Salam,
My employer does not offer Halal funds in the 401K plan, neither do they have option for Self-directed option. Not participating mean no employer contribution, what to do?
Salaam and welcome, @hawk666! It really boils down to personal preference but the most common advice I’ve seen from scholars (including our very own Sh. @Joe Bradford) is that it’s better to opt for the least bad option rather than to not participate in your company’s 401k at all. This typically ends up being the fund that is 100% equities-based vs funds that have a mix of equities and bonds. It’s also a good practice to estimate and purify your holdings on an annual basis to account for the impermissible portion of the fund.
If you have multiple options for funds that are 100% equities-based, feel free to free to list them here so we can take a closer look and identify the one with the least exposure to non-compliant stocks.
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I want to thank you and your team for all the great work that you are doing. May Allah SWT bless you and bless the team members for that effort.
Here are some of the funds:
FXAIX
PEIYX
SICWX
QUAYX
FSMDX
FSSNX
MLAIX
PSMKX
TRMCX
VSIAX
RERGX
ODVYX
VTWAX
DFSTX
VIEIX
VIIIX
VWNEX
DFIEX
VTSNX
I ran your list through Zoya’s new fund screener. The feature is still in beta and has a limited mutual fund universe so I wasn’t able to research all of them. However, among the symbols that were supported, it appears MLAIX has the least amount of non-compliant holdings (~6.4%). I hope that helps!
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Salaams brother Saad,
I hope you’re well. I’ve always wondered how one is supposed to purify the non-shariah compliant part of a 401k fund annually? Because there are restrictions on withdrawal - so would it have to come out of money you have somewhere else?
And then curious if someone would have to pay zakat on the part that is non-shariah compliant that we plan on purifying?
Yes, that would make more sense than doing an early withdrawal and paying tax + penalty.
In Sh. @Joe’s book Simple Zakat Guide, he suggests that you absolve/purify yourself of any haram earnings prior to calculating zakat.
What do I do with Haram earnings?
Ibn Hibbān narrates from Abu Huraira that the Prophet ﷺ said:
“When you’ve given the Zakat of your wealth then you have fulfilled your obligation. Whoever gathered impermissible wealth then gave it in charity will have no reward for doing so and its sin will be upon him.”
Based on this hadith, all scholars both past and present agree that it is imperative to absolve oneself of any Haram earnings. Regardless of whether those earnings are from interest bearing accounts, business transactions, or investments.
Bradford, Joe. Simple Zakat Guide: Understand and Calculate Your Zakat (Kindle Locations 829-836). Origem Publishing. Kindle Edition.
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Great thank you so much for the response!
I’m going to press you a little further here cause I’m thinking of the perspective of my clients.
What if someone doesn’t have other pots of money to pull from? And what if the other pots aren’t enough? This will become a huge problem as someone invests in their 401k year after year and the investments start compounding (especially after they hit $100K)
It doesn’t make sense to keep pulling out the money from your 401k year after year and incurring taxes and the 10% penalty so you can purify. And most people won’t have another pot of money to pull from. Honestly it might get to a point where the taxes + penalty incurred might not make the 401k benefits worthwhile. The tax deduction/tax sheltering and employer match you get from your 401k may not make up how much you have to pay to purify.
There has to be another solution cause I know a lot of folks in this situation and neither of those options make a lot of sense.
This is an interesting question, but I’m afraid I’m not qualified to answer it.
I should have clarified earlier that there are two opposing views regarding zakat on your retirement accounts. One of our shariah advisors, Sh. @Joe, subscribes to the opinion that you don’t need to pay zakat on your 401k/IRA unless you withdraw from them. On the other hand, Sh. @umerkhan (also on our shariah advisory board), subscribes to the opposing opinion that you should pay zakat on them regularly regardless of whether or not you’re do any withdrawals.
So depending on which opinion you personally choose to follow will ultimately to determine your financial plan going forward.
On a side note—we’re working on a zakat and purification tool that will hopefully make all of this a little easier.
Gotchu! Looking forward to the tool inshallah.
