-Many readers have called and emailed with questions regarding the recent segment that 60 Minutes aired on 401k accounts, one of several pieces that have appeared in recent weeks about how the 401k industry is failing investors.

There is a real lack of transparency regarding the many fees in this industry. How many times does your monthly statement show a flurry of tiny sells here and there with seemingly no rationale other than covering plan expenses? And if you add all those little charges up, it probably amounts to hundreds of dollars a year if you’ve got a decent sized account.

It’s exceedingly easy to sue an administrator under the Employment Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) and, while it’s not so easy to win, a motivated litigator can make enough trouble to get paid to go away. That makes administering a 401k plan a grossly complicated endeavor requiring a lot of folks to have their fingers in the pie, which always translates to investors bearing higher expenses.

In short, 401k plans are a lot more expensive than they should be, and it’s often difficult to determine exactly what services and expenses justify these fees. And with that lack of transparency there is risk for abuse.

60 Minutes is correct in that a substantial number of mutual funds in 401k plans are mediocre at best and total dogs at worst. Again, that goes back to ERISA and the fact that administrators have a fiduciary duty–which often means there’s less risk in doing nothing than swapping out underperforming funds. But the problem isn’t with the 401k structure per se or with greedy Wall Streeters trying to stick their hands in Main Street’s pockets, though some of that probably occurs.

An equally worrisome problem is the sorry state of financial education in this country. We need to make sure that folks saving for retirement have some way of gauging how much risk they’re taking rather than counting on cyclical bull markets–which are bound to end sometime–to fund their golden years.

We need to improve financial education in this country so that people realize investing only in stocks isn’t a good idea. And investors have to realize that no matter what many economists may think, we’ll never tame the business cycle and occasional bear markets are inevitable. Perhaps setting up some mechanism for people to seek out inexpensive, independent advice would fill that void.

-Big changes are afoot at Fidelity, which announced that Brian Hogan, most recently the senior vice president of equity research, will serve as the head of the company’s equities division after Walter Donovan resigned to become chief investment officer at Putnam Investments. Donovan isn’t the first Fidelity executive to jump ship to Putnam. Since Bob Reynolds became Putnam’s new CEO in July 2008, he has recruited several of his former Fidelity colleagues to join him, including senior managing director and CFO Clare Richer, managing director and controller Andra Bolotin, and portfolio manager David Glancy. Whether this new blood can turn around Putnam’s fortunes remains to be seen.

– Several of Oppenheimer Funds’ bond offerings tanked during 2008 and the firm now faces legal challenges. The state of Oregon sued the company, which it had engaged to manage part of its 529 college savings plan, after Oppenheimer Core Bond (OPIGX) lost 36 percent last year because of risky bets on commercial mortgage-backed securities. The suit argues that the fund, purportedly a conservative offering, knowingly took on excessive risks that were inappropriate for a college savings plan. Other states were also burned by these unexpected losses, and Illinois is attempting to work with Texas, Maine and New Mexico to negotiate a joint settlement.