What's 'Eating' 401(k) Haters?
Another week, another Bloomberg op-ed bashing 401(k)s—but this time the target is fees—and advisors. The most recent “shot” is found in an article [i] titled “ 401(k) Fees Are Eating Your Retirement Savings .” The author, one Ethan Schwartz, [ii] without citation (beyond “various estimates”), tosses out claims as to the “average” fees in 401(k)s (and we know the value of “average” in such matters), states that those fees are “much higher” for then claims to know of “annual expenses well under 0.1%, and often near zero, offered by widely available stock and bond index funds and ETFs in many flavors and stripes outside of 401(k)s”—and then does the math to show how much it all adds to individually, and then he extrapolates it to the whole universe of 401(k) savers to assert that “more than $20 billion annually” is being “taken” from the nest eggs of retirement savers. Better still, he cites the example of a “close friend” who asked for his help—only to find ...