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Products October 8, 2015
Investment Product and Services Launches for the Week
New institutional share classes were announced this week by T. Rowe Price, while Merrill Lynch unveiled apps that help retirement savers address longevity and inflation risks.
Reported by John Manganaro
T. Rowe Price Adds Retirement “I Class” Shares
T. Rowe Price launched its new Retirement I Funds, a series of target-date funds (TDFs) for retirement plans and other institutional investors.
The 13 new Retirement I Funds “have identical investment strategies to those of the firm’s flagship Retirement Fund series,” but are differentiated by lower shareholder servicing costs. The funds’ glide paths, underlying funds and targeted asset allocation are the same.
George Riedel, head of T. Rowe Price’s financial institutions business, says the launch of the new fund series is “a natural extension of our ongoing effort to meet the investment needs of our institutional and retirement clients.”
Financial intermediaries, retirement plans, other institutional investors, and individuals investing a minimum of $1 million can use Retirement I Fund series as a low-cost share class option. The Retirement I Fund series add to the 19 I Class offerings T. Rowe Price launched in September 2015.
NEXT: Merrill Lynch
Expands Participant Support
Inflation and Longevity Education from Merrill Lynch
Merrill Lynch is introducing two new iPad applications that “help further illustrate the important risks individuals may face in retirement.”
The first app, “Longevity Discovery,” helps individuals explore the implications of longer life expectancy. According to Merrill Lynch, the app “can help clients begin to think about what a longer life expectancy in retirement means for them. The app allows clients to interactively explore possible opportunities, such as embarking on a second career, and challenges, such as covering long-term care costs.”
The second app is known as “Inflation Discovery” and takes a similar approach to educating retirement savers. The app “delves into the opportunities and challenges of inflation … and can help clients understand how inflation may impact their retirement by illustrating how it can erode purchasing power over time. For example, a consistent 2.5% inflation per year over 30 years would reduce their purchasing power by 52%, assuming no additional factors.”