Would you like some investment help with that 401(k)?

A growing number of employers are adding unbiased third-party investment guidance options as they work to improve their retirement plans. The advice can add to your investment costs, but it’s coming from the best type of planner: independent advisers who have the fiduciary responsibility to put client interests first.

Most of us could use the help. Surveys show far too many workplace retirement savers “set it and forget it” – failing to bump up annual contribution rates, and rebalance or match investment allocations to their ages.

A Deloitte Center for Financial Services study released on Thursday reflects deep pessimism about retirement prospects. It shows 58 percent of Americans don’t have a retirement plan, and 39 percent don’t think their returns will be sufficient to provide “decent retirement income.”

Yet most also reject help of any sort: a Deloitte Center for Financial Services study found that 57 percent prefer handling their own retirement planning, and 38 percent said they don’t need professional advice.

Several innovative 401(k) products are nonetheless pushing ahead with advice components. They are aimed at driving down plan costs by focusing heavily on index mutual funds, which seek to replicate the movements of a specific financial market or asset class and tend to have lower management fees as a result. Some of the savings are plowed back into investment advice.

Learn more in my column today at Reuters Money.

Tags | 401(k), planning, Reuters