In 2012, the Department of Labor will take a step towards exiting the cave by requiring 401k fund providers to disclose fees. The yachts on Wall Street continue to shrink.
Participants will see the impact of management fees, sales charges, 12 b(1) fees, trading costs etc. Some of these will disappear in the light of the day. Undoubtedly, fees will drop in the face of increased competition.
If you can't wait, you may want to visit www.Brightscope.com and put in the name of your company.
CLICK TO ENLARGE By scrolling down, you come to the component ratings. The first one is "Total Plan Cost." If it is high, you may want to ask the plan administrator why.If your plan is not rated, again, it may be worthwhile asking the plan administrator why. It is not difficult for a company to provide data to Brightscope to see how its plan compares to the plans of peers.
Nothing like transparency to keep the Wall Street crowd honest, and to pressure them to reduce fees.
ReplyDeleteInteresting. In my RRSP plan I can see how much fees each different fund charges, so although there isn't too much choice, there is a bit of choice at least.
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