Retirement Plans Compared:
DBA Systems, Inc. vs Titan Corp.

This page was researched and built on my own time.  Neither DBA Systems nor Titan is responsible for the information herein.  To the best of my knowledge and ability it is accurate and available from public sources.  Any mistakes are purely my own, so, beware, I may have been drunk, hallucinatory, hubristic, or lying through my teeth (no, wait, that was last night!).  Opinions are given in a slightly smaller font -- think of them as whispers.

"I ain't a lawyer, I ain't an accountant, and I ain't gonna pretend to be one.  You gets what you pays for."

invisible text -- Rich Franzen    myHome


Plan Comparison

DBA
Titan
  • 12% max employee contribution
  •  6% max company match
        100% on  1st 2%
         75% on next 4%
         50% on next 2%
  • employee contribution unconstrained
  • employee contrib. is fully vested
  • company match unconstrained
  • 5% investment granularity
  • 4 years to full vesting
  • borrow up to 50% of vested funds
  • up to 2 loans at a time
  • no Employee Stock Ownership Plan
  • profit sharing plan to 401k funds
  • "individual advice" from Smith Barney
  • 24\7 800-number for account info
  • no web access to account
  • separate "record keeper" (Leggette)
  • 15% max employee contribution
  •  5% max company match
        100% on  1st 5%


  • employee contribution unconstrained
  • employee contrib. is fully vested
  • 50% of company match to TTN stock
  • 10% investment granularity
  • 5 years to full vesting
  • borrow up to 50% of vested funds
  • only 1 loan at a time
  • Employee Stock Ownership Plan
  • profit sharing to ESOP only
  • investment education from Vanguard
  • 24\7 800-number for account info
  • web access to account
  • no separate record keeper
  • graph which compares the matching policies


    Fund Comparisons
    The following tables compare performance between the DBA set of funds and the Titan set of funds.  Current information may be obtained by clicking the fund names or charts.  Information in the tables is from the Yahoo Finance site.  I was planning on also linking to the "official" sites for each fund, but Smith Barney does not seem to want to be associated with its own TRAK (aka Consulting Group Capital Markets) funds.  Vanguard has no such hesitation, however, and (except for the "Vanguard Retirement Savings Trust") official information on its funds is easy to find.

    In each table, the DBA (Smith Barney TRAK) funds are on the left, and the equivalent Titan (Vanguard) funds are on the right.  The expense ratio's for the DBA column are somewhat complex.  TRAK has a quoted expense for each fund, but what they don't quote is their 1.5% annual "advisement fee", which they claim is external to the fund, and need not be included in their fee statement.  So an individual investor would earn 1.5% less than the stated "total return".  DBA's contract with Smith Barney negotiates a special, across the board total fee of 1.76% on all funds, so I also list this as well as the true actual return received by DBA employees.  DBA investors in the Government Money fund are probably paying one of the highest fees on any money fund in the country (1.76% is way out of bounds for a reasonable fee on a money fund).

    Two Vanguard funds have an additional $10.00 annual fee, so if you have exactly $666.67 invested in one of these, it is equivalent to the 1.5% TRAK fee.  But if you have $10,000 invested, it would only be a 0.1% fee (which at that point they wave anyway).  The Vanguard Small Cap Index Fund (NAESX) has a one-time 0.5% fee paid at purchase.  Since the other fees are all paid annually, I did not include this in its table.

    Money Funds
    TGMMX
    VMMXX   - - - -   Vanguard RST
    $1.00
    $1.00
    info from Jan98 prospectus
  • 1 year ave return:    5.01% (3.85%)
  • 3 year ave return:    4.95% (3.79%)
  • Total expense ratio:  0.60% (1.76%)
  •     VMMXX info from Sep98 prospectus
  • 1 year ave return:     5.50% -- 6.15%
  • 5 year ave return:     4.90% -- 6.09%
  • Total expense ratio:   0.33% -- 0.30%
  • Information for the tables below was gathered 4 April 1999.
    Get current info by clicking fund name or chart.

    Bond Funds
    TIIUX
    VBMFX   - - - -   VWEHX
     
  • 1 year ave return:     4.93% (3.97%)
  • 3 year ave return:     5.80% (5.84%)
  • Total expense ratio:   0.80% (1.76%)
  • CDA Rating:           55
  • Last income (24 Feb): $0.037
  • 1 year ave return:     6.21%     --  4.04%
  • 3 year ave return:     7.23%     --  8.83%
  • Total expense ratio:   0.20%+$10 --  0.28%
  • CDA Rating:           26         -- 37
  • Last income (26 Feb): $0.048     -- $0.049
  • Growth & Income and Balanced Funds
    TLVUX
    VWNFX   - - - -   VWINX
     
  • 1 year ave return:     5.51%  (4.53%)
  • 3 year ave return:    19.43% (18.45%)
  • Total expense ratio:   0.78%  (1.76%)
  • CDA Rating:           33
  • Last income (8 Dec):  $1.86
  • 1 year ave return:     9.21% --  5.92%
  • 3 year ave return:    21.82% -- 12.91%
  • Total expense ratio:   0.37% --  0.31%
  • CDA Rating:           29     -- 31
  • Last income (16 Dec): $3.17  -- $1.19
  • Growth Funds
    TLGUX
    VWUSX
  • 1 year ave return:    26.31% (25.28%)
  • 3 year ave return:    27.59% (26.56%)
  • Total expense ratio:   0.73%  (1.76%)
  • CDA Rating:            3
  • Last income (8 Dec):  $0.84
  • 1 year ave return:    26.45%
  • 3 year ave return:    27.56%
  • Total expense ratio:   0.42%
  • CDA Rating:           16
  • Last income (16 Dec): $2.50
  • Small Capital Growth Funds
    TSGUX
    NAESX
  • 1 year ave return:    -9.40% (-9.98%)
  • 3 year ave return:     6.47%  (5.89%)
  • Total expense ratio:   1.18%  (1.76%)
  • CDA Rating:           87
  • Last income (8 Dec):  $0.51
  • 1 year ave return:   -14.35%
  • 3 year ave return:     8.66%
  • Total expense ratio:   0.23%+$10
  • CDA Rating:           85
  • Last income (22 Dec): $1.68
  • International Stock Funds
    TIEUX
    VWIGX
  • 1 year ave return:     8.04% (7.32%)
  • 3 year ave return:     8.22% (7.50%)
  • Total expense ratio:   1.04% (1.76%)
  • CDA Rating:           41
  • Last income (8 Dec):  $0.75
  • 1 year ave return:    3.92%
  • 3 year ave return:    9.65%
  • Total expense ratio:   0.57%
  • CDA Rating:           55
  • Last income (18 Dec): $0.38
  • Titan Stock Fund
    n/a
    TTN


    Related Links:

    Mining Co. retirement page

    Yahoo retirement page

    Mozilla retirement page


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    Accesses since 2 March 1999
    Page last updated on 6 April 1999
    Feb99 Version