This is Motley Full Answers. I'm Alison Southwick and I'm joined as always by Robert Brokamp

personal finance expert here at the Motley Fool. Hello, Bro. Happy Halloween, Allison. Gather around

the campfire kids because Bro is here with estate planning horror stories. We'll also answer your question about directing employer contributions, and you'll want to

stick around to hear about what we got in the mail.

It's pretty amazing.

All that and more on this week's episode of Mollyville Answers.

It's time for Answers Answers, and it comes from Eric today.

In January, my employer will begin offering a Roth

401k. After looking at my circumstances, it makes sense for me to switch to that option. But from

what I've read, my employer match gets held in a separate account because it is made with

pre-tax dollars. Can I direct which investments get my contribution and which get my employer's contributions?

Well, Eric, you are absolutely right. So if you participate in the Roth 401 ,

what that means is your contributions go in, you don't get a tax deduction, but the money grows tax-free

as long as you follow the rules. However, the match goes into essentially a traditional account, and that is the money goes

in, you don't get the deduction, the company gets the deduction.

The money grows tax deferred, but when you take out that match money, it gets taxed.

However, this is really just an accounting issue.

You don't have two separate accounts, and because of that, you don't get to say, like,

I'm going to invest my contributions, my Roth contributions in this fund, and then I want the

employer match to be invested in this fund.

You just choose the funds, and the money is apportioned rateably, as they might say.

However, Eric, I think you're on the right track,

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