Online firms such as Betterment claim they will shake up the 401(k) space with their new digital offerings. In fact, the retirement industry has been experiencing a mini shake-up for the last decade, featuring an investment tool that’s been around since the 1920s.
Collective investment trusts have been gaining in popularity as an alternative to mutual funds and other investment vehicles. These trusts are able to invest in almost-identical holdings as mutual funds, but for a fraction of the price.
For those unfamiliar with a CIT, it is a “pooled investment vehicle organized as a trust and maintained by a bank or trust company,” according to a
As these trusts can pool together various investments, they can mimic a mutual fund in approach and design, yet they can bypass SEC registration and requirements as they are only available to certain retirement plans and not retail investors.
In this important distinction, CITs can do away with various marketing, distribution, registration and disclosures requirements. This cost savings is passed on to the holder of the CIT (the plan sponsor and participant), making the trusts cheaper to own than a mutual fund, but often holding near-identical assets.
TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE?
Is this too good to be true? Almost. Before the recent increase of CIT usage, some plans deliberately steered clear of them. Infrequent portfolio data and lack of access to performance did not make CITs a popular choice, given that mutual funds were reporting these data on a daily basis. Also, when plan participants have requested documentation on the CITs, a request needed be placed with the trust itself to provide the most recent data. Mutual funds are required to issue this information on a scheduled basis and make it publicly available.
However these issues have been resolved. With the continued rise in use of CITs (BlackRock and State Street's trust banks had $2.2 trillion in CIT assets at the end of 2014, Reuters
The increased confidence in these vehicles has been reflected in recent survey data from plan sponsors. According to a
UNDERSTAND DISTINCTIONS
As an advisor, how does this affect you and your clients?
- Understand the distinction between mutual funds and CITs
Being able to explain to clients why they should not use the mutual fund and instead select a CIT requires the ability to explain the differences between the trusts and mutual funds in layman’s terms. You should point out that, although there are some structural differences in the investment vehicles, when the hood is raised, they are in fact very similar.
- Embrace the trend
The use of CITs has been increasing over the past five years. Given recent DOL regulations, that won't slow down. As these investments are not available to retail clients and only to retirement plans, they have a long-term perspective in their design. It makes them a good match for long-term client investments.
- Do your research
Even though many trusts have updated their practices to be close to that of mutual funds, explore the CITs that you wish to use. Important things to consider include: Does the trust pricing change daily or less frequently? Over what periods does performance get reported, and when does that become available? Are there fact sheets that you can pull immediately, or does a request have to be made for information? Is the data provided backed up by that of a third party processor (i.e. Morningstar)?
Take caution, too, as CITs may still not be the best option for many clients. The
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