Critics contend the 401(k) retirement plan system has become too fee-heavy and may no longer be the ticket for workers not fortunate enough to be offered the best plans or good employer matches.

But Renée Pastor believes it is still the best retirement savings vehicle, given what is available. She acknowledges that hidden fees are an issue, but that investors should weigh that against the net-net result 401(k)s can provide.

Pastor, founder and wealth manager at the Pastor Financial Group in New Orleans, specializes in helping individuals manage their employer-based 401(k) account. She said people need and want help in managing their account, and that is borne out in surveys from companies like Charles Schwab showing participants want personalized advice.

“If you work for XYZ company, you don’t have a choice as an employee as to what 401(k) plan your employer picks, nor do you have a choice of which investment options they give you,” Pastor said. As a result, she added, the burden falls on the employee to select from those investment options. And because many participants do not have the time or savvy to choose investments, they could hurt themselves financially.

Pastor pointed out that surveys have found that many people—particularly women—do not know how much they need for retirement. That highlights why plan participants want advice on how to invest their retirement savings.

Pastor said she has been in the financial advice industry for 30 years and has followed the 401(k) advice movement for 15 years. She said she decided to go independent in order to expand the management side of her 401(k) business because larger brokerage firms limit the ability of their advisors to work in this area.

“It was just maddening to me,” she said.

“We have seen over the years what’s going on and what the developments are,” she noted. “People need and want advice. They don’t like being burdened having to make these decisions.”

Pastor offered that people do not necessarily want a robo-advisor or a stranger on the other end of an 800 number. Instead, she said, they want somebody they know who is their own personal advisor.

Pastor said she can help participants manage their retirement plans via self-directed brokerage accounts (SDBAs). SDBAs enable retirement plan participants to make investments such as stocks, bonds, mutual fund and ETFs, which are outside of the limited number of options normally available within 401(k), 403(b) or 457 plans.

She pointed out that Schwab offers an SDBA called Personal Choice Retirement Account (PCRA), which many of her clients participate in. Pastor can manage clients’ accounts through access to Schwab’s portal. In most cases, she buys individual stocks and very low-cost ETFs for her clients, which keeps the internal costs down. Management fees are taken from the 401(k) accounts.

But this service is available only for plans where the plan document allows for a third-party advisor to do the work for clients, and it includes a fee deduction, Pastor said.

And while about 40% of plans offer an SDBA, very few have the option to seamlessly work with a third-party advisor like Schwab, Pastor said. She noted that many companies can easily add the fee-deduct feature to ease the process. “It’s a simple amendment and it makes it easy for everybody.”

Investors also have the option to hire their own third-party advisor, but they would have to write a check, put it on a credit card or take the fee out of a different account.

Pastor said many people do not have access to a financial advisor because they do not have investments outside of their 401(k).

“That’s the part I wish the industry would recognize,” she remarked. “Please make it easy for people to go seek out their own advisor. If you want an advisor, your own personal advisor, you should be able to have the right to have that fee taken out of your 401(k).”

Furthermore, Pastor noted, studies by Schwab and others show that people who work with an advisor have higher account balances.

Some recent breakthroughs have made it easier for advisors to work with clients if the SDBA does not have a fee deduction feature and the client has no other means to pay the advisor. Pastor said that wealthtech firms such as Absolute Capital and Pacific Financial, which provide money management solutions, have stepped in with portfolio offerings of funds with a built-in fee for advisors.

And for people who do not have access to the SDBA option in their plan, Pastor said a fintech company called FeeX finds fees in a person’s investment account and helps reduce them. That enables Pastor to manage the client’s 401(k) through their portal.

Pastor said once she looks at the client’s investment choices and makes recommendation in the portal, FeeX automatically goes into the account and makes the changes. The only drawback is there is no fee deduct option.

Pastor said these new solutions let her manage just about any plan account. But she wishes that large brokers would allow their advisors to do more work on retirement accounts.

“People are not saving enough, they are not allocating properly and they want the help but they are not aware of their choices,” she said.