Congress Introduces Legislation on 401(k) Fees

401(k) fees have been widely criticized in the press and the courtrooms. In late July, Representative George Miller (Democrat, California) introduced the 401(k) Fair Disclosure for Retirement Security Act of 2007 ("Miller Bill") which would require specific disclosures regarding the fees paid directly and indirectly from retirement plan assets. In addition to detailed fee disclosures, service providers would be required to advise plan sponsors of any potential conflicts of interest that the service providers have, including financial relationships with others and the use of proprietary funds. The plan sponsor would then be required to disclose these potential conflicts to plan participants. Furthermore, self-directed 401(k) plans would be required to offer a low-cost balanced index fund as an investment alternative.

Click here to read or print this article.