Is your employer profiting from the money you've been saving in your 401(k) plan? Incredibly, the recent class-action lawsuit against Wells Fargo alleges that the company has been doing just that - profiting off of their employees' retirement savings.

To be fair, Wells Fargo isn't the only company that's been accused of this. It's been suspected that many firms in the financial services industry have been self-dealing, while entities in other sectors, including some prominent universities, have been accused of charging their employees excessive fees to keep their own costs down.

In theory, an employer offers a 401(k) as a fringe benefit to not only help their employees save for retirement, but also to attract top talent to remain competitive in the marketplace. It would seem reasonable to the average person that workplace benefits are a form of compensation and that some (or all) of the burden of those benefits should fall to the employer. After all, this is what occurs with other benefits, such as health insurance and vision and dental plans.

But while many companies pass on some of the costs of their retirement plans to their employees, some companies actually benefit financially when their employees participate in their plan. Consider the case of Wells Fargo.

• As a financial services firm, it manufactures its own line of mutual funds and some of these funds are options within the company's own 401(k) plan. One might argue that Wells Fargo is proud of its funds and is simply giving its employees the chance to invest in a good product.
• Here's where things get dicey. According to the complaint, one of Well Fargo's target-date mutual funds was a "default option" within the plan, and this fund contained fees that were 3 times that of a low-cost competitor.
• So, where did these extra fees go? To Wells Fargo.

A major problem with the 401(k) system is that we, as workers, are reliant upon our employers to offer us a retirement savings plan. Simply, if you want to save as much as you can for retirement on a tax-favored basis, you're pretty much stuck with your employer's plan. You legally can't defer nearly as much to an individual retirement account, nor, obviously, can you take advantage of the great plan that your next-door neighbor's company offers.

So what can you do to protect your invested retirement assets? 

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