Using Labels and Receipts to Make Retirement Investments More Transparent

If investors are able to more easily understand whether their fund choices are high cost or low cost, they will likely pay much closer attention to fees.

Part of a Series

Idea of the Day

Idea of the Day

Of any single financial decision that workers can make, few choices have as big an effect on their overall quality of life as how they choose to invest their retirement savings. Yet American investors do not have enough usable information to make an informed decision. Directly providing investors with easy-to-use retirement labels and retirement receipts could save American families an additional $17 billion per year.

If policymakers are serious about helping the American middle class, they need to give investors information that they can actually use. That is why CAP previously proposed a retirement label that would provide a more visible, effective disclosure of fund fees to those saving for retirement. This nutrition-style label would be placed on all fund materials—whether online or on paper—and would be visible whenever individuals are choosing retirement options, including when new employees set up a 401(k)-style plan or if they roll those assets into an IRA.

For more on this idea, please see:

Retirement Labels and Retirement Receipts Could Save American Investors Billions Each Year by Jennifer Erickson and David Madland

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