<prompt> Human: Hello,So this will be long. Im hoping financial advisers with knowledge of of the 401k industry can provide advice here. If you are such a person, please let me know. Im really trying to understand how low-cost 401k through Vanguard or other providers are structured for a meeting that Im being invited to attend. The whole structure of the plan is quite opaque, so Im trying to understand who does the employer have to hire and pay and how much does he cost. So here we go:I about a year ago started a job with a new company. The company is a little young only been in business around 20 years or so. The company has a 401k program with John Hancock. Yes, John Hancock like the company that John Oliver blasted recently. So I did an analysis of the relatively poor performance of the plan vs. some generic Vangaurd stuff and it got HRs attention, so theyve asked me to sit in a meeting on Wednesday with the plans administrator a small company Ive never heard of, and bankfinancial adviser a decently sized regional bank in the South and Southwest. Im a data scientist type guy, not a 401k administrator, so Im clueless on the inside workings of this. General plan stats: Currently, around 20 million in assets. Around 650 participants, 450-ish active. From the form 5500, we pay the plan administrator 15k per year and the financial adviser 50k per year. The fund expense fees as listed on the John Hancock Website have varied from 0.68 for a SP 500 Index Fund to 1.2 for and actively managed international fund. The top 4 funds are 2 balanced funds, a target date retirement fund, and the SP index fund. Theres around 1 million in assets in each of these 4 funds. My concerns about the plan: The expense fees seem really high to me. The SP 500 plan has an expense ratio of 0.68 vs. Vanguards 0.05 for the 500 Index Admiral Shares. Few of the funds I can only count 4 our of 15 active funds, have consistently beaten their respective benchmarks. Even the money market funds have had returns of -0.4 after fees for the past few years. So Im obviously not thrilled with this plan. Here are my specific questions: Why is it that the John Hancock funds which show ticker symbols on the John Hancock website jhancockpensions.com have prices that differ from what I can find on John Hancocks own page? The form 5500 says we pay 50k to an investment adviser and 15k to the plan administrator. Who writes that check? Does my employer write a separate check for those transactions or are those amounts deducted from the fees of the 401k? Assuming that 65k is paid by inflated expense fees, that only gets us to a 0.32 of plan assets. Id assume that still means that John Hancocks pure expense fee for the 500 Index Fund is still around 0.3. Is that correct? If I were to push hard for switching the plan to another provider, what fees are paid and how? Meaning, for investment advice, plan administration, record keeping, etc., how are bills usually paid? Do you charge a flat fee per participant? Do you use a percent of assets? Are all these services necessary? Lastly, with any 401k provider, is it common or not common to have funds that you can lookup on Yahoo Finance? In other words, I want the ticker symbol on the website to give me the same price on Yahoo Finance. Why is that not a thing? Thanks, and Im hoping that I can use this to help our cut costs and improve returns!  <response>: The best idea would be to call up a few other companies--Vanguard and Employee Fiduciary has been mentioned here--and get a quote for administering your companys plan. Even if you prefer to stay with Hancock, you can use the other quotes as leverage for them to come down with their prices.Remember that you are the customer. They have to earn your business. Getting other quotes give you a good idea of what the market rate is for administering a 401k plan thats your size. 