I always believe that education is really important. My parents instilled that value in me, they went a little off the reservation when they thought my GPA was a barometer on their value as parents. That being said, I do believe that participants need education to help them make informed investment decisions. The problem is that I don’t believe the current set-up is working.
Mary Poppins sang that a “spoonful of sugar” made the medicine go down. I think education for 401(k) self-direction would be more successful if it was actually fun and interesting. Maybe an advisor could offer a triviai contest with prizes or funny videos or something that just isn’t dry.
For the free time I have (very little), I bought a lifetime subscription to Rosetta Stone, to brush up on my Hebrew that has gone rusty. The program is easy to use and the interaction is fun and the fun gets me to use it and help me out to remember what I forgot. Something dry and boring wouldn’t have helped. So that’s why I think advisors need to look at their educational component and see how they could make it more interesting.