Workers investing their hard-earned money in recent years have increasingly turned to target-date funds in 401(k) plans to prepare for future retirement. Some may also be able to consider exchange traded fund options, like quickly growing ETF managed portfolios in the separate accounts space.
Target-date funds currently dominate 401(k) plans, where $700 billion in assets under management could grow to $3.5 trillion in the next five years, according to Jud Doherty, President and CEO of Stadion Money Management.
Appealing as target-dates have been to now, recent marketplace advances may have exposed a key weakness: simply grouping participants by age may no longer be enough. “Participants’ lives are as unique as fingerprints; because each individual situation is so different, there can be no single-stroke solution,” said Doherty.
“Typical target-dates treat everyone the same,” Doherty told ETF Trends. “Yet each participant is distinct in terms of wherewithal, goals and time horizons. This underscores a clear need for personalization.”
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At the employer level, financial advisors can work with plan sponsors to customize ETF managed portfolios based on plan goals and demographics. For instance, Stadion offers ETF managed portfolios that are flexible to various investment needs.
The strategies are also competitively priced, investing in ETFs ranging from 0.09% to 0.40%, typically averaging 0.12% to 0.19% overall per strategy.
After that, individual participants in these flexible allocations can add personal financial information about where they are today and where they hope to be at retirement. Stadion’s software seeks to highlight and clarify the role participants’ must undertake in reaching their retirement goals. Further, according to Doherty, “Stadion’s newest portfolios allow 401(k) participants to dial up or down risk based on their individual situations, not be pigeonholed as investors into set strategies.”
Developed with SPDR ETFs, Stadion offers the so-called StoryLine investment option for 401(k) managed accounts for participants in the advisor-sold, micro- and small-plan markets.
StoryLine’s dynamic ETF-based managed portfolios offer flexibility beyond what may be available in traditional target-date funds, which are typically overly-focused with strategies that are too rigid. However, as an ETF Strategist, Stadion has built processes designed to adjust holdings in ways that can help respond to shifting market trends.
“Stadion was an early leader in the 401(k) managed account space,” Doherty said, “and the first ETF strategist to implement managed account asset allocation solutions within advisor-sold 401(k) plans. Now this next generation of our managed account service brings a new level of customization that we believe represents a significant improvement over ‘one size fits all’ target date strategies.”
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Looking ahead, the Labor Department’s new fiduciary rules could cause advisors specializing in 401(k) plans to steal business away from less specialized providers. The Department of Labor ruling, which raises investment advice standards in retirement accounts, will require more disclosure and customization and will be phased in through the end of 2017.
Stadion’s ETF managed portfolios feature investment strategies concentrating assets into ETFs. Specifically, Stadion’s ETF-based managed portfolios incorporate three major investment themes: tactical, strategic and a hybrid mix. The tactical offerings provide short-term plays to capitalize on investment opportunities that are forming, whereas the strategic play provides long-term allocation across sectors and asset classes. Additionally, the hybrid mix includes a combination of tactical and strategic elements.
According to Morningstar data, there were 755 strategists from 154 firms with $73 billion in assets under management through December 2015.
For more information on ETF Strategists, visit our ETF Strategists Channel.