Frequently Asked Questions

Information is gathered and sourced from a blend of provider fee schedules and documents, responses to requests for proposal, 5500 filings, subscriber data, and fee disclosure forms.

Data has been updated through September 30, 2024.

The providers contained within the 401k Averages Book database are not disclosed.   This database encompasses an extensive array of providers and products, which includes some of the most prominent and well known offerings available in the market.

A “provider” is the mutual fund company, insurance company, etc. providing the 401(k) service offering to the marketplace. The “product” is the offering made available, by the “provider” to the marketplace. A “provider” might offer multiple “products”, such as a large market product, mid-market product and small market product.

The 401k Averages Book database does not consist of “plan” data but instead is made up of “products”. See Questions 1, 2 and 5 for more information.

These totals include the sponsor’s portion and the expenses passed on to the participant.  Total includes all fees specified in the investment and recordkeeping administation terms.  However, it does not include participant initiated transactions such as loans, withdrawals or other forms of distributions, not does it include plan audit and legal fees.

The product universe is organized by arranging products according to their expenses, ranging from the most costly to the least expensive.  Subsequently, this universe is subdivided into four equal segments, referred to as quartiles.   Each quartile encompasses 25% of all the products in the universe and is distinguished by a unique color in the cart.

The term “investment” represents asset based charges applied to plan assets.  However, asset based recordkeeping fees are exempt from this classification for particular products.  To the extent that investment management fees, fund expense ratios, 12b-1 fees, sub-transfer agent fees, contract charges, wrap and advisor fees or any other asset based charges are a part of a particular product in the database they are included in the investment expense of that product.

When denoted with one asterisk, recordkeeping administration represents hard dollar and asset based fees for recordkeeping administration services.  To the extent that testing, 5500 form preparation, non-discretionary trustee, communications and document preparation or any other recordkeeping administrative services are part of a particular product in the database they are included. 

When denoted by two asterisks, recordkeeping administration encompasses all the fees specified above.  Additionally, when applicable, it incorporates an allocation of fees paid from revenue sharing.  Therefore, by extention the average calculation for “recordkeeping administration**” encompasses both hard dollar and asset based recordkeeping fees and any allocations to recordkeeping from revenue sharing.

Participant initiated transactions such as loans, distributions and QDRO’s are excluded in all cases.

The asset allocation for each scenario is; 44% Large Equity, 10% Stable Value, 7% International Equity, 8% Fixed Income, 31% Balanced/Target Date. The Balanced/ Target Date allocation represents the average of the Balanced and Target Date investment options.

All data in the book represents the “Average” costs for the universe, except for the Investment and Total Bundled Cost Quartile Chart which illustrates the “Median” costs for the universe.

The definition for both terms is as follows:

Average: Also known as Mean, is the sum of the values in the universe divided by the number of values in the universe.

Median: The median is the middle number of the distribution: half the numbers are above the median and half are below the median.

If the answer to your question is not found in this section, please submit your questions using the form.