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Do you think 401(k) Fees really are that difficult to find?
Benefits & Compensation
Do you think 401(k) Fees really are that difficult to find?
Exchange ideas about health plans, retirement, work/life benefits, and employee assistance.
My question is, does all the chatter about 'hidden' 'mysterious' or expensive 401(k) fees, actually resonate with HR people and CFOs and payroll managers of midsize or large companies? Is this your ex
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Forums » Topic Forums » Benefits & Compensation » Do you think 401(k) Fees really are that difficult to find?
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Do you think 401(k) Fees really are that difficult to find?
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Do you think 401(k) Fees really are that difficult to find?
posted at 9/23/2009 12:42 PM EDT
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Posts: 2
First: 9/23/2009 Last: 9/24/2009 |
My question is, does all the chatter about 'hidden' 'mysterious' or expensive 401(k) fees, actually resonate with HR people and CFOs and payroll managers of midsize or large companies? Is this your experience?
If so, my question would have to be where's the broker? The reason I'm asking that is that I benchmark 401(k) provider costs as a service to smaller 20-100 person companies, who don't have CFOs or HR people dedicated to the task, on a billed basis. And recently we did the work for one of our midsized clients and I was really surprised at how different our experience is from what I hear in the media? I mean, really different. It usually takes us about two hours (my time) and 20 minutes (clients time) to do the fee study, complete with competitive bids. It really is not that complicated. And generally, with our midsize clients, it takes less time since the client is often better organized and better prepared for the task. I guess I just find it mystifying that people in midsize or larger companies can't figure out where to look to see if 401(k)fees are 'hidden'. Is it more a case that everyone just thinks someone else is doing it, so 'Bob must do that...' or do people really not know where to look for the information? Happy to point you in the right direction, or even share source material with anyone informally benchmarking their own plan costs.... feedback to: service@401kquestions.com |
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Do you think 401(k) Fees really are that difficult to find?
posted at 9/24/2009 4:34 AM EDT
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Posts: 2146
First: 2/15/2006 Last: 9/14/2011 |
Although I suspect this is advertising spam, I will answer from my perspective.
Personally I don't think it is hard to find the direct fees. But I worked in HR consulting at one of the largest firms in the 401k dept for 7 1/2 years, so I tend to have more knowledge than the average HR person or the average employee. However, I do think that there are more hidden fees in the rates of return than are quoted. Especially in the daily valuation situation. Maybe because I worked at that consulting firm back in the days of the quarterlies where we had to reconcile actual trust statements and saw the different fees flow through the plan returns. They were much clearer and easier to see than how unit values are calculated under daily valuations. I do think that it would be very easy for a mutual fund company to hide fees in the returns/values beyond what they quote as the direct fees. And those would not be calculations/numbers that the mutual fund company would publish or give out to anyone! |
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Do you think 401(k) Fees really are that difficult to find?
posted at 9/24/2009 7:02 AM EDT
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Posts: 2
First: 9/23/2009 Last: 9/24/2009 |
thanks for the reply. and, at least on your first point, this is just my first time posting in this forum. I selected it for the question because of a vertical concentrated readership of CFO/HR people, uniquely qualified to answer a question.
The question is about my perceived disconnect btn general popular notion, and something that impacts and is a part of your actual job. It seemed from your response the answer was 'kind of' which is about what i figured. Happy to hear others. |
Forums » Topic Forums » Benefits & Compensation » Do you think 401(k) Fees really are that difficult to find?
