Several weeks ago I reported on the fi360 conference session in which Fred Reish shared his thoughts on 408(b)(2) – the DOL's new Fee Disclosure Rule that becomes effective next week. Reish and others expressed the concern that bundled service providers are sending or planning to send naïve plan sponsors an avalanche of paper.

This week I wrote a story from the perspective of independent service providers responsible for reporting those fees to give 401(k) plan sponsors a sense of what they might see from this type of vendor. The differences are stark and may indicate a new marketing battleground that every 401(k) plan sponsor should be aware of. 

First, let's start with the reality that every 401(k) plan sponsor has the fiduciary duty to do what's best for plan participants. We can argue later if all plan sponsors actually embrace this theory in practice, but we can all agree that, in theory, this is their primary function as a plan fiduciary.

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Christopher Carosa

Chris Carosa has been writing a weekly article and monthly column for BenefitsPRO online and BenefitsPRO Magazine since 2011 and is a nationally recognized award-winning writer, researcher and speaker. He’s written seven books, including From Cradle to Retire: The Child IRA; Hey! What’s My Number? – How to Increase the Odds You Will Retire in Comfort; A Pizza The Action: Everything I Ever Learned About Business I Learned By Working in a Pizza Stand at the Erie County Fair; and the widely acclaimed 401(k) Fiduciary Solutions. Carosa is also Chief Contributing Editor of the authoritative trade journal FiduciaryNews.com and publisher of the Mendon-Honeoye Falls-Lima Sentinel, a weekly community newspaper he founded in 1989. Currently serving as President of the National Society of Newspaper Columnists and with more than 1,000 articles published in various publications, he appears regularly in the national media. A “parallel” entrepreneur, he actively runs a handful of businesses, including a small boutique investment adviser, providing hands-on experience for his writing. A trained astrophysicist, he also holds an MBA and has been designated a Certified Trust and Financial Advisor. Share your thoughts and story ideas with him through Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/christophercarosa/)and Twitter (https://twitter.com/ChrisCarosa).