Our 401K plans will require cost disclosure details by 2012

This is long overdue.

Employer-sponsored 401(k) retirement plans will have to disclose fees that savers pay on investments and transactions by 2012, the U.S. Department of Labor said.

“Participants will be able to understand the dramatic effect fees play in the returns that they get,” Assistant Secretary of Labor Phyllis Borzi said in a conference call today.

The regulations, which will apply to the plans by Jan. 1, 2012, will require companies to provide investors information on administrative and investment fees charged to their accounts in their quarterly statements, the Labor Department said.