For a number of years, the Department of Labor has been concerned about the amount of fees and expenses charged to tax-deferred retirement plans and the transparency of fee and expense information available to plan fiduciaries and plan participants to assess their reasonableness and effect on investment return. In response, the Department commenced three separate initiatives to improve the transparency of fee and expense information. In this Benefits Brief, we will provide a general overview of the second of those initiatives--regulations requiring service providers to defined benefit plans and defined contribution plans (like profit sharing and 401(k) plans) to provide detailed fee and expense information to the plan’s fiduciaries.

This Benefits Brief is a complete update of our July 2011 Benefits Brief on this subject to reflect final Department of Labor regulations issued in February, 2012.