401(k) Advisors
Fee benchmarking
PGW Financial helps employers evaluate retirement plan fees, investment expenses, and service providers to identify potential savings and opportunities for improvement. Actual savings depend on each plan’s circumstances.
Discover Opportunities to Reduce Your 401(k) Plan Costs
A review may identify potential savings, service improvements or reasons to keep the current arrangement. No cost reduction is promised.
Reading the disclosures
Plan fees are easy to overlook and hard to compare. Benchmarking puts your plan’s disclosed costs beside reference points so you can ask better questions.
Fees can be charged inside investments, billed to the plan, or deducted from participant accounts. A benchmarking exercise starts by listing every disclosed charge and who receives it.
Making a fair comparison
Plans differ by size, services bundled, and features. A useful comparison matches like with like, and notes what is and is not included.
The point is a documented, reasoned look at cost and value. Cost is one factor among several, alongside service quality and investment features.
What happens next
Some reviews end with “no change.” Others lead to questions for the current provider or a request for proposals. Either outcome is the sponsor’s decision.
A provider review, repricing request or proposed change does not guarantee savings. Consider the services, investment expenses, transition costs and any applicable contract terms before deciding whether a change would benefit the plan.
Questions worth asking
- 01Do we know every fee the plan and participants pay?
- 02What services does the recordkeeper fee actually cover?
- 03Are any investments available in a different share class?
- 04When did we last ask our providers to explain their fees?
Limits and risks
Benchmarking does not promise lower fees or better outcomes. Reference data varies and any comparison is a judgment, not a measurement of a single correct price.
PGW’s investment advisory role
PGW Financial LLC offers ERISA Section 3(21) investment advisory fiduciary services only. PGW provides fiduciary investment advice and recommendations; the plan sponsor or other authorized plan fiduciaries retain decision-making authority for plan investments. PGW does not provide ERISA Section 3(38) discretionary investment management. Specific responsibilities are defined by the written engagement.
Related article: Reading your 401(k) fee disclosures
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