Funny you should say that - my employer is coincidentally making administrative changes to our 401(k) plan right now. I wonder what prompted it?
I have no doubt in my mind that 401K balances will be used to reduce the payments to the “ants”, to subsidize the payments to the “grasshoppers”. It has already happened when the “ants’ “ children apply for student loans/financial aid; the ants might as well hide it as best they can.
When enough “ants” started acting like grasshoppers (having children out of wedlock, going on Jerry Springer, refusing to lift a finger and such), the King of the Grasshoppers (Our First Black President, BJ Clinton) passed welfare reform in 1996; they couldn’t have ants acting like grasshoppers. The grasshoppers stopped breeding, and were replaced by Mexican fire ants; now nobody cares who speaks “grasshopper” anymore...
Bureaucrats justifying their positions..
This usually happens for one of two reasons:
A) People have been complaining about high fee, overly managed funds and have encouraged HR to change to a less restricting administrator.
B) HR hadn’t been in a holiday in a long time, put your 401k program out to bid, got wined and dined by numerous administrators, and picked the one that gave them a prospectus overview in Cancun, funded by charging poor sods like you 1.4% fees on their loaded mutual funds.
It’s VERY important in this situation to determine whether reason A or B is the culprit and change your investment strategy accordingly....