The Sanford 401(k): 6 Important Questions and Answers Sanford Physicians Should Know About Their Sanford 401(k) Retirement Plan

1)     What is the phone number for the Sanford 401(k)?

The plan sponsor phone number is: 877-949-5678

2)     Are the default investment option too conservative for most Sanford Health physicians?

Our view is that the target-date investment funds are not overly conservative. They look fairly standard compared with the target-date options we see in other 401(k) plans and from other providers, so we do not view the target-date lineup as an area of concern.

One area that is worth looking at more closely in plans like this is the relationship between the money market and stable value options. For many years, stable value funds often provided a more attractive yield than money market funds. However, that relationship can change as interest rates move, and in recent years money market funds have frequently offered higher current yields.

For example, the Vanguard Federal Money Market Fund (VMFXX) currently has a 7-day yield of 3.61% as of August 19, 2026. If the plan’s stable value fund is offering a meaningfully lower yield, it is worth considering whether employees would benefit from having a competitive money market option available alongside it.

There is some important historical context here. Stable value funds have traditionally been attractive because they can provide principal stability along with a competitive yield, and there have been periods when they outperformed money market funds. But as the Federal Reserve raised interest rates beginning in 2021, money market yields responded relatively quickly, and money market funds often became the higher-yielding option.

So, rather than viewing either option as inherently better, we think the key question is whether the plan currently offers employees a competitive choice. Comparing the current yield of the stable value fund with the money market option can help determine whether the lineup is giving participants an appropriately attractive place to hold more conservative assets.

3)    How to get the full employer match of up to 5% in the Sanford Health 401(k)

The Sanford 401(k) plan provides a strong employer matching contribution. Sanford matches 100% of an employee’s first 4% of contributions and 50% of the next 2%.

In practical terms, an employee would want to contribute at least 6% of their compensation to take full advantage of the match. At that contribution level, the employee contributes 6% and Sanford contributes another 5%, bringing the total annual contribution to 11% of eligible earnings, subject to the applicable IRS compensation limits.

Put simply, contributing 6% is the key threshold: it allows employees to capture the full Sanford match and immediately adds another 5% to their retirement savings. That makes reaching the full match an important first step for employees who are looking to maximize the value of the plan.

4)    For Sanford physicians is it usually better to contribute to the Roth or the pre-tax retirement account?

   Whether Roth or tax-deferred contributions are more advantageous depends largely on your current tax rate, your expected income in retirement, and how much you expect to have saved by the time you retire. For someone who expects to have significant taxable income in retirement, Roth contributions can be particularly attractive. For someone expecting a more modest retirement income, tax-deferred contributions may provide a greater benefit.

   One of the most common mistakes in making this decision is to look only at the tax rate and assume that if your tax rate will be lower in retirement, you should always defer the taxes. The problem is that this compares the tax rates without considering that they are being applied to very different amounts of money.

   Consider a simplified example. Imagine Person A is currently in a 50% tax bracket and has $20 available to invest. If they make a $20 pre-tax contribution, they save $10 in taxes today. If that $20 grows to $100 by retirement and their tax rate has fallen to 25%, they would owe $25 in taxes when the money is withdrawn.

Even though their tax rate fell from 50% to 25%, the amount of tax paid on the original investment increased from $10 to $25. The reason is simple: the lower tax rate is being applied to a much larger amount of money.

   A useful way to think about this is through the analogy of medical school student loans. When loan payments are deferred, it can feel like you are getting a financial break because you are not required to make payments today. But interest may continue to accrue, causing the balance to grow. When repayment eventually begins, you are paying off a larger balance.

   Taxes can work in a similar way. You can choose to pay them today through Roth contributions, or you can defer them until later through pre-tax contributions. If you defer the taxes and your investments grow substantially, you are ultimately applying a tax rate to a much larger amount of money. That is why simply having a lower tax rate in retirement does not automatically mean that pre-tax contributions are the better choice.

