Starting this spring, some of us will get a shock with our quarterly 401(k) statement. We'll find we're paying ridiculous fees on our investments.

Then we'll know how greedy middle-men and investment houses are shrinking our chances of a nice retirement.

We ought to raise hell.

Right now, those fees are hidden deep in prospectuses and plan documents which few investors ever read.

But come April, the Department of Labor says they must be summed up and laid out in quarterly reports to employees.

Employee of small companies will get the biggest shocks, because they pay the most outrageous fees.

The average "all-in" fee on a 401(k) plan is 0.78 percent, according to the Investment Company Institute, the trade and research group for the mutual fund industry.

That fee is reasonable, considering the cost of running the plan's mutual funds, picking the right funds, and keeping records straight.

But some workers will find themselves paying "3, 4, or 5 percent," says Mike Alfred, CEO of BrightScope, a company that rates 401(k) plans and sells software to plan sponsors.

"If you're paying more than 1 percent, all-in, you should be asking questions," says Alfred.

Fees compound over time. The Labor Department gave this example: Take a lucky 30-year-old with $25,000 saved. He contributes no more money and earns 7 percent annually on his investments. At 0.5 percent in fees, he'll have $227,000 when he retires at age 65. But if he pays 1.5 percent in fees, he'll have only $163,000. That 1 point difference equals a 28 percent drop in earnings.

The big-fee problem is mainly at small companies. Wall Street always sticks it to the little guy, and some of that is justified. Certain costs are fixed and there are fewer employees to share them at small companies.

But small companies are also more likely to be taken to the cleaners by investment salesman. The owner of a little widget company may really know widgets, while knowing nothing about 401(k) plans.

""The guys who show up at your office and give you a business card are likely to be the guys with the highest cost, " says Alfred.

Sometimes, it's the boss' cousin or old frat brother at the door. "It's relationship driven. If your buddy comes up and takes you to the football game, and he says, 'I'd like to run your 401(k) plan,' you're likely to give it to him."

That's how stock brokers and insurance salesmen end up selling retirement plans to companies.

Big corporations, by contrast, know the system and demand much lower fees.

Brightscope, with 15 employees, uses Employee Fiduciary Corp. of Mobile, Ala., for its retirement plan. Alfred also likes the offerings at Charles Schwab.

There's some risk here for bosses. Employers must act as "fiduciaries," meaning they must act in the interest of their employees in setting up the plan. Companies such as Caterpillar and ABB have faced class action suits from employees complaining that 401(k) fees were too high.

BrightScope offers free ratings on thousands of company 401(k) plans on its Brightscope.com website. It considers fees, along with investment offerings, the generosity of the employer match and other factors.

Jim Winkelmann of Blue Ocean Portfolios in Chesterfield, just co-authored a book, "The 401(k) Conspiracy." It contains good information for small business owners facing 401(k) choices.

But Winkelmann and co-author Bryan Binkholder have an unusual solution.

Most plans give employees choices between various mutual funds. The problem, he says, is that employees make poor choices, selling when prices are low and buying high.

And all those choices run up costs.

His solution: Take away choice. "It's almost like tough love. You should protect them from themselves," says Winkelmann. "Like children playing with razor blades."

He advocates offering only one option - a mix of stocks, bonds and commodity investments run by (guess who?) Winkelmann and Blue Ocean. He holds down costs by using exchange traded funds following investment indexes.

In fact, that's a cheap way to go in terms of fees. And there's a good argument that index funds outperform actively-managed funds over the long haul. Administration costs are also lower because there's only one investment choice.

But employees are no longer in charge of their own retirement. And an investment mix that fits a 30-year-old can be too risky for a 64-year-old.

Still, small employers facing big fees in their retirement plans might well give it a look.

(Disclosures: My youngest daughter works in research at the Investment Company Institute. )