BMO Global Asset Management White Paper

Building a Better Target Date Fund

CHICAGO, ILLINOIS--(Marketwired - June 16, 2015) - BMO Global Asset Management today released their latest white paper, Insights: Building better target date funds. The paper provides detailed insights into the firm's guiding philosophy and process for both the design and management of the BMO Target Date Retirement Funds and how that has led to better outcomes for investors.

BMO Global Asset Management has been delivering target date strategies to investors for more than 10 years and, more generally, managing multi-asset solutions for more than two decades. According to Morningstar, all 10 of the BMO Target Date Retirement Funds rank in the top quartile of their peer group for total returns in their respective since inception periods, through March 31, 2015 - and 8 of their 10 Funds ranked in the top 10 percent.

Within the paper, BMO Global Asset Management discusses the various risks retirement investors face. More importantly, they also outline three keys to how experienced target date fund providers can more effectively help solve the problems investors face. They include:

• Open manager selection: employing managers from different firms provide target date managers with access to expertise from some of the world's top money managers
• Active and passive investments: deciding to use active or passive strategies can help provide exposure to fully efficient markets while managing expenses
• Adaptable approach: adapting allocations to address changing market environments allows a target date manager to address risk and add value

Lowell Yura, Head of Multi-Asset Solutions, BMO Asset Management Corp, emphasized the need for target date fund managers to be adaptable. "The face of retirement is changing. In fact, research currently shows that 23 percent of today's retirees have continued to work after formally retiring. Going forward, studies suggest as many as two thirds of retirees expect to continue working in some capacity. Given these trends, we believe fund managers should provide solutions that address the needs of future retirees better and ideally reduce the necessity for postretirement employment."