PLANSPONSOR - September 2017 - 37

ucts-custom solutions are excluded-
listed starting on page 40. A slightly
expanded guide is available online.
Key to any plan sponsor due diligence
process that involves fund differentiation
is to examine the asset manager's philosophy
and methodologies, such as how he
may use passive management or unaffiliated
investment managers.
About 38% of the off-the-shelf TDF
families-28 of those listed in our guide-
use a hybrid or active/passive method of
portfolio construction. Another 28%-21
suites-primarily use active underlying
funds, and 27%-20 suites-favor index or
passive underlying funds. The remainder
cited something else in that field.
As to strategy, open architecture is
the presence of an unaffiliated manager
overseeing at least one part of the portfolio.
Thirty-seven of the funds in the
guide now provide this feature; however,
the largest fund investment managers-
Fidelity, T. Rowe Price and Fidelity-do
not, meaning less than 25% of TDF assets
are in funds with unaffiliated managers.
Also interesting, more than half of
the products here allow the investment
manager some tactical deviation from the
glide path when the situation warrants.
Custom Target-Date Fund Providers
NUMBER
PROVIDER
Target-Date Series Name
AllianceBernstein
Customized Retirement Strategies
Alliance Bernstein
Lifetime Income Solutions
Allianz Global Investors
Varies - Client dependent
BlackRock
LifePath Custom
Callan
Birth Date Funds
Callan
Diversified Target Date Funds
Callan
KP Retirement Path Funds
J.P. Morgan Funds
Custom TDF glide path
Putnam
Retirement Vision Path Custom Funds
Russell Investment Management
Custom
State Street Global Advisors
State Street custom target date
OF FUNDS
IN SERIES
12
11
10
10
11
3
10
Varies
5
10
Varies
UNDERLYING
FUND MGMT
APPROACH
Varies
Client specific
Dynamic
UNDERLYING
POOLED
VEHICLES
MF, CIT, SA
CIT
MF, ETF,
CIT, SA
Client specific Client specific
Hybrid,
multi-mgr
Hybrid,
multi-mgr
Hybrid,
multi-mgr
Varies
Hybrid
Active/Passive,
multi-mgr
Varies
MF, CIT,
MF, CIT,
pvt prtnshps
All MF
SA, MF, ETF
Varies
SA, MF
Varies
Varies
FUND
LANDING
POINT
Varies
Client specific
Varies
At TD
20 years
15 years
5 years
Varies
Varies
At TD
Varies
Q2 2017
ASSETS ($mm)
$36,662
$1,447
$1,200
$33,700
$4,399
$964
$6,065
$20,494
$156
$6,913
$11,400
MF = Mutual fund; CIT = Collective investment trust; ETF = Exchange-traded fund; SA = Separate account; R = Not reported.
Note: Some providers entered the average number of funds in their existing custom solutions.
FEATURES
UNAFFILIATED
MANAGERS
Yes
Yes
Yes
Varies
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
R
Varies
Plan sponsors unable to find an
appropriate prepackaged TDF solution
among those on the following pages
might consider a custom target-date fund.
Thereby, the plan sponsor can work with
an asset manager to specify glide path
construction, underlying asset allocation
and ongoing advisement. Nine asset
managers listed here provide that option.
-PS
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