Last summer, the U.S. Department of Labor put new rules in place to make it easier for 401(k) plan sponsors and participants to understand how much they're paying in 401(k) fees. However, a recent national survey of small business owners conducted by Seattle-based investment adviser ShareBuilder Corp., which does business as ShareBuilder 401k, found that many plan sponsors still are feeling confused when it comes to understanding the costs within their plans, and are unprepared for questions from their employees.

"Our survey results suggest many small business owners are still in the dark when it comes to their 401(k) plans and costs, demonstrating our industry has more work to do in disclosing fees transparently and in ways that are easy to understand," says Stuart Robertson, president of ShareBuilder 401k. "Everyone has a right to know the fees they're paying for their 401(k) as over the course of a career, paying an extra percentage point can shrink your nest egg by hundreds of thousands of dollars."

Following are some of the survey's top findings:

•The new reports are going unnoticed by many. While the majority (92 percent) of small business owners claimed to be aware of the new rules requiring 401(k) providers to distribute documents fully disclosing all plan fees, only 60 percent recall receiving the new documents at all.

•The new reports are leading to confusion, not understanding. Of the small business owners who did recall receiving new fee disclosure documents, the average time spent reviewing the documents was 16 minutes, and the vast majority (83 percent) walked away with questions about what their company should do now. Additionally, 68 percent say they aren't fully prepared to answer employee questions about their plans.

•Small business owners are taking action, but not ready to switch plans. More than a third (37 percent) of the survey's respondents have hired, or plan to hire, a consultant to help them to understand their options, and nearly as many (34 percent) have gathered, or plan to gather, benchmarking data to help them compare alternate retirement plans for their company. However, despite increased transparency, few business owners are using this as an opportunity to negotiate their plan with their current 401(k) provider (33 percent) or to shop for a new plan provider (26 percent).

•Small business owners are unsure of what is a fair 401(k) fee percentage. Fees are typically based on a percentage of a plan's total assets, and on average, small business owners say they think 4 percent is a fair rate, which is significantly higher than the average 401(k) fee percentage, demonstrating lack of awareness about the options available and the impact fees can have on long-term savings.

"At ShareBuilder 401k, we advocate for 1 percent or less in fees regardless of company size, so it was startling to see such a high percentage of business owners believe paying more than 1 percent is fair," says Robertson.

The ShareBuilder 401k Survey was conducted by Wakefield Research among 500 small business owners and decision makers offering 401(k) plans at companies with 100 employees or less, between Aug. 17 and Aug. 27, using an email invitation and an online survey.