ShareBuilder 401k has launched new online tools and resources to help companies and their employees better understand their new 401(k) fee disclosure statements and determine if they are paying too much for their plan.
A recent survey conducted by ShareBuilder 401k found that 83 percent of employers still have questions about their 401(k) fee disclosure notices and are unsure what to do next.
"The new 401(k) disclosures are intended to provide greater access to and understanding of 401(k) plans, but a lot of confusion remains," said ShareBuilder 401k President, Stuart Robertson. "These new tools are designed to help employees and employers better understand their 401(k) plans and inherent costs – and most importantly, learn ways to lower fees so they're positioned to save more for retirement."
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For plan sponsors, ShareBuilder developed www.401kcomparison.com, a website that offers quick and easy tools to help business owners compare their current 401(k) plan with a low-cost plan, which his priced at less than 1 percent in fees. The tool requests information and then produced a five-year projection of the company's current plan versus a low-cost plan, including both employer-paid and employee-paid expenses.
For plan participants, ShareBuilder launched www.401kfeefighters.com, which helps employees calculate and understand their 401(k) fees. It also provides tips to help lower plan expenses and maximize 401(k) savings.
"Over the course of a career, the difference between paying one and two percent in 401(k) fees can be the difference of hundreds of thousands of dollars," Robertson said. "We're working to get the word out that if you're paying more than one percent in fund expenses and investment fees, you're paying too much. These tools are another way we help employers and employees understand the impact of these costs on their retirement and how to take action to save more of their money."
Since 2005, ShareBuilder 401k has made all of its pricing readily available on its website, and the company began advocating for an industry benchmark of less than 1 percent for "all-in" employee-paid fees in 2007. ShareBuilder 401k is not a fund provider and takes an unbiased approach in the evaluation and selection of funds with a focus on low-expense, index-based investments from the leading ETF providers, such as Vanguard, iShares, SPDR and PowerShares, to create a powerful line-up from which participants can choose, including five model portfolios.
ShareBuilder 401k provides easy-to-use, cost-efficient 401(k) retirement plans for small businesses ranging from the self-employed to those with 1,000 or more employees.
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