The Lazy Way to Retire? Let’s Talk Target-Date Funds

Target-date funds just passed $4 trillion in assets. They’re now the default investment in many 401(k)s, and millions of Americans are using them without really understanding how they work. So, are they a smart choice… or just the easiest one?

 

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Transcript: 

 

Marc:

Target-date funds just passed $4 trillion in assets. They're now the default investment in many 401Ks for millions of Americans, who are using them without really understanding how they work. So this week on Plan With The Tax Man, let's talk target-date funds.

 

Hey, everybody. Welcome to the podcast with Tony Mauro and myself as we talk investing, finance and retirement. Of course, Tony is the Tax Man, and if you've got questions or concerns or need some help when it comes to today's topic, or any other, make sure you're talking with a qualified professional like Tony and his team at Tax Doctor Inc. You can find them online at yourplanningpros.com. That's yourplanningpros.com. Tony's got 30 plus years of experience as a CPA, CFP, and an EA, so a great resource for you to tap into.

 

Tony, my friend. What's going on buddy? How are you?

 

Tony Mauro:

I'm well. Enjoying the summer so far, and as we're recording, that's getting closer to the July 4th holiday, so things are good.

 

Marc:

That's true.We'll drop this one this week about two weeks early, and then we'll drop another one, probably right around there.

 

So what do you think about that? 4 trillion bucks, man, in target-date funds? That's a lot of dough.

 

Tony Mauro:

That's a lot of money. It seems that clients are starting to ask about them more. Basically, what is it? Do you think it's a good idea?

 

Which is why I wanted to talk about it a little bit just to shed some light on all this.

 

Marc:

Because the question is, Tony, is it the smart choice or is it the easy choice?

 

So they were created for that purpose, to be easy, I think. I think that's part of it because... Well, we give some back history here, just a little teeny bit. Again, according to Morningstar, hit $4 trillion in assets. In fact, it says eight out of every 10 Vanguard 401k investors hold one today. So start at the beginning a little bit. What exactly is a target-date fund? Give us just a quick breakdown.

 

Tony Mauro:

It's as the name implies, is basically they set a date, and they have all these different funds. So for example, if you're 50 years old, and they have a fund that they put a date on it, so 15 years from now they'll call it the 2040 fund, and then the '45 and on and on and on.

 

Marc:

Which we're used to seeing, right?

 

Tony Mauro:

That's what you see. And really what they're designed to do, is based on your age, they basically take a portfolio growth-oriented as you're younger, if you've got a lot of time left, and then as you age, it becomes more and more conservative, and shifts on its own to more and more conservative funds. With the theory that is that as you get closer to retirement, you want to take less risk, and you want to make sure that a down little blip in the market two to five years is not going to kill you as far as that goes.

 

So, it makes it really appealing to a lot of investors with this whole thing. Talk about set it and forget it. This fund is that exactly.

 

Marc:

It's definitely that. So they call it the glide path, so it's designed. But I think there's some misnomers in there. So part of that, but based on what you were just saying, sometimes people say... Okay, well let's just go with an easy number here, Tony. We'll just say the 2050 fund. So it's 25 years from now, so I've got 25 years before I'm going to retire. I'm set to retire in 2050. So that'll work great, I'll just do that. Again, if you're doing nothing, I think these target-date funds can be cool, but some of the downside is that risk tolerance you were just talking about.

 

First of all, they don't go all the way down to zero. So I think some people feel like there's this, "Oh, well, if they're reducing my risk as I get closer to my target-date, I'll be really, really no risk by the time I get there."

 

And that's not usually the case. Usually, what? It's about 50/50 I think is about where they stop at.

 

Tony Mauro:

That's usually what it is, what I see, even in the most conservative, say the last two to five years. And I do think people, because they're marketed as the set it and forget it, they don't really look at some of that stuff.

