New Tools Ease 401(k) Cost Comparison for Advisors

By Danielle Andrus

July 24, 2013 at 01:59 PM

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Lincoln Trust on Tuesday launched a free plan comparison tool that allows financial advisors to compare various cost components between different 401(k) plans. Users input data from the plan providers and the tool generates a side-by-side comparison, with a benchmark of other comparable plans.

Users can access the tool at Lincoln Trust's website, but can compare plans from any provider.

"With so many different fees attached to the typical 401(k) provided by mutual fund and insurance companies, it can be difficult to determine the total cost of maintaining a retirement plan," Tom Gonnella, executive vice president for Lincoln Trust, said in a statement. "This tool makes it easier to assess total costs and allows for at-a-glance comparisons of up to three providers."

Also launched Tuesday is a proposal generator where advisors can enter investment information and plan costs and generate a proposal in PDF form that displays the total cost of a plan, including revenue-sharing agreements.

The proposal generator is only available to authorized users.

"The goal of these two state-of-the-art services is to facilitate the delivery of a fully transparent cost analysis for any advisor to access so they can add more value to their clients and prospects than the average 401(k) advisor in the marketplace," Gonnella said. "The initial usage of these tools has far exceeded our expectations and proves there is a real need by advisors to have access to this information to stay relevant."

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