It's not as sexy as employee lawsuits and it doesn't grab as many headlines as health reform, but retirement planning's about to get a little more interesting for employers – and their benefits managers.
As you're probably already aware, with the rising dawn of July 1, a Dept. of Labor reg kicks in that compels 401(k) providers have to clear up their standard fee disclosures. Subsequently, employers will then be forced to pass that information along to plan participants by the end of August.
This is no small feat. We're talking about roughly $4 trillion worth of assets spread across 67 million 401(k) plans across the country, according to the latest numbers from ASPPA.
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While this sounds all well and good – and certainly is a strong step n the right direction with regard to empowering employees – the ugly bump in the road remains the presumed education level of plan participants. Like a lot of other things in life – such as parenting and political candidates – I think a lot of us assume we know more about 401(k)s than we really do. In fact, I saw some numbers just last week that suggested more than 70 percent of retirement savers in this country have no idea there were any fees at all involved with their retirement plans. Talk about culture – or sticker – shock. It's like learning there's no Easter bunny on Good Friday.
And, yeah, that's where you come in. This is definitely an opportunity dressed up in work clothes, where an obviously potentially contentious revelation is actually pretty good news in the long run for plan participants. You've just got to get them there.
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