10 Ways Your 401(k) Can Fail You
BOSTON (TheStreet) -- A quick way for any website or publication to grab eyeballs is to either predict the demise of 401(k) plans or lament their shortcomings.
The doom and gloom isn't entirely unwarranted. Intended as an alternative to traditional pensions, 401(k)s have offered both success and failure to investors. Some of those failings are self-inflicted by investors -- not saving enough, taking loans and hardship withdrawals. The more than $1 trillion lost to the market collapse of 2007-08, however, was an unavoidable disaster, especially for those nearing retirement.
We took a look at some of the ways 401(k)s, by design -- though not necessarily intent -- can fail you:
More Headlines
1. Fees
A quality retirement plan doesn't come cheap. There are administration, compliance, recordkeeping and other costs to pay for -- not to mention the fees all those mutual funds entail.
In some cases, you may get what you pay for. A top-performing, actively managed fund may be worth every extra basis point. The problem is that the average 401(k) participant has no point of reference for these extra costs. To make a comparison, someone who knows nothing about automobiles might never know $15 is far too much to pay for a spark plug.
Throughout the year, new federal regulations will provide participants with detailed information on what these fees are and what they are used for, but it will take time for many to grasp which fees are reasonable. Many, unfortunately, may not even try to evaluate these added costs, just as they have never dug into their Form 5500 in the past.
That's a shame, because your savings can take a severe hit. An employee with 35 years until retirement and a 401(k) account balance of $25,000 is offered by the Department of Labor as an example. If returns on investments average 7% and fees and expenses reduce average returns by 0.5%, the account balance will grow to $227,000 at retirement, even with no further contributions. If fees and expenses are 1.5%, the balance will grow to only $163,000, a 28% drop.
