In the next several weeks, sponsors of 401(k) and other individual account plans will learn some surprising news from their service providers: the plans are being charged a variety of fees – some to individual participants, some to the plan overall. Many of the fees have been hard to discern; some might even say intentionally obscured. But now, as part of the Department of Labor’s effort to clarify these fees, plan sponsors will be receiving greetings from their service providers that will inform them about how much the plan is truly paying.

Now the bad news. Plan participants likely believe their plan is free, at least to them. The final push in the DOL’s efforts is a requirement that plan administrators provide detailed fee information to the participants. Failure to do so, at the times and in the manner proscribed by the DOL, may result in a breach of fiduciary duty by the plan administrator. Fiduciaries can be held personally liable for breaching their duties, up to and including fines, fees and even jail time.

In a poll we ran last week, BLR found that roughly 1/3 of respondents say they are unconcerned about the impending fee disclosures. We hope that is because they have prepared themselves and their participants ahead of time. The 51 percent of respondents who report being very concerned or somewhat concerned are, we hope, planning to take some action soon. As for the 17 percent who have not yet heard about the fee disclosure requirements, it isn’t too late. Stay tuned; as your HR resource, BLR is here to help.