An ideal menu should let you tap into a number of mutual-fund families, a GIC, and company stock. But more than 60 percent of all companies don't offer that many, he adds. An ideal plan, says Mr. McCarthy, should let you buy individual stocks and bonds through a brokerage house, and provide access to financial planners - often through the Internet. Few employees bother to find out how much their fund administrator charges or how fees are assessed. Experts say fees should generally not be more than 3 percent of assets, if not lower.
Institutional funds have substantially lower costs because of their large asset base.
Not all workers can participate in a plan. While some 96 percent of large companies offer them, small firms tend not to have them. Only about 13 percent of firms with 100 or fewer employees offer them. Even those firms with retirement plans sometimes make new employees wait as long as one year before letting them join. Long delays can also occur when a firm is taken over by another firm and a plan is switched to the new employer's plan.