 

So, while they offer the simplicity and the chance to rebalance, I don't think they're all the same. And I think this is where, rather than... It's better than doing absolutely nothing. Let's get that on the table. But if you're going to use one of those, as many people do, I think you should work with your advisor to make sure that this is something you really want. You need to look at the fee structure you need to look at...

 

Marc:

That's another great point.

 

Tony Mauro:

... The asset mix as you get a little closer to retirement, is that maybe it's too conservative? Maybe it's too aggressive.

 

To me, with our clients, I like to have a little bit more, I don't want to say control, but yet...

 

Marc:

Well, that's what it is though, right? Well, so all right, so you're thinking about... You just mentioned...

 

Okay, a couple of positives, let's do that. So it's very easy if finance isn't your thing, you just want to pick something, and so you can roll, and that way you're putting in your 401k at work, and you're getting the match, and blah, blah, blah, and you're earning something for retirement, great. Okay, very easy. Good to do.

 

The auto rebalancing, again, another benefit. So that makes it easy. You don't have to worry about that too much, because they auto due, but you just mentioned the fees. These are managed and so they come with fees, correct? Higher fees, sometimes.

 

Tony Mauro:

Sometimes they come with higher fees, because based on how the fund is structured, and what their fund is supposed to do, they may be moving in and out of securities more often than not.

 

And I think the other thing, too, is a lot of people don't really look at how long the fund's been around some of the maybe longer-term performance. Just even as the managers, because you certainly don't want to buy a real laggard=type of target-date fund if they don't have a good record as managers. But most of them are going to be okay to a little above average.

 

But the point is to take a look and delve into some of this stuff, because it's something you got to watch out for.

 

Marc:

Definitely.So you've got the fee structures conversation, does it actually fit your needs? So I think that's part of it.

 

So let me rephrase it this way, Tony, you've been doing this for 30 plus years as I mentioned earlier, I think if you're a younger person, if you're in your twenties, thirties, maybe even your forties, and you've taken a new role, new gig someplace, and you're setting up the account, and as I mentioned, more and more companies now are automatically... You have to check to opt out of a target-date fund. So check that whenever you're setting up with HR and all that stuff.

 

I think they can be useful. You're getting it going. You're busy, you've picked the target-date fund for the year that you're going to turn 65, but I think as you get closer, and you mentioned this a minute ago about your clients, I think once we get to 50 plus, maybe there's better options out there for us to be looking at doing it. Is that fair?

 

Tony Mauro:

I think that's fair. And I think it's especially prevalent, and we have cases like this all the time. If a person is maybe behind, in other words, we do a plan, and we figure out where they want to be and figure out that they don't have enough to get to that goal, we may need to change up some things, assuming the risk tolerance and everything else aligns with that. And the target-date fund wouldn't be a fit for that at all. We wouldn't be able to get to where we're going.

 

But in all of our meetings, as we're setting up the investments part, we do talk about target funds. And I don't mind using them for a small portion of the portfolio to start, just as a little bit of a buffer as the set it and forget it part. So there is a fit. So I'm not come off totally against them,

 

But I think in most cases, especially above 50, especially when you get to the distribution stage, we certainly don't want to leave our money in the target-date funds, because most of the time you're looking for as much yield as you can get for that income distribution. So I think they have their fit.

 

I think too many people are just like you say, just saying, "You know what? I don't know anything about any of this. I'm just going to throw my money in that."

 

That's not a bad option. I think the better option is to talk to somebody and to work with your advisor to see if that is the best fit for you and diversify even more.

 

Marc:

And I had just seen not long ago, and I was trying to find it so that I could cite the place that it came from, but it said over the last five years that more and more target-date funds are automatically shifting to a higher aggressive stance to begin with. Probably because the market had been doing well, plus with the bond trouble that bonds had been experiencing for a couple of years.

 

So again, to your point about allocation, and about risk tolerance, and all that stuff, that's where some of the misnomer comes in. People feel like, okay, this is going to be probably a fairly safe bet. It's going to be a 60/40, it's going to stay that way, 60/40 split's going to stay that way. And then as I get closer to retirement, it's going to drop down to 70/30, 70 being safer. And that's just not always the case.

