Defined Contribution Plan Sponsors

A Diverse Array of Approaches

We offer a comprehensive selection of core investment approaches. For specific plan needs, we also provide a wide range of multistrategy and noncore investments. We collaborate with our plan-sponsor clients to fully understand their particular plan objectives by asking the right questions before we recommend an investment solution.

Representative Investment Approaches*

US Equity Intl/Global Equity Fixed Income Multistrategy
  • Core
  • Value
  • Growth
  • Large-Cap Research
  • Mid Cap
  • Small Cap
  • Opportunistic
  • International Research
  • Global
  • International Growth
  • Opportunistic
  • Emerging Markets
  • Global Equity
  • Global Perspectives
  • Core
  • Core Plus
  • TIPS
  • High Yield
  • Opportunistic EMD
  • Target Series
  • Custom Glidepath
  • Commodities
  • Unconstrained Themes
  • Real Total Return
  • Balanced Real Asset
  • Diversified Inflation Hedges

*Products in bold represent noncore investment approaches.

 

DAILY VALUED PORTFOLIOS

Our affiliate, Wellington Trust Company, NA, offers a variety of investment approaches through daily valued collective investment trusts that are available solely to certain qualified employee retirement plans.

Daily Valued CIT [PDF]

FEATURED APPROACHES

For information on any of our offerings, email the DC Solutions team from the link above.

Target Series Portfolios

These next-generation lifecycle portfolios apply techniques familiar to defined benefit plans, including opportunistic allocations to noncore strategies, as well as inflation-hedging elements such as Treasury Inflation-Protected Securities (TIPS). The asset mix and glidepath are based on a participant's long-term and changing objectives.

Noncore Investments

We offer a wide range of noncore solutions. Here are three examples that tie to current themes of interest to clients.

High Yield

Investment Objective
The High Yield investment objective is to provide long-term total return in excess of the Barclays Capital High Yield 2% Issuer Capped Index (or similar) by investing primarily in a diversified portfolio of US dollar high-yield issues.

Investment Approach
The three primary aspects of the High Yield investment approach are:
• Fundamental research: bottom-up, fundamental research is the main source of value added in this approach.
• Top-down/sector themes: analysis of the business cycle, together with sector and quality positioning, provide a secondary source of alpha. An important component of our portfolio construction process aims to build portfolios that are well diversified by industry but also take advantage of favorable secular or cyclical industry trends.
• Risk control: strong credit research, portfolio diversification, and sophisticated analytics are emphasized throughout the process.

Balanced Real Assets

Investment Objective
The objective of the Balanced Real Assets approach is to provide long-term returns in excess of CPI+3% by investing in liquid asset categories that offer strong relative performance in rising inflation environments.

Investment Approach
The portfolio has dedicated exposure to inflation-sensitive equities, commodities, and TIPS, and invests in various themes such as energy, precious metals, climate change, natural resources, and agriculture. As inflationary conditions evolve, the investment team will include exposure to market segments that they believe will do best given their view on the sources of future inflation. Specifically, they target markets experiencing increasing demand but constrained supply response. Generally, such conditions result in rising prices. While not specifically targeted, the portfolio is expected to have moderate long-term volatility similar to that of a mix of 50% equity/50% fixed income, as well as moderate to high beta to inflation.

Unconstrained Themes

Investment Objective
The objective of the Unconstrained Themes investment approach is to outperform the broad equity market over the long term by providing opportunistic exposure to a variety of noncore areas and unconstrained investment approaches.

Investment Approach
The Unconstrained Themes investment approach focuses on noncore asset classes and unconstrained investment approaches that can provide diversification and return benefits. Noncore areas are typically less-efficient sectors of the market where active managers with a history of strong value added can be identified. By using a diversified, bundled approach to these noncore markets, we seek to reduce the risk of these investments and increase the allocation to these markets. In addition, we look to hire managers who actively rotate the exposure to these noncore areas. The approach also aims to manage downside risk in volatile markets by selecting managers who have historically added value in such environments.

Examples of noncore areas include real estate, commodities, “style” portfolios, emerging markets equity, and region or sector funds.