SEC eyes target-date funds 

Target-date funds are the newest product in the Securities and Exchange Commission’s crosshairs. Chairman Mary Schapiro recently announced the agency will begin examining the way the products are marketed to prevent them from confusing consumers, the Wall Street Journal reports.

The SEC will look into funds that contain a target retirement date in their names, the Journal writes.

"In the year ahead, we are going to confront the issue of the potential for target date fund names to confuse investors, or lull them into a false sense of security," Schapiro said. "I have asked the staff to prepare a rule proposal to provide additional information to investors when a fund includes a date in its name."

• • 2/25/2010 5:11:14 PM
  • Tom Cunningham
  • Target Date Funds
  • Target Date Funds provide the unknowedable employee with a 401k with a false sense of security. Unfortunately, since clients are individuals, they cannot be grouped into one investment style because their variety of needs are so different. And from what I've seen, the Target Date Funds rely on the equity and bond mix but do not add in investments that do not correlate to these tradional funds.