MFS Expands Target-Date Lineup

Look for more flexible offerings from MFS Investment Management thanks to new funds in its target-date suite.

The Lifetime Funds now offer five new funds in five-year increments through 2055. The fund family now offers 11 total funds.

"This addition is more strategic as we look forward at the target-date space," said defined contribution head Ryan Mullen. "We have had a lot of success in the investment side with our target-date offering both from the design of glide path and from the overall asset allocation decisions, and there's been a lot of interest from the advisor community in the defined contribution space for screening of a particular suite."

Mullen said he believed the target-date space will "continue to grow and be a huge space." He added that MFS participates in both proprietary recordkeeping platforms and custom target-date solutions for multi-managed accounts.

The five new funds manage to retirement, maximizing growth potential in the early years and becoming conservative in retirement, Mullen said. In addition, the underlying share class for the new funds has been switched from the I-share class to the R5-share class, resulting in lower expense ratios on individual funds as well as the overall target-date offerings, he said.

The pre-existing six funds in the Lifetime Funds suite offer 10-year increments between 2010 and 2050, as well as the Lifetime Retirement Income Fund for when an investor enters retirement.

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