I’m curious if you could direct this question to Sh. Joe since you have access to him? The majority of my clients are in this position and I don’t want to dissuade them from using their 401ks but it has to make financial and mathematical sense.
I’m sure Sh. Joe has come across this question often so there has to be a solution.
I’m facing the same issue. Below are the investment options available.
LGBNX
PTRQX
NEZNX
PHYQX
RLBEX
RMFEX
FXAIX
FIFRX
TRMCX
VIMAX
BUFTX
VSMAX
JSMGX
RWIEX
RNPGX
CGOLX
FSPSX
VWILX
Can you please screen these?
I was only able to find 4 of the Mutual Funds in the Zoya app for screening…and it appears FXAIX has the least amount of non-compliant holding (~28.52%) from the 4. Any way to screen the rest or get them added soon?
Thanks for checking in the app brother.
So here’s the run down.
VIMAX, VSMAX, RMFEX, and FXAIX are in the app right now
BUFTX, JSMGX, RLBEX RNPGX, and FIFRX look like they’re mostly markets we cover so I’ve pushed those to our product team to add to the app.
Seeing that LGBNX and PTRQX are both bond funds so aren’t shariah compliant.
NEZNX, and PHYQX have a lot of their holdings in treasury notes and fixed income. I’m asking what that means regarding shariah compliance.
TRMCX 28% unrated so it’s not hidden in the app.
RWIEX CGOLX, FSPSX, and VWILX are international funds so until recover more markets we won’t be able to cover those stocks.
Let me know if I’m missing anything here
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Jazaka’Allah for looking into them and getting some to be added in the app insha’Allah in the near future.
I missed adding these:
Large Cap Growth / JP Morgan Investment Management Fund OLGAX
Small Cap Value / Victory Fund VSCVX
International Blend Fund (sub-advised by Wellington Management) (not sure of the ticker. I’m guessing it falls with the rest of the international funds that is not covered)
Real Estate / Cohen & Steers Fund CSRSX
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in’shallah.
I’ve asked our team for those as well
Assalaamu alaikum!
First of all Jazakallah khair for all the teams efforts on rolling this app and features out. It’s been a tremendous source of insight and ease for people trying to keep their income halal.
I’ve got similar questions to the above, my workplace restricts 401(k) investing to the following funds and I was only able to find four of them. Could you advise on if the remainder can be added and share your insight?
DNVYX
FXAIX (mentioned by someone else, has the highest compliance of the known funds but only 48% compliant)
FID GROWTH CO POOL (no symbol)
INVESCO GRTH & Inc I (no symbol)
FLCKX
ANDVX
BGRIX
FLPKX
FSMDX
FKMCX
FVLKX
JDPNX
ESPNX
FSSNX
LSSIX
RSPYX
RERGX
DFEVX
FIEUX
FSPSX
FOSKX
NSRIX
Assalaamu Alykum Afraaz,
Welcome to the community. Great to have you with us. Which four were you able to find in the app?
I was able to find:
FXAIX
FKMCX
FVLKX
FSSNX
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Appreciate you keeping me in the loop @Afraaz3.
So here’s the rundown;
DNVYX, ANDVX, BGRIX, JDPNX, LSSIX, RSPYX look like funds that are mostly in markets we cover so I’ve asked our team to get those into the app.
The Following are currently in our universe, but at the moment, they’re not being displayed in the app. You can see that some have large unrated portions. I’ll ask and see what’s blocking some of the other ones from popping up in the app.
FLPKX 48.1% Unrated.
FSMDX 12.1% unrated,
ESPNX 10.6% unrated,
FLCKX is for investing in leveraged companies, my feeling is this strategy by the fund makes it unlikely to be shariah compliant. Let me know what you think.
RERGX, DFEVX, FIEUX, FSPSX, FOSKX, and NSRIX all have large portions of non-US holdings; emerging markets, Europe, etc.
Salam brothers,
Where you able to check Vanguard funds?
VIGIX
VSCPX
VPMAX
VDIGX
VGSNX
VIVIX
VITNX
VTSNX
VDIGX
VEIRX
VMCPX