401k... Requirement for Annual Informational Meeting? (fund, cash, fee, investment)

[Ultrarunner]

Are company 401k's required to provide a yearly question and answer session for employees?

The reason I ask is each year the company I work for would have an annual open meeting given by the outside administrator describing the plan, options and any changes... it has been this way for 15 years until two years ago.

I've been told conflicting statements and the current plan outside administrator said they are no longer making annual visits and my employer instituted a new policy stating employees can only meet with the plan representative individually and not on company premises...

The employer match was suspended indefinitely around the same time as the new policy went into effect... no more 25% match of the first 4% of employee contributions

[chet everett]

I do not believe there is any such requirement. The basis for these sessions was NOT legislative / regulatory, but driven by the desire of the investment company to do some goodwill building and prospecting for clients that might be interested in a broader range of offerings AND the HR/employer's desire to get people to appreciate what a nice benefit the plan is.

Sucks that the match is gone!

I suspect that management quashed the annual meeting to put the sting of the elimination of the match in the " out of sight / out of mind" category -- obviously THAT did not work out as planned. They also foolishly thought dropping the visit would be one less 'productivity wasting' employee meeting. I bet NOW more folks than ever are chatting about ways to up the performance of their retirement savings...

[Ultrarunner]

Originally Posted by chet everett

I do not believe there is any such requirement. The basis for these sessions was NOT legislative / regulatory, but driven by the desire of the investment company to do some goodwill building and prospecting for clients that might be interested in a broader range of offerings AND the HR/employer's desire to get people to appreciate what a nice benefit the plan is.

Sucks that the match is gone!

I suspect that management quashed the annual meeting to put the sting of the elimination of the match in the " out of sight / out of mind" category -- obviously THAT did not work out as planned. They also foolishly thought dropping the visit would be one less 'productivity wasting' employee meeting. I bet NOW more folks than ever are chatting about ways to up the performance of their retirement savings...

Thanks for the lightning response

Actually, everyone has been talking a lot about the company 401k since last December... we get quarterly statements and December was a shocker...

I'd say at least half have stopped all contributions with maybe a third moving to the cash money fund... that was not advertised anywhere unless you called the company and asked for it and many did once word got out.

None of the few new hires in the last 9 months have signed up... In the past the plan would schedule a one on one meeting to go over the plan and retirement goals...

The CEO said she is very disappointed because the outside administrator through one of the local banks informed management that a new fee is going into effect because contributions have fallen and over portfolio value had fallen. It was down over 40% company wide.

Any inquiry is addressed by instructing the employee to log onto the Hartford Website and everything they need know is there...

[chet everett]

Man I completely feel for you. I work in a tangentially related field, and I know that 'water cooler talk' is centered on some strategies. Fortunately our plan is very flexible and there are many ways to increase returns with relative ease. Another colleage whose role is similar to mine is up about 30% YTD, mostly becuase he loaded up on company stock as it bottomed. Though it is still WAY off its peaks it has recovered nicely. He feels a little bad that he did not shift more into that strategy, but we remind each other that investing and gambling have very different motivations...