In this weekend’s Your Money column, I explain who really pays for 401(k) plans. (That would be you.) And I also explain who truly understands how the money flows. (That would be pretty much no one.)

But before we go there, let us stop to let off some steam. Wouldn’t life be so much less complicated if 401(k) and similar plans just went away, and employers contributed any matching amounts that they currently pay to your Individual Retirement Account?

We could adjust contribution limits and tax rules accordingly. And the result would be that everyone would have just one account, they could invest in whatever they wanted and they wouldn’t have to worry about somebody in H.R. or finance making a decision that kept them from cheaper or higher performing funds.

O.K., back to reality.

So who among you has actually tried to investigate how your 401(k) or similar plan is paid for? And if you didn’t like what you found, did you have any luck trying to fix it?

Article source: http://feeds.nytimes.com/click.phdo?i=4752671058c84beaa94168abd8f36b8f