    There are, however, several important variables that make this an individualized analysis. Not all retirement income is necessarily taxed at the state level, and retirees may have different deductions, exemptions, and other tax benefits than they do while working. Someone could therefore move into a substantially lower effective tax rate in retirement, in which case the benefit of making pre-tax contributions today may be greater.

   As a general rule, the closer someone is to having a relatively low taxable income in retirement, the more attractive tax-deferred contributions may be while they are working. Conversely, the more likely someone is to have substantial taxable income in retirement, the more attractive Roth contributions can become.

Ultimately, there is no universal answer. The right approach is to compare the tax impact of Roth and pre-tax contributions based on your own current income, expected retirement income, investment growth, and tax situation. You can run that analysis yourself, or a fiduciary financial advisor can help model the two scenarios and determine which approach is likely to be more advantageous for you.

5)    What happens to employer contributions if I change jobs or leave Sanford Healthcare?

To our knowledge, the standard 5% employer contribution Sanford provides when an employee contributes 6% of their salary is immediately vested, meaning employees keep it even if they leave Sanford. Employee contributions are also fully vested at all times.

If Sanford makes contributions above the standard 5%, those additional contributions generally require two years of service to become vested. To our knowledge, Sanford has not made contributions above 5% in recent years, so this provision does not appear to be a significant issue currently.

The key takeaway is that employees contributing 6% should, to our knowledge, receive and keep the full 5% employer contribution.

6)    How do I make the most of the investment options in the Sanford 401(k) Plan?

To our knowledge, the Sanford 401(k) offers a self-directed brokerage account, which can significantly expand the investment options available to employees beyond the plan’s core lineup.

The key question is who provides the brokerage account and how competitive the investment options are. Providers such as Fidelity and Charles Schwab generally offer broad, low-cost investment choices. In our experience, insurance-company-provided brokerage options can sometimes be more limited or expensive.

If Sanford’s self-directed brokerage account does not provide competitive options, it may be reasonable for employees to ask the plan sponsor, Robb Schlimgen, whether Sanford would consider a request for proposal to evaluate alternatives such as Fidelity or Charles Schwab. This is a reasonable request, particularly because some insurance companies, like Lincoln National, already use Charles Schwab for their retirement-plan brokerage options.

Rob Schimglen's linkedin can be found here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/robb-schlimgen-8b747724

It can feel uncomfortable to ask for changes to a retirement plan, but employees have every right to ask whether the plan can offer more competitive investment choices. In our experience, in the majority of cases plan sponsors like Rob Schimglen usually tend to be open to improving the plan when the benefits are obvious (like a higher yield on a money market account versus a stable value fund). Of course if Sanford Health's 401(k) offers a higher yield on its stable value than the Vanguard Federal Money Market Account then the stable value fund may be superior. The Vanguard Federal Money Market Fund's yield is located on it's Vanguard product page: https://investor.vanguard.com/investment-products/mutual-funds/profile/vmfxx

Ultimately, the goal should be to provide employees with broad access to low-cost investment options and good yielding money market products when they decide to do so. Maine Medical Center where we have experience working with physicians in Portland, Maine had a similar issue and the issue was promptly fixed (within a few months) when physicians brought the issue to the attention of the plan sponsor. You can read that story here.

If Sanford’s existing brokerage account allows commission-free purchases of stocks, bonds, ETFs, and a broad selection of mutual funds, it may already be comparable to Charles Schwab’s Personal Choice Retirement Account (PCRA), in our view.

Overall, the Sanford 401(k) retirement plan is a solid plan, in line with what many competitors offer. But with small improvements and efficient utilization physicians at Sanford Health can usually make the plan work better for them.

Learn more about us or schedule a time to talk....

Learn more about us

If you are a Sanford physician and you would like to learn more about Daniel Harris and D.R. Harris & Co., a national fiduciary financial advisor that works with physicians throughout the United States, you can do so here.

