InvestingBytes.com

Retirement is one of the aspects and one of the time periods in our lives that we save up our entire life for so that we can lead a comfortable life without much hassle. Given that the conventional methods of storing money simply don’t suffice anymore there are also quite a few plans offered to us by various companies to save for the retirement. One of the plans offered amongst all of them is the 401(k) which is provided by your employer and a part of your income goes towards savings for your retirement. However, it has been seen that the employees don’t pay proper attention to the amount of money that goes towards their retirement savings and this causes many problems. Given that you are signed up for a 401(k) plan, one should try their best to gain all the knowledge they can of their savings, the 401(k) plan fees and all the aspects involved in the plan.

There is a 401(k) fee disclosure rule made by the Labor’s Department that went into effect in July 2012, which says that the plan administrators are supposed to mail you a quarterly statement which would give you an idea of your investments rate of return, related fees, expenses and any amount which would have been deducted from your corresponding account to cover for administrative expenses.

The 401(k) plan fees fall into three different categories which are plan administration fees (which covers the expenses for day-to-day operations like plan record keeping, accounting, legal and trustee services), investment fees (the largest component which covers the expenses associated with the management of plan investments) and individual service fees.

Although the disclosure forms are supposed to be mailed to each person who has taken up a 401(k) plan, disclosure differs from one record keeper to another. Therefore it is important that you pay special attention to the amount that you are actually paying for the plan and be vigilant. If you can’t find the required details, you can always ask for a fee breakdown from the human resources or employee benefits department of your company.