Tag: 401k fees

My friend Francis Vitagliano paid me a visit to show that 401(k) plans are paying mutual funds $940 million in transfer agent fees for services they already receive through their record-keeper. He may well be right. The question, however, is how do 401(k)s improve their lot? Defined benefit plans use collective-investment-trust (CIT) versions of…

The brief’s key findings are: 401(k) fees are complex and may not closely correspond to costs. Fees also raise design issues, such as transfers from high-balance to lowbalance participants and from participants to non-plan investors. Better disclosure could help employers and participants avoid unreasonable costs. Policymakers may also want to opine on the transfers embedded…