I haven't seen the data used to establish these following lists, but according to Business Week, as of December 23rd 2009, our 401k plan was ranked as fifth from the bottom. Here is a link to a list of the bottom twenty five 401k plans in the country. Here is a link to the top twenty five 401k plans. According to the article, San Diego based BrightScope rates plans on a scale of 1-100 based on how well they do by their participants. Interestingly, while ground workers are the fifth from the bottom, pilots are ranked second from the top. Here is another glaring reason why we need to establish ourselves in a multi-employer pension plan. To say "I want control over my own retirement" is the acumen of a fool in light of the fact that we are provided substandard tools to achieve this goal.
EDIT: To further back up the previous statement, here is a link to a detailed analysis of Defined Benefit vs. Defined Contribution plans. For those that read the blog regularly, I'm sure you won't be shocked to read that DB plans have outperformed DC plans.
