A Rule We Can Certainly Live With

I just received my my latest 401k quarterly statement and the following was printed on the front.  Is this what they mean by “job killing government regulations?”  (If so, bring them on!)

“Beginning August 30, the Department of Labor requires fees to be consistently disclosed to all eligible employees, participants and beneficiaries of retirement plans subject to the Employee Retirement Income Security Act. As a result, statements have been enhanced to display more details about retirement plan fees. Now it may be easier for you to compare fees to overall value.  There are no new fees as a result of the new regulations – just new ways of showing fees that already exist.”

Background: The Department of Labor’s Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA) released the final rule in February 2012 to give workers uniform, comparable and understandable information about costs and fees of their plan so they can better manage their retirement investments. The transparency requirements impact 72 million workers that participate in 401k-type retirement plans.

(This post first appeared on the Cry Wolf Project site and is reposted here by permission.)