AllianceBernstein has launched its Multimanager Retirement Strategies (MRS) target-date solution, which combines the strength of four institutional investment managers in one target-date fund.
AllianceBernstein claims that MRS is a cost-effective and diversified alternative to single manager target-date funds, with the distinct flexibility of providing the glide path that better meets the needs of the plan and its participants.
MRS gives the plan sponsor the option for future flexibility to change managers that is absent in a mutual fund structure.
Thomas Fontaine, global head of defined contribution at AllianceBernstein Defined Contribution Investments (ABDC), said: “More and more defined contribution plan sponsors are recognizing that the single-manager target-date funds they originally chose perhaps retail mutual funds offered by their record keepers might not be keeping up with the best thinking on target-date design available in the marketplace.
“Yet they are not quite ready to take a fully customized approach, perhaps due to the perceived effort to create and monitor these portfolios on an ongoing basis. For these plans, we designed Multimanager Retirement Strategies, which diversifies manager risk while maintaining the simplicity and convenience of a prepackaged solution.”