The DOL admits, due to the number of variables involved, there’s no easy way to calculate the fees and expenses paid by your 401(k) plan. You might be surprised who the DOL suggests trying to find the answers to the following ten questions from.
Tag "401k"
Worried while Washington fiddles? These three vital questions might just help you determine if today’s DOL ruling will increase your personal fiduciary liability.
Plan sponsors want a more robust way to analyze. This technique may have saved 401k investors significantly last year.
If you’re a fiduciary worried about potential liability, be warned. Commodities trading remains speculative and may not be appropriate for unsophisticated investors – no matter what the TV tells them.
The active investing vs. passive investing argument has become passé. Perhaps we may be nearing a new consensus where it’s no longer active OR passive, but active AND passive.
Contrary to popular press reports, economic theory clearly suggests paying high fees is justified. Here’s the cruel irony and the greatest danger posed by the myth of high mutual fund fees: by taking back some of the responsibility normally delegated to professional advisers, an active fiduciary may in reality take on a greater fiduciary liability.
Unless and until we can break the momentum of intertwined conflicts-of-interest, the greatest legacy we’ll leave our grandchildren’s children may be an outstanding bill to pay for spiraling public employee retirement benefits.
Diversification does not protect the investor when the entire asset class sinks. A recent study from Hewitt Associates suggests events may be placing plan fiduciaries in a historically precarious position.
If trawling litigators seek to influence friendly juries in any case against an ERISA/401k fiduciary, the Time article offers a very good starting point…And ill-prepared fiduciaries should be shaking in their boots.
Here’s an issue that can perplex even the most experienced ERISA/401k fiduciary: What’s the difference between a broker and a Registered Investment Adviser? More importantly, does the difference significantly raise the fiduciary liability for the typical fiduciary?
