For overworked, under-saved Americans, free, personalized investing advice at work may sound like a great opportunity. But when representatives from the retirement plan come to Mark Patterson s office, the 59-year-old Nashville lawyer usually skips the sessions. Those representatives, they re not financial planners, Patterson says, adding that the advice they give is often fairly basic.

In corporate conference rooms across the country, companies that are trying to help employees plan their future are facing an odd problem: They don t seem to want the help. Faced with mounting concern that a generation of retirees simply won t have enough saved, firms big and small have started offering financial advice to employees through their retirement plans. But by nearly everyone s admission, few workers ever attend a seminar or log in to a retirement help site, even though a majority say they would use advice like that if they could. Three out of four companies now offer some kind of advice in conjunction with their 401(k) plan, but fewer than 10% of employees ever use it, according to a recent survey from Charles Schwab.

What s the disconnect? Schwab and other companies blame the employees: They re too busy, they procrastinate, they don t start thinking about retirement until it s too late, says Catherine Golladay, Schwab s vice president of 401(k) education and advice. In other words, it s your fault.

Critics say that s not the whole story. That free, personalized investing advice isn t all it s cracked up to be, and it s often not delivered in a very appealing or accessible way. PowerPoint presentations, scripts and investment jargon are the norms at workplace seminars, and online sites often ignore outside investments and may feel impersonal. And while it s clear that providing any kind of advice increases participation, savings rates and diversification, it s not clear what type of advice is most effective, or if any of it is preferable to simply creating a strong default that is, simply enrolling employees in the 401(k) plan and putting them in an appropriate investment.

Even 401(k) plan providers disagree on what kind of advice engages participants. Some plans offer online tools that calculate retirement income or tell participants whether their portfolios need more diversification. Some call, email or mail brochures to employees that fall into different targeted groups: people who aren t participating or saving enough, people over 50, people who just enrolled in the plan. Some offer personal, face-to-face sessions with a plan representative who can talk generally about the importance of diversification and show examples of model well-balanced portfolios. In some cases, that representative will use a computer model to come up with specific recommendations for which funds an individual should buy. Others make vague recommendations and talk more generally about asset allocation.

Schwab s survey found that 51% of investors say they prefer one-on-one meetings to online tools. Vanguard says more of their investors are skipping the seminars and computer programs altogether, opting instead for products like target-date and managed account options 25%, up from 7% five years ago. The most effective approach, says Beth McHugh, Fidelity s vice president of market insights, is all of them. And in fact, more and more plan sponsors are choosing a multi-pronged approach, on the assumption that different investors want different things, says Bill McClain, a defined-contribution consultant at Mercer.

The stakes are high. Employers have a fiduciary duty to select a retirement plan with appropriate investment options, and individuals who lose big could potentially sue the company. Providing advice prevents the worst-case scenario of someone doing something really bad to hurt themselves through poor investment choices, says Ryan Alfred, the president of BrightScope, a company that rates 401(k) plans. And, of course, if a company can say employees had access to advice, it may provide cover, in the case of a lawsuit.

From the plan provider s perspective, advice is another service they can charge companies for. It can be tough to tell exactly how much, because fees are often bundled together. New regulations are requiring more transparency, but companies are rarely looking at a line item that says Advice and seminars: $1 million . Giving workers access to one-on-one advice can cost as much as 35 or 40 basis points; online tools are cheaper but still represent a significant cost, says Robin Credico, a senior retirement consultant at Towers Watson. Those managed account models can cost anywhere from 30 to 65 basis points, and it s not always clear they re more effective than cookie-cutter target-date funds, McClain says.

For the 10% who use the advice, it does help, experts say. According to Vanguard, almost half of investors who ve designed their own portfolios have less than 10%, or more than 90%, of their money in stock. Schwab s survey found that getting advice made workers save more, diversify their investments, and stay the course through the market crash and rally.

All this confusion over how to give workers investing advice points to the larger question the industry, and the government, is currently grappling with: Should workers be making their own investing decisions at all, with or without professional advice? Ultimately, it s your individual situation, you have to take a look at your total financial picture, Fidelity s McHugh says. And in a recent survey, Fidelity found two-thirds of workers agreed that financial literacy was their own responsibility.

Some observers disagree. More workers are going to be moved into default portfolios, where they won t need advice, because they won t be making any decisions, Alfred says. Having individuals manage their own portfolios never really made sense, he says.