The Partners Circle

Target date funds (TDFs) have grown increasingly popular since their inception over two decades ago. In fact, 72% of retirement plans have TDFs as their default option and more than 40% of retirement plan account holders use a TDF. With so many employees invested in Target date funds, it’s important to understand how they tend to behave in markets under pressure and their likelihood to adhere to a long-term investment strategy. The good news for plan sponsors with TDFs under management is that those invested in them tend to stay put — even during volatile and declining markets. A recent study by Fidelity examined the behavior of their TDF investors during two particularly volatile periods of the stock market: the 2007-2009 bear market and the 2015 downturn. They found that TDF investors tended to maintain consistent savings behavior and retain their market exposures during both of these declines. Interestingly, even...

Recent Department of Labor (DOL) letters have threatened sanctions against plan fiduciaries for potential Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) violations regarding the handling of missing participants. The DOL also cited potential violations involving the timeliness of required minimum distributions for participants nearing the age of 701/2. This occurred despite a lack of clear-cut guidance from the DOL regarding best practices and appropriate administrative procedures for handling instances where prior employees cannot readily be located. As a result, plan sponsors have been required by Labor Department auditors to follow procedures regarding required minimum distributions (RMDs) not documented from any previous formal guidance. In response to concerns expressed by plan sponsors, the Internal Revenue Service, DOL and Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. (PBGC) have released guidance regarding the steps plan sponsors and administrators should take when attempting to locate separated participants, including: Searching plan, employer, sponsor or other publically available sources of...