The Government Accounting Office (GAO) recently released a study, 401(k) plans: Improved regulation could better protect participants from conflicts of interest. As you can guess from the title, the study examines the independence of advice provided to plan participants and plan sponsors and considers how conflicts of interest might affect the advice provided to sponsors and participants.

The study references a white paper I wrote several years ago that is worth revisiting. The paper looks at 401(k) fees and poses key questions for plan sponsors: What is being paid for record-keeping? Are you getting the best price for mutual funds? And who is paying for what?