 

So you really want to talk with an advisor and dig into it. So do you guys, when you're working with people that come in for the first time, and you're going through their list of assets, do you look into those and see what's going on there?

 

Tony Mauro:

We do if they have those in their 401k. And then we'll usually pull a report just to let them know what that fund is about and what its makeup is, what its asset allocation is, and based on everything else that we'll do in our planning software, is that the right fit for them in the portfolio? A lot of times it is. But if that's their only one, generally we'll suggest some other things, at least for the future.

 

Marc:

What typically is in some of these bigger ones, typically it's going to be a lot of large cap and stuff, isn't it, Tony?

 

And so I was thinking about this the other day. So if you're picking a 2040, 2050 fund, but then you're also going and getting some investments on the side. Let's say you want to do some extra stuff and you're like, "oh, I'm going to go get a mutual fund through Schwab" or whomever.

 

A lot of times you wind up buying the same stuff, because you're probably picking a mutual fund that you're looking at to see, hey, it's doing fairly decent and it's probably all around, well, lately, tech, and these large-cap companies, the S&P, and whatnot.

 

Tony Mauro:

It is. And I think so many people don't look at that. They think they've got a ton of diversification in their mutual funds, [inaudible 00:10:08]

 

Marc:

"I got that from Schwab, myself, and my target-date funds through Fidelity." I'm just making stuff up. But then they think, "Okay, two different companies, two different mutual funds, two different sets of stuff. Cool. I'm more diversified."

 

But often it's not.

 

Tony Mauro:

It's really not. And when you delve into it a little bit, you can point some of that stuff out, and it's a little aha moment for them just to basically say, "Look, if there's nothing wrong with this, but you really don't have as much diversification as you think, and based on how we want the plan to go, we might just to make some tweaks."

 

Marc:

Gotcha. Okay. All right. Any final thoughts? I don't want to belabor the point too much.

 

I like this thought that I have to wrap this up, Tony, and then I'll let you tell me what you think. Look, they're easy as we said, but sometimes that's the problem. And with so much money riding in a one-size-fits-all strategy, I think it's worth asking the question, are you planning for retirement or are you coasting towards it? What do you think?

 

Tony Mauro:

I would say that's definitely true. I would say from a planner standpoint is we try to get a little more intentional with it, and we don't really want to... Not that the default is a bad thing, but we want to make sure it's the right fit for you. So I definitely think there should be at least a little dissecting before you just coast rather than plan.

 

Marc:

And I think definitely age has something to do with it. So like a lot of things in finance, what you're doing in your twenties, and thirties, and forties may be fine if you're going with the one size fits all easy, low-hanging fruit. But as we get to 50, we start thinking about things a little bit differently and maybe it's a little worthwhile to start really getting somebody to look under the hood, so to speak, and really dissect that a little further.

 

So, you got some questions with that stuff, need some help, reach out to Tony and his team at Tax Doctor Inc. Get yourself onto the calendar by simply going to their website, yourplanningpros.com. Or you can call them at 844-707-7381. 844-707-7381.

 

And don't forget to subscribe to the podcast on Apple, or Spotify, or whatever podcasting platform app you enjoy using. Just type in "Plan With The Tax Man" in the search box, or just simply go to the website, yourplanningpros.com.

 

Tony, my friend, thanks for breaking it down. As always, I appreciate you.

 

Tony Mauro:

Okay, we'll see you next time.

 

Marc:

We'll see you next time right here on Plan With The Tax Man with Tony Mauro.

 

Securities offered through Avantax Investment Services SM, member FINRA, SIPC. Investment advisory services offered through Avantax Advisory Services. Insurance services offered through an Avantax affiliated insurance agency. Investment strategies discussed in this episode may not be suitable for all investors. Please consult with a financial professional.