Evaluate Target Date Providers and See Why Fidelity Could Be the Right Fit

You want to choose an appropriate target date strategy for your plan sponsor clients and their participants, but where do you start? Apples-to-apples comparisons don't usually apply to target date strategies, so understanding how to successfully evaluate a provider is important. Learn about some of the key criteria to consider when making your target date decision.

Key Criteria to Help You Evaluate Providers—and How Fidelity Measures Up

Glide Path

No two target date glide paths are alike. Each one is based on the active investment decisions resulting from the investment manager’s core beliefs. Understanding how each glide path is built and will evolve is critical because this long-term asset allocation mix can be the most significant driver of participant outcomes.

Performance

When considering overall performance, it is essential to understand the drivers of return and how they relate to the stated goal and beliefs that guide the glide path. Investors should consider both historical performance and the provider’s focus on long-term outcomes.

Price

We believe evaluating strategies based on cost is too simplistic. It is essential to consider a fundamental question: Does the target date provider offer the value proposition of deep resources, strong performance, and competitive price?

Analysis: Fidelity Target Date Strategies vs. Other Top Providers

See how our glide path, performance, and fees stack up against our competition, in each of our product categories.

Building a Partnership: Effective Participant Communications

As you evaluate target date strategies, remember that participant engagement can be a key element of any successful target date offering. Participants should receive clear and concise educational materials about the investments in their accounts.

Fidelity’s Target Date Participant Communication Program

Our Target Date Participant Communication Program is created to show how Fidelity’s Target Date strategies are designed to help you grow your retirement savings during your earning years and provide income and stability through your retirement years. Through a robust suite of on-demand education we provide answers to common questions like:

  • What is a target date strategy?
  • How do I choose the right one for me?
  • What are potential benefits of investing in a target date strategy?

Educational content across a range of topics and formats

Here’s just a sampling of what our Participant Communication Program offers:

Learn more about Fidelity Target Date strategies

Choose the appropriate provider for your plan sponsor clients, their participants, and your business. Take a closer look at Fidelity’s Target Date strategies today.

Active

Mutual Funds

Blend

Mutual Funds

Index

Mutual Funds

Commingled Pools

  • Fidelity Commingled Pools are only available to eligible retirement plans.
  • Fidelity Commingled Pools are commingled pools of the FIAM Group Trust for Employee Benefit Plans, and are managed by Fidelity Institutional Asset Management Trust Company, a trust company organized under the laws of the State of New Hampshire. Fidelity Commingled Pools are not mutual funds.
  • When comparing funds, please consider all important factors, including information pertaining to fund fees, fund features, and fund objectives. While funds may track an index, the indices and strategies employed in seeking to achieve an investment goal may be different. Each fund’s investment objective and strategy and index tracked to achieve investment goals may differ.
  • Investment performance of the Target Date products depends on the performance of the underlying investment options and on the proportion of the assets invested in each underlying investment option. The investment risk of each Target Date strategy changes over time as its asset allocation changes. These risks are subject to the asset allocation decisions of the portfolio manager. Except for the Target Date Index products, pursuant to the portfolio manager’s ability to use an active asset allocation strategy, investors may be subject to a different risk profile compared to the portfolio’s neutral asset allocation strategy shown in its glide path. The portfolios are subject to the volatility of the financial markets, including that of equity and fixed income investments in the U.S. and abroad, and may be subject to risks associated with investing in high-yield, small-cap, commodity-linked and foreign securities. The Target Date Blend and Index portfolios are subject to the risks associated with investing in a passively managed underlying investment options in which the passively managed underlying investment option’s performance could be lower than an actively managed product that shifts its portfolio assets to take advantage of market opportunities or lessen the impact of a market decline or a decline in the value of one or more issuers. Fixed income investments entail issuer default and credit risk, inflation risk, and interest rate risk (as interest rates rise, bond prices usually fall and vice versa). This effect is usually more pronounced for longer-term securities. Leverage can increase market exposure, magnify investment risks, and cause losses to be realized more quickly. No target date strategy is considered a complete retirement program and there is no guarantee any single offering will provide sufficient retirement income at or through retirement. Principal invested is not guaranteed at any time, including at or after the portfolios’ target dates.
 
 

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