Sponsors of 401(k) plans, 403(b) plans and 457 plans are increasingly aware there can be significant costs impacting their plans and the plan's participants. Although the fees have always been there, and have always been a focus of my work and analyses, in the last couple of years I've found plan sponsors increasingly interested in understanding and controlling the "hidden" or undisclosed fees that are, in fact, the true cost of these benefit programs.

In my last column, I laid out a three-step process for dealing with fees: Find Them. Control Them. Apportion Them. "Finding Them," where we left off, requires knowing what you're looking for. That's where we start today.

"Hard Dollar Fees," which are billed directly to the plan or sponsor, are the easiest to figure out and, really, aren't "hidden" at all so we won't spend time on them except to point out some "hard dollar fees" that, in my opinion, shouldn't exist except in the rarest and most limited circumstances: Front-End Sales Loads and Contingent Deferred Sales Charges (CDSCs) on mutual funds or other variable investment vehicles.

It isn't that I don't understand and appreciate the reasoning behind these fees. I do. At the risk of offending some well- and not-so-well meaning people, let me say that, as far as front-end loads and CDSCs are concerned, the long-term, accumulative nature of 401(k), 403(b) and 457 plans allows a properly motivated broker, consultant, advisor, (these fees are tied directly to compensation of an intermediary) to be adequately compensated over time for providing appropriate direction and service to even a small, start-up plan.