More and more professionals are convinced the industry has spent a generation of disservice to retirement savers by emphasizing the investment part of their 401k plan. Even today, DOL-mandated fee disclosure, with a separate line item of "Investment Adviser," can confuse plan participants into believing they – as opposed to the plan sponsor – are receiving (or even need) investment advice.
Those responsible for printing out employee statements have a duty to distinguish between "individual-level" investment advice and "plan-level" fiduciary services. Until this is done, who can fault employees for the confusion?
In the meantime, fiduciaries can best help employees by providing general education that both promotes savings and focuses on avoiding the most common mistakes made by retirement investors. Think of these as the three "overs" that can cause 401k to "under" achieve their retirement goals. Fortunately, these errors tend to derive from emotions. This means it only takes an ounce of discipline to defeat them and stay comfortable on the road to retirement readiness.
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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).
