<prompt> Human: So I recently started participating in my companys 401k, which is administered through a local financial advisor who works with John Hancock. After several months of making contributions there are some things that concern me.The first thing I noticed is that there is a difference in the price I am paying for shares of the funds Ive invested in and what I see quoted for said funds on any financial site using the ticker symbol for said fund. I think Ive found the reason for this but bear with me.For example, for last month I show transactions putting funds into the John Hancock lifestyle aggressive and lifestyle conservative funds. TheLifestyle Agrgressive shows units bought at 13.399. The Lifestyle conservative shows units bought at 16.053. The date on those transactions was August 5th.However, looking at charts for those two funds, neither one was trading anywhere near those prices on that day or really in the few days leading up to that transaction date. The ticker I show for the Lifestyle conservative is JILCX. Looking at a chart for JILCX, it hasnt traded anywhere near 16 all year. Same thing for the Lifestyle aggresive JILAX, it looks like I bought at 13.399 yet on the charts it was trading more in the 11.50 range.This concerned me so I emailed the financial advisor asking whats up. He left me a voicemail and basically said that the difference was because I was getting a discount since I had a designated John Hancock account. This doesnt exactly make sense to me since I was actually paying more for each unit.I did a little research on my own and it appears that with the plan Im in Im not actually buying shares of those mutual funds, but participating in a group annuity which is I guess roughly based on those funds. And thats why Im not buying shares, but units.As I understand it a lot of times these group annuities are rife with hidden costs and fees. Besides that it concerns me that the financial advisor tried to spin it as if I am getting a discount. Im thinking that I may do better just putting the bulk of my retirement funds in an account of my own and buying index funds. I will have to continue putting in 6 in order for it to be matched, but otherwise I think I will do better keeping my money elsewhere. Am I wrong? Any thoughts or experiences with these group annuity things? I would appreciate any input.  <response>: I smell hidden costs and fees, like you do. Ask your plan administrator for a detailed fee schedule before you make any big moves.Brightscope is a great place to see how your 401k plan rates against other companies in your industry. 