The Markets May 14, 2013

New Product Evaluates Target-Date Funds

Plan Sponsor Advisors (PSA) has released a diagnostic tool which helps determine the best target-date strategies for retirement plans based on behaviors and demographics.
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Earlier this year, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) issued additional guidance on target-date strategies, recognizing how widely they differ. As part of their guidance, the DOL suggested not only evaluation of performance and risk, but additional examination of how well a target-date strategy aligns with a plan’s employee demographics (see “EBSA Offers Tips for Selecting TDFs”).

In response to this need, PSA developed a proprietary diagnostic tool called the TDAnalyzer. With it, PSA’s investment team evaluates target-date options using plan specific demographics to determine the likelihood of realizing an income replacement objective.

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“The financial crisis of 2008 shed light on how many plan sponsors and advisers were too focused on historical performance measures. Since then, more attention has certainly been given to risk measures; however, PSA believes that even more scrutiny is required,” stated Donald Stone, managing partner and CIO of PSA.

“Plan specific information such as age, salaries, current balances, deferral rates, and Social Security benefits are incorporated to determine a required retirement balance. PSA’s TDAnalyzer simulates potential wealth accumulations for various target date options and compares the output to the targeted required retirement balance,” said Preet Prashar, CFA, investment analyst for PSA. “We combine results from our TDAnalyzer with qualitative and quantitative analysis to select the most appropriate target date series for particular plans.”

TDAnalyzer seeks to answer questions such as: 

  • Is the glide path a good fit for your plan?
  • Will your target date solution achieve its income replacement objective? And at what risks?
  • Have the underlying managers added value to the asset allocation?

PSA is a Chicago-based retirement benefit consulting firm focused on helping plan sponsors to improve participant outcomes. For more information about the TDAnalyzer, call 312-348-1253 or e-mail bthompson@psaretire.com.

Deals & People May 14, 2013

ASPire Appoints Chief Marketing Officer

Shelia Reed joined ASPire Financial Services LLC as senior vice president and chief marketing officer.
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Reed has 20 years of experience in marketing and communications. At ASPire, she is tasked with managing the overall strategy, direction and leadership for the firm’s product development and packaging, brand, marketing and communications efforts including digital and social media strategies. With significant experience in professional services, she brings a proven track record of creating and implementing effective business-to-business and business-to-consumer marketing and product strategies.   

Previously, Reed served as vice president of marketing at PMSI, a provider of specialty products and services for the workers’ compensation and liability market, where she built the brand both internally and externally. Reed directed all public relations and social media strategies, and launched products to build market differentiation and value creation across multiple market segments.

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Earlier in her career, Reed served as the global brand leader for KPMG Consulting and BearingPoint, leading marketing strategies for 19 market segments in seven countries as well as  rebranding efforts of the global brand, from KPMG to BearingPoint.

ASPire Financial Services provides conflict-free retirement plan solutions.

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