Schedule a time to talk...

If you would like to schedule an introductory call you should know that our firm helps with 3 main problems below which we'll cover from those with the most imminent need to the least:

Sanford Pre-retirees (those within 5 years of their planned retirement date)

Your Retirement Shouldn't Begin With a Question Mark.

After 20 or 30 years of receiving a regular paycheck, the idea of giving it up can be unsettling—even when you've saved well.

The question isn't simply, “Do I have enough?”

It's:

“How do I turn what I've accumulated into a reliable income in an efficient way that I think I can count on for the rest of my life?”

For Sanford physicians approaching retirement, we help bring the pieces together—including Social Security, retirement accounts, investments, taxes, and your spending needs—to help you build a retirement-income strategy designed to replace the paycheck you're used to receiving.

You shouldn't have to guess whether your retirement plan will work.

If you're within 5 of full retirement or partial retirement and want to know what your retirement paycheck could look like, we can help you understand what is possible

Click here to hear what your retirement income could look like

Sanford Mid Career Physicians (usually in their late 40s or early 50s)

You've Worked Hard to Get Here. Now It's Time to Get Organized.

Retirement and sending those small kids off to college used to feel like something that was decades away.

Now college tuition is getting closer. Retirement is suddenly within sight. Your investments are spread across different accounts. And the financial decisions that once felt easy to put off are starting to feel much more important.

This is often the point when trying to manage everything yourself becomes less about saving money—and more about making sure nothing important gets missed.

We help mid career physicians organize the moving pieces, prioritize competing goals, and build a approach for the years ahead—so you know what needs to happen between now and retirement.

If you're in your 40s or 50s and feel like your finances have gotten too important to manage on your own, let's get everything organized.

[Click here to get your financial approach organized!]

Sanford Early Career Physicians (usually in the first 0-10 years out of fellowship/residency but primarily physicians who just came out of residency or fellowship in the last 12 months)

You Don't Need to Have It All Figured Out. You Need a Plan.

As a young physician, you may be earning more than you ever have—but that doesn't make the financial decisions any easier.

You may be thinking about buying a home, paying down student loans, saving for retirement, investing, building an emergency fund, and figuring out how much you can actually afford to spend. The challenge isn't finding another financial decision to make.

It's knowing which decisions should come first.

We help early career physicians build a financial approach around their priorities so they can make progress on the things that matter most—without feeling like they're constantly wondering whether they're putting their money in the right place.

If you're a Sanford physician early in your career and want to know what to prioritize with your money, let's talk.

[Click here to have a conversation about your financial priorities]

Your Financial Advisor Doesn't Have to Be Down the Street.

D.R. Harris & Co. has provided fiduciary financial advice to physicians for more than 16 years. Because we work virtually by phone, email, and video, we serve physicians throughout the United States.

When choosing a financial advisor, location isn't necessarily the most important qualification. Specialization can be.

Just as you can buy almost anything online from a company across the country, you can also seek specialized financial advice beyond your local market. If you're a physician, you may benefit from working with an advisor who understands the unique financial challenges of physicians—particularly if medicine isn't a major focus among advisors in your area.

The question isn't simply, “Where is my financial advisor?” It's “Who is best equipped to help me?”

Today, you have the ability to find specialized fiduciary advice almost anywhere in the country. We believe physicians should take advantage of that choice.

Disclaimer: The information in this article is written for educational and entertainment purposes only. Neither Daniel Harris nor D.R. Harris & Co. is your financial advisor unless you have a signed written advisory agreement with our firm. We believe the information in this article is correct as of the time it was written on 8/20/26, but we make no warranties as to the accuracy of the information in this article. We will not be updating information in this article which might change after the article is written. Before acting on any information you read about this article we encourage you to do your independent research, speak with the HR or benefits at Sanford and talk to your own professional advisors.