Announcing the BrightScope Personal 401k Fee Report
BrightScope is pleased to announce the launch of the Personal 401k Fee Report, a revolutionary free tool to help all 401k participants better understand the fees they are paying within their 401k plans.
- The tool starts by asking participants for some basic information that we need to show participants the impact of fees on their retirement balance:
- Next the tool asks participants to identify all of their 401k accounts. According to BrightScope research there are over 15 million 401k accounts for retired or separated employees. While there is not real data available, BrightScope has estimated that this could represent over $500 billion in retirement assets. Helping participants track down their old 401k accounts and understand their rollover options is of critical importance to securing retirement income for all Americans. Our tool can help participants identify multiple 401k accounts:
Once a plan is selected you can update your individual investment holdings using sliders. Because we already have data on 30,000 401k plans entering in investment information should be very straightforward:
- Once a plan has been identified and all funds have been loaded a participant can discover their fees. In this case the participant is paying 1.22% in their old 401k plan at Anderson Baker Cole and by moving to a low-cost IRA they could potentially save $86,775 in retirement:
- We have also made it easier to roll an old 401k plan into an IRA by simply following the clickable links to a variety of low-cost IRA providers.
Oh and like we mentioned at the top, the personal 401k Fee Report is completely free to use. We just didn’t think it would be fair to charge anyone for a report that helps them figure out what they are paying in fees.
To learn more read the following coverage: Press Release. Washington Post. Investment News. CNN Money. PlanAdviser.
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Well done gentlemen. In a world of shadowy investment corners, you are sending these plans scattering for cover.
This is potentially the most lethal of all the tools available to 401k participants through BrightScope – and the sheer value of this new offering could be immeasurable.
This is a great tool for those participants willing to make the effort. I’m wondering what you’re doing to get this to a larger pool of people? The people who would most benefit are least likely to take the initiative.
BrightScope provides a great service at the company level and this is an excellent addition at the participant level. Congratulations.
I think the tool is very helpful but what if the plan sponsor did not provide complete fee information? There is a specific case I noticed where the provider is a regional bank and they charge a trust management fee of 65 basis points, but it appears that was not disclosed by the plan sponsor, possibly because they do not know it is there or how to report it. Wouldn’t this create incorrrect information for their particpants? Is there a way to ensure accuracy of the fee information being provided by the sponsor?
@John – Thanks John. We appreciate your support.
@Andrew – We are working on a few initiatives to offer this tool to a larger pool of people. You will likely see an announcement in the next few months about this.
@Becky – Some fees do not show up in the report because the plan sponsor is footing the bill rather than the participants. In other cases the fees don’t show up because of an error in the filings. Obviously the tool becomes more valuable when the information is completely accurate and up-to-date. If you find an inaccuracy with a certain plan please let us know so that we can work with that sponsor and provider to update the information.
Thanks,
Ryan Alfred