S04E171 Hidden Fees That Are Hurting Your 401(k) with Paul Sippil

Your law firm may be bleeding retirement dollars without a single obvious warning sign. No invoice. No line item in your operating expenses. Just quiet, recurring 401(k) fees pulled from participant accounts month after month, year after year. I’m joined by forensic 401(k) consultant Paul Sippil, who has spent 17 years analyzing public retirement plan filings and documenting what he believes are widespread excessive charges hiding in plain sight.

We dig into the “irony problem” that hits professional services especially hard: partners often hold the biggest balances, and many plans allocate fees in proportion to assets, meaning the people running the plan can end up paying the most, personally, using non-deductible dollars inside tax-advantaged accounts. Paul explains why standard fee disclosures (including 408(b)(2) and 404a-5) still leave sponsors confused, how the lack of a true invoice kills normal price pressure, and what services you’re actually paying for across recordkeeping, administration, custody, and advisory fees.

We also get concrete about what to do next: where to look on Form 5500 for aggregated plan charges, how and when fees are negotiable, why asset-based pricing can become brutal as plan assets grow, and how certain structures including the American Bar Association retirement program options may help firms reduce revenue sharing and recurring service costs.

Reach Paul here:
https://www.paulsippil.com/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/paul-sippil-5141a47
https://youtube.com/@paulsippil

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Leadership In Law Podcast with host, Marilyn Jenkins