Retirement savers are having difficulty finding out how much they are paying in 401(k) fees. Most employers (67 percent) think that workers have a clear understanding of the fees associated with their retirement plan, according to a Harris Interactive and Transamerica Center for Retirement Studies survey of 3,598 workers and 601 executives who make decisions about company benefits at for-profit companies. But over half of employees (55 percent) say they are not aware of any fees associated with their company’s retirement plan.
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Most workers (66 percent) say they don’t know as much as they should about retirement investing, the survey found. Employees generally claim to have some knowledge about how to allocate their retirement investments (45 percent). But over a quarter (27 percent) of 401(k) participants admit that they have no knowledge about how to invest their retirement savings and just 6 percent state they know a great deal about proper 401(k) investments.
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When asked to determine how much money is necessary for financial security in retirement about half (49 percent) of workers say they guessed the correct amount. A quarter of workers estimated a number based on current living expenses and 10 percent did a calculation based on a worksheet.
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The most popular place for workers to learn about investing is financial websites such as Yahoo! Finance and Morningstar (35 percent), the survey found. Other trusted sources of retirement information are friends and family (30 percent), a retirement plan provider web site (28 percent), a financial planner or broker (27 percent), and print newspapers and magazines (26 percent).
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