EMIAX will invest in small- and mid-cap companies in the
emerging markets with disruptive products, brands, business models or other
strategic differentiators. OppenheimerFunds says the country- and
sector-agnostic fund seeks opportunities across the structural growth themes:
financial inclusion; logistics, distribution, e-commerce and modern retail;
private education and health care services; and Internet media and content.
Justin Leverenz, portfolio manager of the $41.3 billion
Oppenheimer Developing Markets Fund, co-manages the fund with Heidi Heikenfeld.
Small Plans Favor Professionally Managed Investments
More than three-quarters of small business employees
who participate in their firms' 401(k) plans have well-constructed,
appropriately diversified investment portfolios, according to Vanguard.
In many cases, says the investment management firm, this is
because their employer has placed them in a professionally managed investment
option. The “Vanguard Retirement Plan Access 2014” research shows 76% of
participants in small business retirement plans held broadly diversified investments
in 2013. More than half of those participants did so through a professionally
managed investment option such as a target-date fund, another type of balanced
fund, or a model portfolio.
In looking at its own Vanguard Retirement Plan Access service
for small businesses, Vanguard found two-thirds of plan sponsors chose to
reenroll their participants’ assets into the plan’s qualified default
investment alternative (QDIA). The QDIA consisted of a professionally managed
balanced investment option, namely, a target-date fund (46% of participants
held a single target-date fund), another type of balanced fund (4%), or a model
portfolio (2%).
“Because
these plan sponsors took such proactive steps, the portfolio construction of
their participants tends to be strong,” says Jean Young, author of the report
and a senior analyst in Vanguard’s Center for Retirement Research, based in
Valley Forge, Pennsylvania. “We’re seeing a rapidly growing number of
participants in plans of other sizes also take advantage of professionally
managed investment options, particularly target-date funds, but the prevalent
usage of these options so quickly in small plans is especially encouraging.”
Plans reviewed for the report were grouped into categories
based on the type of employer contributions made to the plan in 2013, which
include:
Matching
contributions only (44% for 2013, 45% for 2012);
Nonmatching
contributions only (21% for 2013, 22% for 2012);
Both
matching and other nonmatching contributions (10% for 2013, 15% for 2012);
and
No
employer contribution (25% for 2013, 18% for 2012).
The report also reveals that plan sponsors that moved their
plans to, or started them at, the VRPA service also implemented important
features to aid participants in saving or investing wisely. For instance, 98%
of those sponsors designate a QDIA, 97% offer target-date funds, 73% offer a
Roth feature that enables participants to contribute on an after-tax basis, and
99% offer catch-up contributions that enable participants age 50 and older to
save an additional amount. However, fewer of these plans automatically enroll
participants or automatically increase their annual contributions. Only 19% of
small plans had automatic enrollment, with 41% of those including an automatic
annual contribution increase, compared with 34% and 69%, respectively, of
larger plans.
“This report can be helpful to small business owners who
already offer plans to determine how their plans compare with others, as well
as to small employers considering whether to add a retirement plan to their
benefit offerings,” says Jing Wang, head of the Vanguard Retirement Plan Access
(VRPA) service. “In particular, the report shows how proper plan design can
have a positive impact on participants’ retirement savings.”
The
report is based on an analysis of the retirement saving and investing behavior
of more than 60,000 participants in more than 1,400 small plans served through
Vanguard Retirement Plan Access at the end of 2013. A copy of the report can be
found here.