More than a dozen major mutual funds have agreed to publish important information to help retail investors gain a better understanding of which investment options are best for them, Attorney General Eric Schneiderman's office announced Thursday.

“These new disclosures will give Main Street investors access to critical information before making investment decisions for themselves and their families,” said Schneiderman. “By working with us to help level the playing field for all investors, these firms are taking an important step forward. I encourage all mutual fund firms to follow suit.”

The move, done voluntarily by such firms as BlackRock, The Capital Group, Goldman Sachs, and OppenheimerFunds, was the result of an industrywide investigation into mutual fund disclosures and fees. The results showed a challenging investment environment, according to a connected report issued Thursday by Schneiderman's office, after the Trump administration and Congress “have taken steps to roll back federal investor protections,” among other challenges facing retail investors today.

Retail investors will now be able to see Active Share information, which measures the percentage of stock holdings in a fund's portfolio that differs from that fund's benchmark index, according to Schneiderman's office. This information, available to institutional and professional investors, helps determine whether a higher-fee, actively managed fund has the potential to beat the benchmark returns for a lower-cost, passively managed fund, according to Schneiderman's investigation.

Among its other finding's the Attorney General's Office said the investigation found actively managed funds fees were, on average, almost four-and-a-half times that of passive funds. This, despite findings that managed mutual funds do not necessarily reflect higher levels of active management.