Discrimination testing has governed 401(k) plans for more than 50 years, yet there is little evidence that it improves outcomes for non-highly compensated employees. At the same time, plan design features like auto-enrollment and escalation have proven effective in increasing participation. If the goal is better outcomes, it may be time to reconsider whether compliance testing is the right tool.

Most plan sponsors don't know who their advisor is, mainly because the advisor often makes little or no effort to reach out and nothing in the 401(k) system ever tells them. No bill arrives, no name appears, and when personnel change the relationship drifts quietly into the background while the fee runs on. A simple invoice with a service description would fix most of that.

Average plaintiff attorney fees in ERISA settlements ran $1.59 million per case in 2025. Participants received a median of $67.79. That disparity tells only part of the story — the plans being sued already have the lowest fees in the market, while the plans with genuinely excessive fees are too small to attract a plaintiff attorney. The workers who need protection most are the ones the system never reaches.

A Field Assistance Bulletin from EBSA — requiring no legislation, no rulemaking, and no new systems — could create for the first time the conditions for a functioning market in 401(k) plan services for small businesses. This post explains what a FAB is, why small plans are most harmed by fee opacity, and what four specific guidance points would change the industry without imposing a single new mandate.

Every law firm and legal organization in the country is eligible for a retirement plan program that enables participants to eliminate advisory, recordkeeping, administration, and custodial fees from participant accounts entirely. For a typical 10-participant plan paying $15,000 in annual service fees, that translates to $1.4 million in additional plan assets over 30 years. Most legal organizations have never heard of it.

A 17-year analysis of 6,000 plans reveals why fee disclosure failed — and what actually creates market pressure.

An accounting firm with just 10 participants in 2015 and 20 in 2024 paid steadily rising 401(k) fees for years in a way that forfeited a basic tax deduction, revealing a much bigger problem in the system.