Starting in July, 401(k) plan participants will start receiving quarterly fee disclosures. These rules apply to plan years beginning after October 31, 2011, and require the disclosures to be distributed no later than 60 days after the beginning of the plan year. So for a calendar year plan, fee disclosures need to be distributed no later than August 31, 2012.
401(k) plans should have lower expenses than retail investment funds. According to a November 2011 Deloitte/Investment Company Institute study, the average expense fee hovers around 0.78%. But plans with a small amount of assets may sometimes only have access to retail funds, while larger companies and plans tend to have access to the lower fees of institutional funds. Since all plans have some level of fixed cost associated with the setup and maintenance, participants in the smaller plans typically pay higher fees per dollar invested than plans with larger account balances.
