IMHO: “Free” Ride?

Honestly, I was more than a little skeptical about paying to rent movies while spending most of the month waiting for the mail carrier to shuffle things back and forth. 

Those fears (along with concerns drawn from early stories about people being sent movies at the bottom of their list, rather than the newer, hotter releases) have turned out to be mostly a non-issue.  More recently, I “discovered” the firm’s online library of free movies—and while I would say that most of them SHOULD be free (some you should be paid to sit through), I have enjoyed having that “extra” feature.  Sure, there were times when the Internet delivery speed wasn’t optimal, or when a movie would time out a third of the way through, but heck, it was free. 

Until, of course, NetFlix announced its recent change in pricing policy, a change that would cut the cost of the traditional movie rental service, but that would charge—and charge just as much—for the online movie library.  Overnight transforming what had been a nice, free, additional service into—well, a pricey, sometimes erratic, delivery system of older, “b” movies.  In short order, my willingness to calmly accept certain service “glitches” associated with a “free” service—well, let’s just say I have completely different expectations when I have to pay for it.

The retirement plan industry has long wondered—and worried—what participants would do if they knew how much they were paying for their 401(k)s.  Despite the fact that most of those fees have long been disclosed in fund prospectuses, we’re generally inclined to think that most participants haven’t actually read those disclosures—and those who have probably didn’t understand them.  That’s all supposed to change—or at least begin changing—with the participant-level fee disclosures slated to take hold next year.

Personally—and I know I’ll get some pushback on this—I’m disinclined to think it will make a big difference.  After all, if there’s one thing that participants have demonstrated over the years it’s a strong and consistent propensity to gloss over (if not glaze over) big, complicated, legalistic disclosures.  It doesn’t help that retirement plan fee calculations have become complicated structures, imbedded inside the net asset value of mutual funds, with revenue-sharing offsets of varying amounts (see “IMHO:  Out of Proportion”), and most expressed in participant-unfriendly terms like “basis points,” or worse—“bips.” 

I’m not optimistic about the new regulated disclosures—too much data, and not enough information, IMHO.  That said, there are some new disclosures coming to market from the provider community ahead of those regulations that, IMHO, might actually help participants see—and understand—what they’re paying.   

Of course, for most, the concern is not that participants will now know how much they are paying—but that some may, perhaps for the first time, realize that they ARE paying.¹

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¹Consider that a survey published earlier this year by AARP indicated that only a quarter of 401(k) participants realize they are paying fees (see “Most 401(k) Participants Not Aware of Fees They Pay”).