Average Expense for 401(k) Plans.

[Guest Thornton]

I am looking for the average expense nationally for 401(k) administrative and investment services. Does anyone know where such statistics might be?

[Guest consultant]

That is a pretty vague question when talking about expense. Are you talking about billed expenses, deducted expenses, operating expenses? Are you taking into consideration the mutual fund revenue share, sub t/a's etc. I attended a recent conference that which several high ranking DOL officials spoke. They addressed participant expense and when asked for an opinion, I said we are always below 2% in overall cost. The DOL said that their opinion is that participant expenses should be 1.50% or less.

Email me direct if you have any questions.

[Guest UKH]

You may want to check out this web link. It will answer a lot of your questions.

http://www.401k-fees.com/fee-comparisons.html

[GBurns]

There was a very large study done on 401(k) fees by the PWBA on the subject. If you visit the DOL website the PWBA section has the results along with 2 guides, 1 for employees and 1 for employers.

[david rigby]

See this (PDF - 72 pages).

Also see http://www.dol.gov/dol/pwba/public/pubs/401kfe~1.htm and

http://www.dol.gov/dol/pwba/public/pubs/401kt799.htm and

http://www.dol.gov/dol/pwba/public/pubs/401kt799.htm

[Jon Chambers]

HR Investment Consultants maintains some useful survey data, for plans of various different sizes. Their address is:

http://www.401ksource.com/