Stealing Your 401K - New York Times

Feeling Shortchanged, Genteelly - New York Times:

"Retirement plans that offer workers individual accounts, like 401(k) plans, have spread rapidly in recent years, eclipsing traditional pension plans. Most operate without incident. But federal regulators report a sharp increase in reports of missing money over the last 10 years. Some cases appear to involve innocent errors, although others, according to Labor Department records, do involve fraud. Most of the problems occur at smaller, financially troubled companies.

The popularity of the newer benefits, known as defined-contribution plans, is often attributed to their simplicity. They are easier and less expensive for employers than pension plans, which require employers to bear the investment risk. They are also, ostensibly, easier for employees to understand, because each worker's benefit is shown as an account balance, rather than a formula.

But the simplicity can be deceptive. Employers fail to make the right contributions surprisingly often. The Labor Department found 2,293 such cases in fiscal 2004, including 1,269 in which the employers deducted the money from the workers' pay but did not put it into the retirement accounts."