Total costs of an employee retirement plan can be very difficult to pin down. There aren’t any hard and fast rules, and vendors charge individual fees for everything from the written plan document to the withdrawal of funds. And of course, any matching funds you contribute are an additional cost to anything listed here. If you want to see actual examples of what other BuyerZone users paid for employee retirement plans, check out our real-world employee retirement plan pricing article.

401k pricing
In general, expect to spend $5,000 to $10,000 annually for a 401k plan. These costs will vary based on the number of employees you have, the types of services you require, and the assets invested. Here's a breakdown of the primary costs:

• Set up fees can be $500 to $3,000, depending on the number of employees and the investment options you provide.
• Annual administrative fees for companies with under $1M in total assets can be $800 plus an additional quarterly charge of $15 to $40 per participant. Larger companies will pay a higher annual fee but lower per-participant costs.
• Discrimination testing can cost $800 to $2,500, if it’s not factored in with your annual fees.

Pricing for other plans
If the costs for traditional 401k plans seem overwhelming, consider a SIMPLE 401k or the various IRA options. They are less expensive and require little to no administration or compliance testing, but are subject to the limitations (discussed in IRAs and other retirement plans.)

• A solo 401k plan can cost as little as $40 to $200 per year, plus annual management fees of 1% to 1.5% of assets.
• A SIMPLE 401k will run you about $400 to $1,000 annually, with an additional charge of $20 to $50 per participant. Also add administrative services at an hourly rate of $100 to $150.

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• Set-up fees for SIMPLE-IRA or SEP IRA plans can be as low as $20 to $50 per employee, with annual administrative and record-keeping fees ranging anywhere from $0 to $1,000.
• Profit-sharing (KEOGH) plans have administrative fees similar to standard 401k plans. The key difference is the required cost of a reporting service which accounts for $1,000 to $2,000 of the total costs.

Other fees that may apply to all types of plans include $800 to $1,500 to rollover assets from a pre-existing plan, $100 to $250 per hour for consulting or investment advice, and small fees (0.25% to 1%) for selling and transferring funds. You can pass some of these fees on to employees, but if they’re relatively small – $10 or less per participant – it looks a lot better if you just pick them up. Almost all companies require employees to pay if they take out a loan for a 401k plan, typically $30 to $75 to process the paperwork and distribute checks.

Most vendors will waive some of these fees for the largest accounts – the more assets you commit to their management, the more of a break you’ll get.