I know, and you are right, Mary has changed jobs a few times these past few years. Within that network of Auto Dealers, I could not believe how many different funds were available for her retirement funds.
Then there were those special GM funds that were available to her during her first 20 years in the auto business. Again I never heard of any of them, and you could only be an employee of a Dealer Network to get into those funds.
Wal-Mart would farm out its choices, and I remember attending a meeting where I was asked to explain those funds to associates. Most WMT associates would just buy WMT stock, but when WMT had to make funds available to all associates as a choice for 401K funds, due to the Enron collapse, I was asked to explain the advantages of other funds.
My discussion encouraged diversity with retirement funds, especially if you had been a long term associates. At that time many WMT associates were in the profit sharing plan and had lost so much money because WMT stock kept going down each year, even after you got your contribution.
But you are right there are probably more Mutual Funds, and variations and then there are stocks.