The mutual fund industry is getting nervous about increasingly boisterous Washington talk about potential 401k reform, reports Reuters.

For example, the newswire reports that leaders such as Paul Schott Stevens, president of the Investment Company Institute (ICI) trade group, fear that tax breaks for 401(k) accounts could get nipped. Consequently, they are defending the popular support for and success of those workplace defined-contribution plans.

"The patient is doing very well," Reuters quotes Stevens as saying in a private briefing on research the ICI intends to release on Thursday. "We're trying to counter all of the doom and gloom about the 401(k) system being a failure and that it doesn't work," Stevens said. "The participants don't feel that way."

The ICI research, shared early with Reuters, describes a system that is broadly and solidly supported by Americans who have plans and by Americans who don't. A sizeable majority said they find that 401(k) plans help them get ready for retirement and - spoiler alert - they like the tax breaks.

For more on the research and the escalating debate on this issue, go to the Reuters article. 

Edited by: Tommy Fernandez


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