Could it be a virus in a left-over CBS coffee mug?

This is from Institutional Investors’ “Daily II” e-newsletter service quoting an “expert” at MarketWatch, which as you know, is now part of the Dow Jones empire but was formerly part of CBS.

The Pension Protection Act and a proposal by Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards may end up hurting investors more than helping them. So suggests columnist Thomas Kostigen of MarketWatch, who said the new act that will allow mutual funds companies to give advice to 401(k) participants is “akin to letting the fox into the henhouse,” as most plan members put their money in mutual funds. In other words, says Kostigen, the mutual funds may end up recommending that the 401(k)ers invest the funds these companies offer. He calls the law “a bonanza for mutual funds.” Kostigen says the pension bill is “an ugly example of just how disingenuous the financial services industry, and Congress for that matter, can be.” To make matters worse the CFP proposal would allow advisers to opt out of acting as fiduciaries to their clients, which, he says, would allow the board’s members to “put their own interests ahead of what is ultimately best for the client, and put commissions ahead of investors’ goals and objectives.”

The average investor doesn’t invest enough; our consumer culture cries out to provide these folks with all the advice we can throw at them. Meeting them at work is the smart way to go. The new law will allow most middle class Americans a new (and maybe their first) opportunity to receive investment advice, most of it very basic.

If an individual chooses, he or she can listen to the advice of an investment company person handling their company’s 401(k) program but then decline to buy the funds from the company offering the advice, if they want to shun “conflicts.”

What they shun now is “investing.”