Fidelity Investments has agreed to pay $12 million to settle twolawsuits brought by its own employees that alleged the mutual fundgiant charged excessive fees in the company's own 401(k) plans.

It admitted no wrongdoing in settling the cases, Bilewicz v. FMR LLC and Yeaw v. FMR LLC.

Filed in March of 2013 in U.S. District Court in Boston, one ofthe suits claimed that Fidelity chose only high-fee fund options,exclusively from the Fidelity family of funds, for its 401(k)menu.

It also claimed that Fidelity added funds to the plan withlittle or no track record, and that the overall fees perparticipant for a plan its size were exorbitant.

The plaintiffs claimed total fees for the plan should haveamounted to $550,000, when the actual cost to participants wasabout $15 million.

As part of the settlement, Boston-based Fidelity agreed to makea wider selection of its own funds as well as non-Fidelity fundsavailable to enrollees.

Also, going forward, Fidelity's Portfolio Advisory Services willbe made available to enrollees at no cost.

Auto-enrollment for new qualifying employees will be raised from3 percent of eligible compensation to 7 percent, and existingenrollees whose contribution rates are below 7 percent will havetheir contribution rates raised to 7 percent as well.

The plan revisions agreed to in the settlement are to remain inplace for at least the next three years.

“Fidelity's settlement of this case is somewhat surprising asthey have typically vigorously defended itself in other excessivefee litigation,” Thomas Clark, an attorney with the LowenbaumPartnership, wrote in a blog post.

On the other hand, the cost of continuing litigation would havelikely been substantially more than the amount agreed to in thesettlement, he said.