I sent off an email into the ether to complain about the high fees on the target date fund options in my company's 401(k) suite of investment options. After some poking around, I actually managed to get a real person on the other side of the veil to respond to me. It was a polite response that basically said "our TDFs use primarily actively managed funds, which is why the fees are higher than the Vanguard TDFs you compared them too. The goal of the active fund is to achieve higher returns than those of an index."
I'd like to compose a polite response that basically registers my opinion that this is probably hogwash, referencing solid academic research that most active funds under perform after accounting for fees. Can you point me in a good direction? I know I've heard of this so often it is taken as gospel, but I'd like a reference or two that can stand on their own.
Also, ideally I'd like to compare performance of a Vanguard TDF to our internal company one, except since it is internal to our 401(k) plan, there is no ticker symbol. Does anyone know a way around that problem? Thanks in advance for your input.