Products April 11, 2025

Product & Service Launches

State Street, Apollo announce Target Retirement IndexPlus; Yieldstreet to launch automated private markets investing solution; Fidelity adds two fixed income ETFs; and more.

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State Street, Apollo Announce Target Retirement IndexPlus

State Street Global Advisors has launched State Street Target Retirement IndexPlus Strategy, intended to provide access to both public and private market exposures in a diversified strategy for defined contribution plans and participants.

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The State Street Target Retirement IndexPlus Strategy will be managed by State Street Global Advisors’ Investment Solutions Group. Each Target Retirement fund will target an allocation of 90% to public market exposures and 10% to private market exposures.

Brendan Curran, State Street Global Advisors’ head of U.S. retirement, said the new offering is part of an effort to meet the needs of retirement investors.

“By pairing our expertise and scale in target-date strategies and index management with Apollo’s leadership in private market solutions, we are providing retirement savers with an innovative solution that delivers greater diversification and access to private markets exposures,” Curran said in a statement.

Steve Ulian, managing director for defined contribution and retirement at Apollo, said the new strategy addresses a need for diversification in retirement investments.

“The private markets allocation within the State Street Target Retirement IndexPlus Strategy allows investors to gain immediate exposure to a broad portfolio of private market investments,” Ulian said in a statement.


Yieldstreet to Launch Automated Private Markets Investing Solution 

Yieldstreet Inc. plans to introduce Yieldstreet 360 Managed Portfolios to accredited investors later this year. According to the company, this is the first automated private markets investing solution that allows investors to passively diversify across private markets through a single solution. 

Yieldstreet 360 builds and manages diversified private markets portfolios that span thousands of underlying assets. Each portfolio is constructed by Yieldstreet, using asset allocations advised by Wilshire Advisors LLC. Initially, funds included will be managed by Goldman Sachs Asset Management, Carlyle and StepStone Group, with that list expected to grow. 

Investors can select from multiple strategies that align with their specific goals, with options ranging from income-focused to growth-oriented approaches, per the company. Each portfolio provides automated investment management, rebalancing and real-time performance tracking without requiring investor involvement. 

Fidelity Introduces 2 Fixed-Income ETFs 

Fidelity Investments launched two fixed-income exchange-traded funds: Fidelity Municipal Bond Opportunities ETF, co-managed by Cormac Cullen, Michael Maka and Elizah McLaughlin; and Fidelity Systematic Municipal Bond Index ETF, managed by Brandon Bettencourt and Mark Lande.

These will generally maintain the same investment strategies as the mutual funds on which they are based. The funds are listed on Nasdaq and are available, commission-free, for individual investors and financial advisers through Fidelity’s online brokerage platforms, with expense ratios of 0.30% and 0.05%, respectively.

“Reinforcing Fidelity’s commitment to providing clients with investment choice, we are launching our first municipal bond ETFs and building upon our decade-long presence in the Fixed Income ETF space,” said Greg Friedman, Fidelity’s head of ETF management and strategy, in a statement. “These new offerings aim to meet client demand in the municipal bond market and provide investors with superior value, powered by our legacy of fundamental and quantitative research capabilities.” 

Lazard Asset Management Launches 3 Active ETFs in the US 

Lazard launched three actively managed ETFs in the U.S., offering investors access to Lazard’s specialized investment capabilities across three strategies: equity megatrends, Japanese equity and next-gen technologies. 

“We’re launching high-conviction, alpha-seeking ETFs managed by expert, specialized teams. We’re ambitious about growing our ETF franchise over time to meet our clients’ evolving needs,” said Rob Forsyth, Lazard’s global head of ETFs, in a statement. 

Lazard’s three ETFs, which began trading on Nasdaq on April 10, are:

  • the Lazard Equity Megatrends ETF that seeks to capture the return opportunity from global megatrends that will shape the future economy, managed by Steve Wreford, John King, Sarbjit Nahal and Nicholas Bratt;
  • the Lazard Japanese Equity ETF, which seeks to capitalize on growth opportunities and market inefficiencies in Japanese equities and is managed by June-Yon Kim, Matthew Bills and Scott Anderson; and
  • the Lazard Next Gen Technologies ETF, with targeted exposure to high growth and profit-generating equities that are designed to capture value driven by productivity, artificiel intelligence and automation, managed by Tjeert Keijzer, Celine Woo and Ario Kishida. 

WisdomTree Announces Equity Premium Income Fund 

WisdomTree Inc. announced a name and ticker change of the WisdomTree PutWrite Strategy Fund to the WisdomTree Equity Premium Income Fund, remaining listed on the NYSE Arca exchange. With an expense ratio of 0.44%, it seeks to track the price and yield performance of the Volos U.S. Large Cap Target 2.5% PutWrite Index . It aims to generate consistent income by selling put options bi-weekly on the S&P 500 Index, targeting a 2.5% premium. 

