The Frugal Fiduciary Small Business 401(k) Blog
Get the latest industry news, deadlines and tips you need to know to help tackle your fiduciary responsibility needs.

Plan re-enrollment: The “Wonder Drug” for your company’s retirement plan. It’s cheap, simple and benefits sponsors and employees.

By: Greg Carpenter
August 7th 2014
Plan re-enrollment can be effective putting your small business retirement plan back on track to success. cheap and simple to implement.
Read More

Former Obama administration official offers a plan to “fix” the tax incentives for retirement plans. Here is why it is dead wrong.

By: Greg Carpenter
July 30th 2014
Prominent politico offers a plan for getting more people to save for retirement. Here’s why I disagree. Change tax laws, not 401k rules for retirement plans
Read More

In small business retirement plans, the employees with the smallest balances need the most help. Here’s my frugal guide to making the plan work for everyone in your organization.

By: Greg Carpenter
July 24th 2014
Making small business retirement plans work for the employees on the shop floor.
Read More

Revenue sharing is on the decline in 401(k) plans. Three reasons why it will soon be gone altogether.

By: Greg Carpenter
July 16th 2014
Revenue sharing is the practice of adding additional non-investment related fees to the expense ratio of a mutual fund. The investors don’t see the fees being deducted.
Read More

GAO suggests changes to the Form 5500 to promote clarity and consistency. We agree.

By: Greg Carpenter
July 10th 2014
401k service providers dislike Form 5500 because completing the form for clients is like playing a game of Twister. Form 5500 fee disclosures are not consistent with others.
Read More

Low-cost target date index funds will fundamentally reshape the market for small business retirement plans – and soon!

By: Greg Carpenter
June 25th 2014
Target date index funds (TDIFs) are universally available. TDIFs are cheap to own and trade. There are few or no restrictions on redemptions.
Read More

Wall Street Journal article proposes sweeping changes to improve small business retirement plans – including simplifying fee disclosures and requiring index funds. Here’s our analysis.

By: Greg Carpenter
June 20th 2014
Employee Fiduciary breaks down Anna Prior, WSJ.com article (“How to Fix the 401(k)”) and the five reforms she recommends for small business retirement plans
Read More

Employee Fiduciary Announces Free 401(k) Fee Comparison Service

By: Greg Carpenter
June 5th 2014
Employee Fiduciary now offers a free 401(k) Fee Comparison Service. Employee Fiduciary wants to level the playing field on price, value, and service.
Read More

Indirect compensation in small business retirement plans made a lot of sense in 1980. So did leisure suits. It’s time to move on.

By: Greg Carpenter
June 5th 2014
There is no longer a market efficiency argument for indirect compensation. Indirect compensation arrangements are now the primary means of 401k fee obfuscation
Read More

Small business 401(k) participants using their 401(k) plans to save for retirement (!) Part 3 of 3

By: Greg Carpenter
May 23rd 2014
Polling our small business 401k plan clients: The frugal cutting edge in small business 401k investing is changing.
Read More