Editor's note: Saving for retirement is not getting any easier. Yet the people charged with steering many of the nation's 401(k) plans often have little investing experience and no formal education. SmartMoney spoke with several of these managers to learn about their challenges and strategies. In this third section, we present the story of a haz-mat company manager whose colleagues lean on his investing skills.

• An Overview
• Part I: The Overworked Overseer
• Part II: Manager by Committee

Back between the speed traps in Piscataway, N.J., Dan Klein would never leave his coworkers hanging like that. If I can help, I want to, says Klein, whose desire to protect and serve is deep-rooted--he s also a reserve police officer in the town where he lives. No one can say he s not trying. He has instituted a generous 4% match for employees and says he d like to raise it next year. And he has kept tabs on the brokers: He fired the company s first middleman when he discovered there were steep penalties for anyone who left the plan within two years a detail that escaped him when he first signed up. I try to read everything, he says. But some of the documents are, like, 500 pages. In search of a better deal for his employees, he found a broker who promised the company would pay no fees for three years if the company worked exclusively with one particular fund company.

Nothing, of course, is truly free, and the reason Klein was able to score such a deal illustrates the perils of good intentions. The reason it was free was that the fund company was paying the broker s fees. That s not uncommon or unethical. But it gives brokers an incentive to look for attractive fee deals, rather than hunting down the cheapest and best-performing funds. Is it a good deal for the sponsor and the broker, or is it a good deal for the participant? asks BrightScope s Alfred. And in fact, within a year or two, Klein says his broker told him it was switching all its clients to another firm. As long as you don t charge us any fees, Klein said, and okayed the change.

So far, Klein is satisfied, and the employees aren t complaining. They have more than 50 funds to choose from, far more than at most companies this size, and Klein says he ll add more if an employee asks. Still, in tough times like these, what most plan members seem to want is advice, and Klein has been happy to help them figure out where to invest. If asked, he says, he ll show them his own portfolio, which includes an aggressive mix of growth stocks, energy and international companies. That s a fine mix for Klein, since he s not planning to retire for another two decades.

But it s not for everyone, of course. Stephanie Burke, the office s operations manager, says she has leaned on Klein for advice for years, with no regrets. Just before last year s crash, her husband, an investment hobbyist himself, suggested she move some money to cash. But Burke stayed in stocks and took a heavy hit when the market tanked in the fall. Whoops, Burke says now. Good thing I m not planning to retire any time soon. For his part, Klein says the crash has made him realize just how much responsibility he wields for better or for worse. I don t want anyone to say, You screwed me over, he says.