Advice through your workplace 401(k) is usually cheap or free and covers the plan: which funds to use and how much to save. Some plans add a managed account, where a provider runs your 401(k) for an extra fee; when the GAO looked, that fee ranged from $8 to $100 a year per $10,000 in the account. An independent fee-only advisor covers the rest of your money too, for a median $300 an hour, $2,000 for a one-time plan or $4,500 a year ongoing. Use what your plan offers while the 401(k) is your main account. Add an independent advisor when your money spreads out, when retirement gets close, or when someone suggests a rollover.
Three kinds of help at work
“Advice in my 401(k)” can mean three different things, and only one of them is personal advice.
Education and tools. Retirement calculators, articles, model portfolios for hypothetical investors and call-center help with how the plan works. Under the Labor Department’s long-standing guidance, these “will not constitute the rendering of ‘investment advice.’” Useful, but no one is responsible for whether it fits you.
Managed account advice. A provider, chosen by your employer, sets your investment mix and often your savings rate, and manages the account for a fee. In Vanguard’s 2026 report, 46% of its plans offered managed account advice in 2025, and 77% of participants had access. Only 9% of those offered it signed up.
The plan’s own advisor. An employer may hire an advisor to help pick and monitor the plan’s investment menu, as a 3(21) fiduciary who recommends or a 3(38) fiduciary who decides. That advisor’s client is the plan. They may hold employee meetings, but they aren’t your personal planner unless you hire them separately.
The short version
| Workplace 401(k) advice | Independent fee-only advisor | |
|---|---|---|
| Who chose them | Your employer | You |
| What it covers | The plan: fund choice, savings rate, sometimes a retirement estimate | Everything: all accounts, taxes, insurance, estate, withdrawals |
| Cost | Often free; managed accounts add a fee on the balance | A median $300 an hour, $2,000 per plan or $4,500 a year |
| Sees your other accounts | Only what you enter, if the tool allows it | Yes, from your statements and tax return |
| When you leave the job | Usually ends, or turns into a rollover offer | Continues |
| Rollover advice | May come from someone who earns more if you roll over | From someone paid the same either way, if hourly or flat |
What each costs
Education and tools don’t usually come with a separate charge. Managed accounts cost extra, charged as a percentage of the balance. The GAO’s 2014 review is the most complete public look at those fees: from $8 to $100 a year on every $10,000, and it found the fees could offset the gains from better diversification over time. Prices have changed since, so check your own plan.
The rows are worked from the GAO’s range ($8 and $100 per $10,000) and our fee medians (three hours at $300). They aren’t the same service. A managed account runs the 401(k) for you; a planner advises on everything and leaves the trades to you or another manager. The useful comparison is the question you need answered and who’s best placed to answer it.
To find what you pay now, your plan must give you a chart of its investments before you first invest and at least once a year, with each fund’s yearly expenses as a percentage and in dollars per $1,000 invested. Your quarterly statement must show the fees actually taken from your account. Fees taken inside the funds don’t appear there, which is why the yearly chart matters.
When workplace advice is enough
- The 401(k) is most of your savings, and your questions are about which funds and how much to save.
- You’re early in your career and your employer offers a match. Capturing it matters more than anything else.
- The plan’s default is a low-cost target-date fund and you’re comfortable with it. See target-date fund vs financial advisor.
- A managed account is cheap at your balance and you’d otherwise leave everything in cash.
When an independent advisor is the better choice
- You have accounts in more than one place. Old 401(k)s, IRAs, a spouse’s plan, a taxable account. Workplace advice sees one piece.
- Retirement is within ten years. Social Security timing, withdrawal order and taxes in the first years are outside the plan’s scope. See advisors for pre-retirees.
- You have company stock or equity pay. Company stock in a 401(k) may qualify for NUA tax treatment, which rolling the shares into an IRA gives up. See equity compensation.
- You have a pension or a 403(b) or 457(b) with its own rules. Our guide for teachers and federal employees covers those plans.
- You’re leaving a job. That’s when the two kinds of advice collide.
The rollover moment
When you leave a job, you can usually keep the 401(k), move it to a new employer’s plan, roll it to an IRA or cash it out. Each option has different fees, investment choices and rules. For example, if you leave a job in or after the year you turn 55, withdrawals from that employer’s plan avoid the 10% early-distribution tax, which an IRA doesn’t allow. See rollovers.
The advice you get at this point often comes from someone who would manage the IRA. If they charge a percentage of assets, they earn more if you roll over. The SEC treats rollover advice as advice about account type as well as investments, so an investment adviser owes you its fiduciary duty on it. That doesn’t remove the incentive; it requires them to disclose it. An hourly or flat-fee planner earns the same whatever you decide.
How to check what you’re getting
- Read your plan’s fee disclosure. Find the managed account fee, if there is one, and each fund’s expense ratio. Your plan administrator can send it.
- Ask the managed account provider three things. What information do you use about me? Do you act as a fiduciary for my account? What do you charge at my balance, in dollars?
- Ask anyone recommending a rollover: “Will you or your firm earn more if I move this money?” Get the answer in writing.
- Check an independent advisor on the SEC’s adviser search, and confirm they’re fee-only with our guide to telling whether an advisor is fee-only.
- Bring the plan to the first meeting. Your latest statement, the fee disclosure and the plan’s fund list let an independent planner say whether to keep it, roll it, or leave it alone.
Most people don’t have to choose. Keep using the plan’s tools for the plan, and pay a planner by the hour or for a one-time plan when a bigger decision comes up. Our guide to advisors for retirement covers what that work looks like near the finish line.