Each dot in the figure represents one of the approximately 3500 retirement plans (analyzed in our papers here and here). Together these plans invest about $120 billion. The vertical axis measures (in terms of risk-equivalent percent returns) the annual losses from plan investments charging higher fees than funds that are available in the market for even quite small plans (for example from Employee Fiduciary LLP or Vanguard’s small business 401(k) program). The horizontal axis measures (also in terms of risk-equivalent percent returns) the annual losses from plans failing to adequately diversify. The blue dots indicate the average results for different size plans.

From this single picture, one can see that:

• For most plans, excess fees are a larger problem than diversification loss—the scatter skews up and left of the 45-degree line;
• The vast majority of plans have combined fee and diversification losses of more 100 basis; points, and a majority (about 52%) of plans have combined annual losses of more than 150 basis points;
• Larger plans are lower cost, but even very large plans have average combined losses well in excess of 100 basis points; and,
• For smaller plans, a larger the percentage of the losses can be attributed to excess fees.