Retirement planning

BOSTON - Increasingly, competing in the retirement market requires plan providers to offer more than products, according to industry executives. Providers need to market a variety of services to plan sponsors and their participants and provide guidance and information on issues that may not relate directly to investment products, executives said.

Most employees changing jobs would rather roll their 401(k) assets into another retirement investment rather than cash out of the plan, according to a recent survey released by American Century Investments of Kansas City, Mo.

The Social Security Administration has begun mailing retirement benefit statements to all working Americans - an event that is bound to unnerve individuals ill-prepared for retirement and create tremendous sales opportunities for mutual funds, according to industry executives.

The Domini Social Equity Fund reached the $1 billion in assets under management landmark, thanks largely to retirement plan growth. Thirty percent of the fund's net inflows have come through retirement plans over the past year, according to officials at Domini Social Investments of New York.

Scudder Defined Contribution Services, a division of Scudder Kemper Investments of Boston, has linked up with Financial Engines, an Internet-based advisory firm based in Palo Alto, Calif., to deliver advice to retirement plan participants.

A raft of Congressional legislation aimed at boosting savings for retirement by Americans has captured the interest of mutual fund companies who see the changes as a potential boon to their assets.

Automatic Data Processing of Roseland, N.J., has formed a new division to provide an array of retirement plan programs for mutual fund companies. The new division, ADP Retirement Services, will provide record-keeping and administration services to investment companies of all sizes, said Russ Fradin, president of ADP Employer Services for North America.

TIAA-CREF of New York, the $255 billion money manager, is taking steps to expand its new mutual fund business.

Nvest has begun providing its defined contribution wholesale customers with quarterly updates of fund holdings and returns for its 15 affiliates, data which up until now has not been available to plan sponsors, according to the company.

The Mutual Fund Education Alliance has expanded its website to educate investors about investing in mutual funds for retirement. Located at the alliance's Investor's Center web page (www.mfea.com), the new section is called Retirement Center.

Aggressive campaigns to capture new investor retirement accounts, especially in Roth IRAs, appear to have produced strong results for mutual fund companies.

The Investment Funds Institute of Canada (IFIC) has stepped up its campaign against the Canadian government's 20 percent limit on foreign content in registered (retirement) plans, with the goal of getting the restrictions eased by next year. In the meantime, industry players continue to find creative ways around the content quota.