Research, analysis, and thoughts on retirement investments & the future of personalization
Written By:
Will McGough
Chief Investment Officer of Retirement
Will McGough joined Stadion Money Management in 2003 and currently serves as Chief Investment Officer of Stadion’s Retirement investment strategies which comprises oversight of Stadion’s risk-based, target date, and managed account strategies. He is a member of the Investment Committee and Senior Management team, and serves as as Stadion’s Chief Investment Officer, Retirement. He provides thought leadership for Stadion’s participant level, customized retirement solutions, in order to ensure that its glide path technology and asset allocation are able to support all intermediaries in the defined contribution ecosystem. Will received his BBA in Finance from the University of Georgia and also holds the Chartered Financial Analyst designation. Will is a member of the CFA Institute, the CFA Society of Atlanta, the American Association of Professional Technical Analysts, National Association of Active Investment Managers, the UGA Alumni Association and National Eagle Scout Association.
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.
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.
Wow, what a year and how appropriate to be using 20/20 hindsight as a metaphor as we look back across the past 12 months. We will all remember very clearly the struggles and challenges our world collectively faced. Investors were initially giddy to begin the new decade and markets rallied over the first 6 weeks of the year.
Then it all came unglued.
Here at TargetQ Views our goal is analysis and thoughts on retirement investing, so it was a pleasure (and a lot of fun) to work with reporter Randall Smith on his article “What the Market Selloff Revealed About Target-Date Funds” published in the Wall Street Journal on April 6th, 2020.
Since the middle of February an undeniable sense of the unknown has taken hold over our country. We are all in the the same boat, just wanting the next answer. As everything has come to a halt, something none of us are used to, and most everything has taken a toll from an invisible enemy.
