By CHRIS FREEMAN - cfreeman@shawmedia.com

By this summer, companies and employees will be able to find out more information on their employer-based retirement plans than ever before.

New regulations from the Department of Labor are going to require employers and retirement plan providers to determine whether the money paid to retirement plan servicers is reasonable and to disclose the feeds that are being charged by the servicer.

And that could provide transparency that the industry has not seen on a grand scale before, said Clear Financial Strategies Global Wealth Manager Allen Bronton.

[The new rules] say corporations must gather what the fees are for the retirement plan, and its their responsibility to do it, not the plan providers, Bronton said. Once they have the information, they have to be able to make a decision on what the participants are paying, and whether thats reasonable for the service they receive.

The final rule implementation has been pushed back by the Labor Department to July 1, and all companies must be in compliance with the regulations by that date.

The common-sense rule that we are finalizing today will shed light on the true costs of 401(k) accounts and ultimately reward those working hard and saving for retirement, Labor Secretary Hilda L. Solis said in a news release last month. This rule, and its companion participant-level fee disclosure rule, will greatly increase the level of transparency in retirement plans.

When businesses that sponsor retirement plans, and the workers who participate in those plans, get better information on associated fees and expenses, theyll be able to shop around and make informed decisions that will lead to cost savings and a larger nest egg at retirement.

The three most common fees that plans charge that generally are not announced, Bronton said, are the 12(b)-1 fee, the Shareholder Service fee, and the Sub-TA fee.

The 12(b)-1 fee covers cost for advertising, marketing, and distribution of the plan. For larger companies such as Fidelity or Morningstar, that would cover the cost of promoting the plan inside and outside the workplace.

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Retirement plan fees in focus