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How to Read a District’s Approved 403(b) Vendor List

Updated August 25, 2026. Quick answer: Approved means the vendor filed the disclosures and paid the fee. The statute forbids conditioning registration on what the disclosures say, forbids the board from ranking or preferring anything, disclaims responsibility for whether the information is any good, and forbids vendors from implying an endorsement. What it does give you is a disclosure duty with a real sanction and one comparable dollar figure — which 48 of the 134 active products do not carry.

What is usually said, and what the sources say

An approved vendor list reads like a shortlist somebody vetted, and the word approved is taken to mean the district or the state looked at the product and thought it acceptable.

In the one state whose statute we can read, approval means the vendor filed the disclosures and paid the fee. The statute forbids conditioning registration on the content of those disclosures, forbids the board from ranking or preferring anything, disclaims responsibility for whether the information is any good, and forbids vendors from implying an endorsement. What the statute does give a teacher is a disclosure duty with teeth and one number designed to be compared – which is missing for a third of the active list.

What approved means, in the statute’s own words

California’s registry exists because of one 2002 bill. The state’s own site says so: “The 403bCompare site is a result of AB 2506 (Steinberg) that was passed in 2002 becoming California Education Code Section 25100-25115” (CalSTRS 403bCompare, California Education Code page). The chapter directs that “The board shall maintain an impartial investment information bank, via an Internet Web site” (Cal. Educ. Code sec. 25104(a)) and that “Registered vendors shall offer only registered 403(b) products as funding vehicles for 403(b) plans” (Cal. Educ. Code sec. 25101).

Then it says four things about what registration is not. “Registration may not be conditioned upon the content of the information” (Cal. Educ. Code sec. 25101(b)). The board “The board shall have the authority to organize data, but may not subjectively rank or give preference to a vendor or product” (Cal. Educ. Code sec. 25104(d)). The board and the system “are not responsible for, and may not be held liable for the adequacy of the information provided by the participating vendors contained in the information bank” (Cal. Educ. Code sec. 25109(a)). And vendors may not “claim or infer any endorsement or recommendation by the board or the system with respect to products and services identified by the vendors in the information bank” (Cal. Educ. Code sec. 25109(b)).

Put together: approved means filed and paid. Nobody assessed the product. The state says as much in the statute, and it is the single most useful thing to know before reading any district’s list.

What the statute does give you

Two provisions are worth carrying into a conversation with a vendor. The first is the disclosure duty, which is unusually specific: “A disclosure of all expenses paid directly or indirectly by retirement plan participants, including, but not limited to, penalties for early withdrawals, declining or fixed withdrawal charges, surrender or deposit charges, management fees, and annual fees” (Cal. Educ. Code sec. 25101(a)(3)). The second is the sanction that makes it real: “A vendor may not charge a fee associated with a registered 403(b) product that is not disclosed” (Cal. Educ. Code sec. 25107). A charge that is not in the filing may not be levied at all.

There is also a rule about where your payroll deduction may go: “An employer may not forward annuity or custodial account consideration to the vendor of any unregistered 403(b) product” (Cal. Educ. Code sec. 25113). That is the mechanical reason a district declines to send money to a provider you found yourself, and it is a statute rather than a policy.

The one comparable number, and where it is missing

The chapter requires the site to publish a dollar figure designed for comparison: “The Web site shall include a table showing, for each registered fund, the total fee cost in dollars incurred by a shareholder who initially invested ten thousand dollars ($10,000), earned a 5 percent rate of return for one, five, 10, 15, and 20 year time periods” (Cal. Educ. Code sec. 25104(c)). The site presents its own version of that as an annual cost per product: “A calculation provided to help estimate the average amount one might expect to pay annually, based on a $10,000 investment.” (CalSTRS 403bCompare, Annual Cost definition).

Counting the active list, that figure is present for 86 of the 134 products — and absent for exactly the products with the longest lock-ups. Every mutual fund publishes one (64 of 64). Every variable annuity publishes one (22 of 22). Of the 48 fixed and equity-indexed annuity products, 0 publish one, while 39 of them do publish a surrender schedule.

