This is a great article from i3 providing some interesting perspectives into Target Date Funds, referred to as Life-Cycle strategies in Australia.

Target Date Funds have been around since the 1990s and have had an increasing presence in Australia following the MySuper legislation of 2012, which set the legal requirements for the default pension (KiwiSaver) options in Australia.

As a result, many Australian providers introduced Life-Cycle Funds as default options. Target Date Funds are also increasingly the default option in the USA.

 

It is fair to say there has been wide spread criticism of Target Date Funds.

Some of this criticism is warranted, nevertheless, consistent with the point made in the i3 article, the criticism of Target Date Funds is often the result of the poor design of the Fund itself, rather than the concept of a Target Date Fund.

For example, as noted in the article, the Australian Productivity Commission “criticised a number of existing life-cycle strategies for derisking too early and not being as good as many balanced fund options.”

This is fair criticism, but it is a design issue. I have previously noted that at least one KiwiSaver provider places their clients into 100% Cash at age 65, that is scandalous.

On the positive side, the Commission “acknowledged life-cycle strategies could help in addressing sequencing risk”.

 

These themes are touched on in the interview with Michael Block, Chief Investment Officer with Australian Catholic Superannuation.

“To always place a member who is 20 years old with a 60-year old member in the same strategy is clearly ridiculous,” Block says in an interview with [i3] Insights.

“Why would any fund use a one-size strategy that clearly does not fit all?”

“I absolutely concede, especially with people living longer, that moving members into a low-risk strategy at 60 is not a great idea. Even at 60 years old, a member is likely to have a 30-year investment horizon and should still have a decent amount of growth assets,” he says. (Growth asset include equities, alternatives and non-traditional assets.)

As the article notes: “The result of the shift is that half of the fund’s members now have a higher allocation to growth assets, while one-quarter, generally older members, have a lower allocation. The rest have retained a similar exposure to growth assets.”

 

Comments on De-risking

De-risking is reducing the equity allocation in favour of more conservative investments, fixed interest and cash, as the investor gets closer to retirement.

Australian Catholic Super looks to reduce the allocation to equities in small annual increments, 31 steps to be precise, not the normal 3-4 lumpy transactions of many Target Date Funds.

“As long as you still contribute to your super, you’ll get a better outcome compared to a single-strategy investment option,” Block says. (An example of a single strategy is a Conservative or Balance Fund.)

“This gradual process of derisking also reduces a member’s sequencing risk as there is never more than a 2 per cent reduction in growth assets in any given year.”

This makes some sense and is a nice design feature of their Target Date Funds.

 

Customisation

The Australian Catholic Super’s life-cycle fund is based on age only. They hope to add other variables over time, such as account balance and salary.

“In a perfect world, you would ask everyone what they wanted out of a superannuation fund and tailor an individual portfolio for them, but if you don’t have complete information, then a life-cycle strategy based on age is a good attempt at mass customisation,” he says.

 

Quite true, it is a start, and a good start at that. With further sophistication of the investment approach and the helping hand of technology the mass customised investment solutions is not far away.

Increased customisation of the superannuation solution is the future.  Customisation will consider the generation of a required level of income in retirement, take into consideration income earned outside of super, risk preferences, account balance, and any likely endowments. Such customisation is available now.

 

More on Target Date Funds

For those wanting more on Target Date Funds, I have previously Posted on their Short Comings and suggested improvements.  They are also worth considering as the KiwiSaver Default Option.

Lastly, Target Date Fund can be improved upon by a more sophisticated approach to the management of the Cash and Fixed Interest allocation, this is well documented by the research undertaken by Dimensional Funds Advisors which I covered in a previous Post.

 

Interestingly, Kiwis can learn from the Aussies, maybe not when it comes to rugby, or certain cricket practices, but most certainly we can learn from them when it comes to Superannuation and the management of Pension Funds.

 

Happy investing.

Please see my Disclosure Statement

 

Global Investment Ideas from New Zealand. Building more Robust Investment Portfolios.