Kindle links will be posted here as soon as Amazon publishes them.
For plan sponsors
Who Is Your Named Fiduciary?
The 401(k) responsibility most employers don’t know they kept, what their vendors agreed to in writing, and what the plan is really paying. Built on 48,944 Form 5500 filings.
Buy the paperbackBuy for KindleDownload a free sample
For CPAs and CPA firms
Protect the Client, Protect the Firm
What every CPA needs to know about 401(k) fiduciary risk: reading a Form 5500 in fifteen minutes, late deposits, audits, and the questions to ask business-owner clients.
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For retirement plan advisors
The Fiduciary Advantage
How advisors win and keep 401(k) plans: Form 5500 prospecting, plan reviews that open doors, and the service sponsors notice.
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For retirement plan advisors
We’ve Got Your Back Office
How advisors find more plans and grow their book with a §402(a) Named Fiduciary and §3(16) Plan Administrator on the team.
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Featured book · for plan sponsors
Who Is Your Named Fiduciary?
The 401(k) responsibility you didn’t know you had, and what it’s costing you.
Most employers with a 401(k) believe their providers carry the responsibility for the plan. Open the signed plan document and the name on the Named Fiduciary and Plan Administrator lines is usually the company’s.
This book shows owners, CFOs and HR directors how to find out what they actually kept, what their vendors agreed to in writing, and what the plan is paying. It gives advisors and CPAs a straightforward way to walk a client through the same questions.
If you sponsor a plan
Find out from your own documents who holds which role, where the gaps between vendors are, and whether you can explain what the plan pays.
If you advise a plan
A repeatable way to show a client where the responsibility sits and what the fees really are, using their documents and public data.
If you are the company’s CPA
The questions that surface governance problems early, without needing to practice ERISA law.
Free samples
Read the first chapter of any book, free
Pick a book, tell us where to send it, and download the sample right away. Each one runs from the opening pages through the end of chapter one, so you can see how the book reads before you buy it.
Not sure which one fits? Plan sponsors usually start with Who Is Your Named Fiduciary?, CPAs with Protect the Client, Protect the Firm, and advisors with The Fiduciary Advantage. You can also get all four.
Already have the book?
Request working copies of the twelve tools on the book tools page.
The books and samples are general information, not legal, tax or investment advice.
