RetireJapan

When I first applied for iDeCo back in December 2017, I decided to choose SBI as provider. Mainly because of the 0 maintenance fees and the fact that they were offering 67 different investment products in their iDeCo lineup, double the number of another providers like Rakuten.

But in May 2018 I received a notification that because of an iDeCo amendment regulation (2018年5月に施行された「確定拠出年金制度等の一部を改正する法律」によって、「iDeCo」の取扱商品数が元本確保型を含め35本までに規制されることになった) the lineup fund number needed to be lowered to 35 funds. Then what SBI did was to choose half the funds of their original lineup to be discontinued 5 years later (set up to be in 2023).

You can see what SBI offers here: http://www.benefit401k.com/ja/customer/ ... 000101.pdf (with the funds they plan to discontinue highlighted with grey background, and tagged as '除外予定商品').

Then I realized that SBI lineup was not ideal anymore, as there are currently other providers like Monex or Matsui offering a nice lineup of low cost funds, and they also have the nice eMaxis Slim All Country (including Japan) fund:

Monex iDeCo lineup: https://mst.monex.co.jp/mst/servlet/ITS ... oBrandList
Matsui iDeCo lineup: https://www.matsui.co.jp/ideco/product/

Then I started to think about transferring the account from SBI to Monex, but then I would need to start the paperwork back and forth with the providers and it will take some time to get it done, etc. Well, at least someone in this forum got it done quickly! (check in this thread: viewtopic.php?f=6&t=1336). Then I realized that switching iDeCo provider would cost me 4,400 yen of penalty, what they call "移換時手数料":



SBI iDeCo fees url: https://go.sbisec.co.jp/prd/ideco/flow_04.html
(search in section その他手数料 for "移換時手数料または運営管理機関変更時手数料")

According to the following article, it seems that all the iDeCo providers have similar penalty fees (> 4,000 yens) for switching to another provider: https://diamond.jp/articles/-/197287

And then, I saw that SBI was offering an internal plan change with 0 cost from what it was their ORIGINAL plan (オリジナル, they one I got when I applied), to their newest version, what they named SELECTO plan (セレクト). While the number of funds of the SELECTO is quite the same, they mostly are low cost funds with a lot of eMaxis Slim versions (which they do not have in their original plan). On top of that, it seems that they original plan funds are stuck with no updates, while the SELECTO plan seems to be "updatable".

This is another article explaining what I just summarized above, but in Japanese. It is worth reading, as it compares both plan´s lineup:*
* SBI証券のiDeCo口座は、超低コストの投信が揃う「セレクトプラン」がおすすめ！「セレクトプラン」と「オリジナルプラン」の品揃えと信託報酬を比較！
https://diamond.jp/articles/-/183892

They DO NOT offer the eMaxis Slim All Country (including Japan), but they DO offer an alternative mixing the 'eMAXIS Slim 全世界株式（除く日本）' with 'eMAXIS Slim 国内株式（TOPIX）', and who knows if they also bring it to their lineup later on, because its popularity is huge.



And here is where I found the link to apply for a plan update (from ORIGINAL to SELECTO) in SBI: https://go.sbisec.co.jp/prd/ideco/application.html

Long story short, I think I will stick with SBI iDeCo for now to avoid paying 4,400 yen plus all the "burocrazy" involved (specially with our foreign names, lol) and submit an update plan application. I might also need to submit some papers anyway, but seems like the way to go for now.

Well, that's all, I hope it can help anyone in there!

Thanks for this! My wife's iDeco is with SBI and I'm thinking of doing the swap. It seems a lot less painless than moving over to Monex.

I'm on the select plan too.

I'm currently buying 3 eMaxis Slim funds: Developed, Emerging, and TOPIX, because it was cheaper than the two-fund solution at the time.

Your plan is good though, and I will switch to that 2-fund solution of Global + TOPIX when I get around to it (as long as it's cheaper).

The reason All Country is not available is that they want you to buy their own SBI Global fund.

I just started a wiki page to highlight the difference between emaxis Slim / Rakuten / SBI's global funds: https://retirewiki.jp/wiki/Japanese_global_index_funds

ivanpgs wrote: ↑Thu Feb 11, 2021 11:41 pm And here is where I found the link to apply for a plan update (from ORIGINAL to SELECTO) in SBI: https://go.sbisec.co.jp/prd/ideco/application.html

Thanks for posting the link! I've been meaning to switch my wife from the Original Plan to the Select Plan for a while now, but was too lazy to actually do it. Just asked them to send us the forms.

RetireJapan wrote: ↑Fri Feb 12, 2021 8:41 am

ivanpgs wrote: ↑Thu Feb 11, 2021 11:41 pm And here is where I found the link to apply for a plan update (from ORIGINAL to SELECTO) in SBI: https://go.sbisec.co.jp/prd/ideco/application.html

Thanks for posting the link! I've been meaning to switch my wife from the Original Plan to the Select Plan for a while now, but was too lazy to actually do it. Just asked them to send us the forms.

Cool, I just did the same today! If only I would have known before this Select Plan ever existed!
The funny thing is that I was about to switching to another provider and I finally found it by chance

I am waiting for this to start my strategy of:

SBI iDeCo: eMAXIS Slim 全世界株式（除く日本) + eMAXIS Slim 国内株式（TOPIX）
Rakuten Tsumitate NISA: eMAXIS Slim All Country (incl. Japan)
Rakuten Tokukei Kouza: World bonds (eMaxis Slim? Nomura? Any low cost one would be okay)

Good think is that I can use Rakuten Shoken 50,000 yen (max) monthly payed by credit card, which means 500 Rakuten Points. And also I can set paying in Rakuten Points part of the contributions, which allows me to use more money for the contributions

I hope I can reach to that point and leave it like that for a long time

I switched from SBI's Original to Select plans sometime in 2019 and created a thread about it here.

viewtopic.php?f=6&t=663

Also I see tha Ben has been procrastinating since then.

RetireJapan wrote: ↑Sun Sep 15, 2019 6:13 am This is very helpful. I still haven't gotten round to doing this for my wife's account.

Jansen wrote: ↑Sun Feb 14, 2021 6:47 am I switched from SBI's Original to Select plans sometime in 2019 and created a thread about it here.

viewtopic.php?f=6&t=663

Nice!

I did not know there was another thread about it. I should have searched through the iDeCo channel better!
The good thing is now that your thread is also linked to this one then we have extra information, such what happens after you submit the papers. I was specially interested about it and got the answer in your linked thread, thanks for that! I also knew that SBI was going to be slow, so I was expecting 2 to 3 months (they also specify it in the page where you submit the update plan application).