Indeed, Spectrem research shows 54% of plan sponsors do not know how much they pay in broker/advisor compensation. Some 35% of those surveyed say they pay as much as 25 basis points of their plan assets, 10% pay 26 to 50 basis points and 1% pay more than 50 basis points.

Most likely to be aware of the amount of broker/advisor compensation are sponsors that have at least 1,000 participants or $50 million of assets, sponsors that use an outside consultant and sponsors that have switched plan providers or issued a request for proposals in the past two years.

Sponsors that are curious about the fees they pay are most likely to seek answers from provider representatives (43%), followed by the advisor who sold them the plan (22%), outside consultants (16%) or third-party administrators (13%). The remaining 6% rely on other sources or find the answers on their own.

Because a significant number of plan sponsors rely on disclosures provided by plan providers, this information must be provided in a manner that is easy for plan sponsors to understand.

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