Product typeActive productsPublish an annual costMedian annual cost on $10,000Carry a surrender scheduleFlagged as paying a commission
Variable Annuity2222 of 22$209 (range $92–$497)20 of 2218 of 22
Fixed Annuity170 of 17not published for any of them9 of 1714 of 17
Equity Indexed Annuity310 of 31not published for any of them30 of 3131 of 31
Mutual Fund6464 of 64$143.50 (range $54–$777)4 of 6432 of 64

All 134 active products in the registry on 2026-08-25. Annual cost is the site’s own standardised figure: “Annual cost for this product is based on a $10,000 balance and assumes you are invested in one fund. It includes required product fees, and also applies the average expense ratio of all investment options.” (CalSTRS 403bCompare, product page footnote).

The gap tracks the statute’s own wording rather than any evasion. The dollar-table duty in section 25104(c) is written for “each registered fund” — and a fixed or indexed annuity is not a fund. It has no expense ratio to average and no shareholder to charge. So the products whose cost is hardest to see are outside the sentence that was meant to make cost visible. That is a drafting boundary, not a finding that anyone broke a rule, and we do not assert that anyone did.

Check the plan against the rest of your retirement savings

A 403(b) decision usually turns on what the product costs, what leaving it would cost and what else you are saving into, and an adviser can weigh those together.

Before you start, what actually happens. The form is run by Kapitalwise, our advisor-matching partner. Kapitalwise sends your details to advisers who pay for the introduction, so expect calls and texts. Clear Money Guide is paid when you submit the form, whether or not you ever hire anyone. This is free to you and there is no obligation to hire anyone.

The Kapitalwise form opens here. You stay on this page.

What happens when you press the button

It asks about nine questions (age, investable assets, location), then your name, email and phone number, and verifies the phone by text. Nothing loads and nothing reaches Kapitalwise until you press the button. Submitting the form does not guarantee an adviser or a match. This matching form is not tax or legal advice.

Six questions the statute lets you ask

1. Is this product registered, and may I see the registry entry? Section 25114 makes registration the condition of selecting it at all.

2. What is the annual cost on $10,000, as the registry states it? If the answer is that there is not one, that is itself the answer, and it puts the product in the group of 48 where no comparable figure exists.

3. What is the full surrender schedule, year by year, and what is the percentage applied to? The first half is disclosed by statute. The second half is in your contract and nowhere else.

4. Which fees are in the filing? Section 25107 says a fee that is not disclosed may not be charged.

5. Does this product pay a commission? The registry carries a yes-or-no flag on every product, and you can read it before the conversation.

6. Which of the products on my district’s list costs the least, and is it on the list already? In this registry 1,200 of 1,318 employers already approve at least one product at $100 a year or under.

What this page does not settle

This page reads California’s registry chapter and counts what the state site displays. It makes no compliance finding about any vendor.

This page reads one state’s statute. If you teach outside California your district’s list exists under different law, or under no disclosure law at all, and none of the section numbers here apply to it.

We did not test whether any vendor is out of compliance with the disclosure duty. The count of products showing no annual cost is a count of what the site displays, and the statutory duty it sits next to is scoped by its own words to each registered fund.

The registry’s employer list contains at least one record that is plainly a test entry rather than a school district. We report the employer count as the site returns it and flag the defect rather than silently cleaning it.

Sources

Related: Why a School District’s 403(b) Vendor List Is Mostly Annuities · The 403(b) Salesperson in the Staff Room · 403(b) Surrender Charges · Finding an advisor who understands a teacher · Fee drag calculator · 403(b) vs 401(k): what actually differs.

General information drawn from the federal statutes and regulations, the California Education and Insurance Codes and the CalSTRS 403bCompare registry named above, not legal, tax or financial advice. Statutes are amended and registered products change; the figures here are what each source said on the date above, and each is linked so you can check it.

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