One Year Later

It’s now been just over a year from that chilling day in March 2020 when the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped nearly 13% while the S&P 500 simultaneously fell 12%. The pandemic had only just been declared as such and we were in our first week of lockdowns and mandatory social distancing. While this historic one-day drop, occurring in a market that still would not arrive at its bottom for another week, certainly kept analysts’ eyes on the screen the fact is that most folks remained less worried about the stock market than they did about the rapid and widespread shuttering of thousands of businesses.


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Stable Value Funds in TDFs

For the first time in a couple years, the rumblings that we may be in a rising interest rate environment have reappeared. The 10-year treasury rate is now up about 1% off its all-time lows in August 2020 (which equates to about a 7.5% decline in the price). With that, we are still in a very low-rate environment, with the 10-year rate still only at about 1.6%, which matches the lowest rates from previous dips in July 2012 and July 2016. Nevertheless, pundits and investors are seemingly starting to worry a bit.


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Series and Paths Come and Go

Here on TargetQ Views we often talk about series and paths, which enjoy a symbiotic relationship but remain distinct. But, before digging in, let’s take a quick refresher.


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4th Quarter and 2020 TDF Flows

As we continue to move on from a rough 2020, it is interesting to look back at Target Date Fund (TDF) flows to get a glimpse into how participants saved for retirement or unfortunately failed to save or, even worse, took withdrawals. While this glimpse does not give the total picture due to other investments available in retirement plans, we can still glean some interesting intel from TDF flows, both at a savings level and how the TDF industry continues to shift and morph.


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