Most Target Date Funds are funds of the mutual funds of the fund family offering the TDF. The pitch is to invest in the fund with a target date closest to your projected retirement date and “… we’ll do the rest….” A key element of Target Date Funds is their Glide Path into retirement. Stated another way the Glide Path is the gradual decline in the allocation to equities into and during retirement. Should the fund’s Glide Path matter to you as an investor?
Target Date Funds have become a big part of the 401(k) landscape with many plans offering TDFs as an option for participants who don’t want to make their own investment choices. Target Date Funds have also grown in popularity since the Pension Protection Act of 2006 included TDFs as a safe harbor option for plan sponsors to use for participants who do not make an investment election for their salary deferrals and/or any company match.
These funds are big business for the likes of Vanguard, Fidelity, and T. Rowe Price who control somewhere around 70% of the assets in these funds. Major fund families such as Blackrock, JP Morgan Funds, and the American Funds also offer a full menu of these funds. Ideally for the fund company you will leave you money in a TDF with them when you retire or leave your employer, either in the plan or via a rollover to an IRA.
What is a Glide Path?
The allocation of the fund to equities will gradually decrease over time. For example Vanguard’s 2060 Target Date Fund had an equity allocation of almost 88% at the end of 2013. By contrast the 2015 fund had an equity allocation of approximately 52%.
This gradual decrease continues through retirement for many TDF families including the “Big 3” until the equity allocation levels out conceivably until the shareholder’s death. T. Rowe Price has traditionally had one of the longest Glide Paths with equities not leveling out until the investor is past 80. The Fidelity and Vanguard funds level out earlier, though past age 65.
There are some TDF families where the glide path levels out at retirement and there is some debate in the industry whether “To” or “Through” retirement is the better strategy for a fund’s Glide Path.
Should you care about the Glide Path?
The fund families offering Target Date Funds put a lot of research into their Glide Paths and make it a selling point for the funds. The slope of the Glide Path influences the asset allocation throughout the target date years of an investor’s retirement accumulation years. The real issue is whether the post-retirement Glide Path is right for you as an investor.
On the one hand if you might be inclined to use your Target Date Fund as an investment vehicle into retirement, as the mutual fund companies hope, then this is a critical issue for you.
On the other hand if you would be inclined to roll your 401(k) account over to either an IRA or a new employer’s retirement plan upon leaving your company then the Glide Path really doesn’t make a whole lot of difference to you as an investor in my opinion.
In either case investing in a Target Date Fund whether you are a 401(k) participant saving for retirement or a retiree is the ultimate “one size fits all” investment. In the case of the Glide Path this is completely true. If you feel that the Glide Path of a given Target Date Fund is in synch with your investment needs and risk tolerance into retirement then it might be the way to go for you.
Conversely many people have a number of investment accounts and vehicles as they head into retirement. Besides their 401(k) there might be a spouse’s 401(k), other retirement accounts including IRAs, taxable investments, annuities, an interest in a business, real estate, and others.
In short, Target Date Funds are a growing part of the 401(k) landscape and I’m guessing a profitable way for mutual fund companies to gather assets. They also represent a potentially sound alternative for investors looking for a professionally managed investment vehicle. The Glide Path is a key element in the efforts to keep these investors in the Target Date Fund potentially for life. Before going this route make sure you understand how the TDF invests, the length and slope of the Glide Path, the fund’s underlying expenses, and overall how the fund’s investments fit with everything else you may doing to plan for and manage a comfortable retirement.
Please feel free to contact me with your questions, comments or suggestions about anything you’ve read here on The Chicago Financial Planner.
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Target Date Funds: Does the Glide Path Matter? is a post from: The Chicago Financial Planner
