With all the hidden fees Wall Street and the banks have had the last couple of decades. It is no wonder why the big banks and Wall Street were making such risky investments. In my opinion they had so much money, they just thought they could get away with anything. Well now 401k investors are in for another new awakening. Come November they will learn what fees they are paying in their 401k plan. The sad thing is more than 70 percent of the people who have 401k plans did not even know there was fees attached. That is according to a recent American Association of Retired Persons survey.

It only makes sense that their would be some fees. Someone has to get paid for keeping track of all the accounts and other processing fees. The question will be how many fees there will be that just do not make sense? Fees that are just overcharging people, so these banks and Wall Street can make huge profits. That might have some people nervous come November when the account statements will be received by investors. Of course that is depending on what fees the banks choose to show. Hopefully they will be honorable and show all the fees. The problem is many big banks seem to have a hard time of doing the right thing.

Speaking of doing the right thing, if there are fees that do not make sense. Then maybe these banks should of not charged their investors in the first place for them. I am sure they will have it all covered in the contract in some vague way. Hoping not to many people read every word of their contract. So it will probably will be legal, but still pretty shady in my mind. Of course that is why they make these contracts so long and complicated. That way most people will not be able to understand everything they are being charged for.

People are going to have to look at these plans closely. While some fund companies may break things down on page 1 of their statements, others might choose to put it in the middle or the end. It might be a tactic to try to camouflage some of the fees. The reason people are now getting to see these fees is because of new laws passed by the department of labor. These statements will not look like the ones you have received through out your entire life. These should explain how much you are paying out and how much of your investment you are actually getting back.

So basically it comes down to this people, do the math. Make sure you read these summary statements closely. If you know other family members with the same 401k plans you may want to compare notes. Depending on how well you trust that person. That way you can see if these statements are being consistent. That is an other thing that have many financial people filled with anxiety. That in this brittle economy, people will just cash out all together. I know I did a couple of times in the early 2000's. It just was not adding up for me at the time. Hopefully it will not have to come to that. No one wants to see the economy slip any further, but these people on Wall Street need to understand they cannot be playing with peoples livelihood like this. If most everyone would just look out for each other, then we will all be able to feed our kids at the end of the day.