“Elevated market valuations have tempered expectations for outsized upside for the S&P 500 in 2025, especially with ongoing policy-related economic uncertainties. We believe WTPI provides an attractive strategy for this environment, particularly for income-seeking investors,” said Jeremy Schwartz, WisdomTree’s global chief investment officer, in a statement. “Our strategy is designed to provide consistent income by capitalizing on the volatility premium in the options market.” 

Vanguard Adds Short-Duration ETF to Active Bond ETF Suite

Vanguard introduced an active fixed-income ETF, the Vanguard Short Duration Bond ETF. Designed to provide clients with current income and lower price volatility consistent with short-duration bonds, it will be managed by Arvind Narayanan and Thanh Nguyen. 

Vanguard Short Duration Bond ETF, with an expense ratio of 0.15%, offers diversified exposure to primarily short-duration U.S. investment-grade bonds with the flexibility to invest in below investment-grade debt to seek additional yield, according to the firm.

“The addition of Vanguard Short Duration Bond ETF reaffirms our commitment to meeting the evolving needs of investors who are increasingly seeking active bond solutions through an ETF wrapper,” said Sara Devereux, global head of Vanguard’s fixed-income group, in a statement. “VSDB combines institutional-quality active investment expertise with some of the lowest costs in the industry. VSDB seeks to deliver consistent, reliable returns that when compounded over time, can result in superior long-term outperformance.” 

JPMorgan Private Markets Fund Added to Schwab Platform 

The JPMorgan Private Markets Fund has been added to the Schwab Alternative Investment OneSource platform, which offers investors access to non-listed alternative investments issued by well-known asset managers and offers streamlined execution and consolidated reporting with no annual custody fee. JPMorgan Real Estate Income Trust was added to the platform in 2024. 

“Investors are increasingly seeking access to private markets to find new sources of returns,” said Shawn Khazzam, head of private wealth alternatives for J.P. Morgan Asset Management, in a statement. “By accessing JPMF, investors can gain entry to a diverse portfolio of small and mid-market companies through co-investments and secondaries–exposure that would typically be reserved only for institutional investors.” 

Benefits April 11, 2025

Stocks Fell Faster Than Corporate Pension Liabilities in March

Equity market losses led to falling pension funding ratios last month.

 

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The funded status of U.S. corporate pension plans continued to fall in March, primarily as a result of a significant decline in equities during the month. Corporate funding ratios have largely increased month over month for the past year, but declined in both February and March. 

The value of pension plan liabilities declined during the month, a result of a rise in the discount rates used to value these liabilities, but any decline in the value of liabilities was offset by a decline in asset values, primarily driven by the decline of the stock market.

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According to Milliman, the funded surpluses of the largest 100 U.S. corporate pension plans fell by $7 billion during March; the funding ratios of these plans fell to 104.1%, down from 104.6% in February. 

Pension liabilities fell by $18 billion to $1.25 trillion during March, according to Milliman. Pension assets fell by $25 billion during the month to $1.3 trillion, a result of investment returns of negative 1.38%.

Mercer reported that the pension funds of companies in the S&P 500 saw their funded status decline to 103% from 105% during March. Asset surpluses declined to $40 billion, from $83 billion in February.

WTW’s pension index fell for the second consecutive month, as declines in asset values offset decreases in the value of liabilities, a result of an increase in discount rates. The index fell 1.7 points to 118.2 in the month of March. 

According to MetLife Investment Management, the average corporate pension funding ratio fell to 103%, down from a high of 107.2% in the first quarter of the year. 

Wilshire reported the aggregate funding ratio for U.S. corporate pension plans fell by 1% in March to 103%. According to the firm, asset values declined by 2.2%, which partially offset a 1.3% decrease in the value of plan liabilities. The funded ratio of corporate pension plans was 99.7% in March 2024, according to Wilshire. 

“The liability value decreased as corporate bond yields, which are used to value corporate pension liabilities, increased, partially offsetting the asset value decline,” said Ned McGuire, managing director at Wilshire, in a statement. “The estimated funded ratio at the end of March continues to show overfunding, maintaining the trend observed over the past twelve months.” 

According to October Three Consulting, pensions with a traditional 60/40 portfolio saw their funded status fall to just under 97% from around 99%. A plan with a 20/80 portfolio saw its funded status decline to just under 99% from just under 100%. The funded status of a 60/40 portfolio fell by 2% in during the month, while a largely retired 20/80 plan saw its funded status decline by 1%.

Equities Fall

In March, the S&P 500 Index declined 5.6%, and the Russell 2500 Index of small companies fell 6.3%. Wilshire’s McGuire noted that the Magnificent Seven large-cap technology stocks, which led stocks significantly higher in 2024, had their worst quarter on record.

“While the slight rise in discount rates in March led to a monthly decline in plan liabilities, plan assets fell even further due to poor market performance, which caused the funded status to fall below the 104.8% level seen at the beginning of 2025,” said Zorast Wadia, principal and consulting actuary at Milliman, in a statement. 

Wadia wrote that due to fresh inflation fears and potential changes to the federal funds rate looming, plan sponsors should consider asset-liability matching strategies to preserve the funding surplus improvements achieved over the past year.

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