Targeting the Date

Van Kampen Retirement Strategy Trust, a unit of Van Kampen Investments, has added a suite of 10 target date retirement funds to its roster.

There are nine funds with target retirement dates from 2010 to 2050 (in five-year increments) and an “in retirement” fund, all of which aim to deliver a unique combination of benefits to meet the pressing needs of plan sponsors and participants in a post-Pension Protection Act (PPA) environment, the company said in a statement. “We’re at a critical juncture of change in the way that Americans save for retirement,” Michael Kiley, President & CEO of Van Kampen Investments, said in the statement. “We took great care to understand the needs of plan sponsors and participants alike in the ‘post-PPA’ environment. The result is a series of ‘Retirement Strategies’ that combine the strength of Van Kampen’s top investment talent with an objective process to identify and access the best institutional asset managers in the industry.”

Each of the new funds will be structured as a fund-of-funds, investing primarily in a combination of eight Van Kampen-managed mutual funds and six open-architecture, multi-firm managed funds advised by Russell Investments. Some of the funds have the ability to include allocations to international equities, real estate, and inflation-indexed securities (TIPS). Additionally, in an attempt to protect against longevity risk, the funds will operate on a glide path that actively manages the asset allocation through a participant’s entire accumulation phase and another 15 years beyond the retirement date.