Target Date Funds & Managed Account In 401(k) Plans: Go Together Like Oil & Water or Peanut Butter & Jelly?

My conversation with Lynn Avitabile, Managing Director in the the Multi-Asset Group of J.P Morgan Asset Management and Wei Hu, Vice President of Financial Research at Financial Engines really cleared some things up for me on the role of Target Date Funds and Managed Accounts in workplace retirement plans.  We have talked about Target Date Funds several times on the podcast, but Managed Accounts not so much.  As we are accustomed to doing we start with some definitions of terms and then quickly jump into how they compare and contrast with target date funds, how to determine if your plan participants could benefit from one or both strategies.  Great dialogue and good input all around.  After listening you tell me, do target dates and managed accounts go together like oil & water or peanut butter and jelly? Hope you enjoy, and you don't want to miss next weeks episode.   Guest Bios Lynn Avitabile, managing director, J.P. Morgan Asset Management is a Client Portfolio Manager within Multi-Asset Solutions, based in New York. She focuses on our Target Date Fund solutions, and leads our educational efforts on that topic. An employee since 1984, Lynn spent 20 years within Human Resources. She headed Human Resources for J.P. Morgan Global Investment Management and served as a member of the investment company's senior leadership group for six years prior to joining Multi-Asset Solutions. Lynn earned a Bachelor of Science in Occupational Therapy from Quinnipiac College and an MBA from Duke University. She is Series 7, 63 and 3 licensed. Dr. Wei-Yin Hu is Vice President and head of the Financial Research group at Financial Engines. His team's responsibilities include the development of the analytical models that generate Financial Engines' recommendations and forecasts, and the design of new retirement advice services.  Dr. Hu has expertise in asset pricing, capital markets, taxation, and retirement economics.  He joined Financial Engines after leaving a position as an economics professor at UCLA, where he taught for five years.  Throughout his career, he has published research in leading academic and practitioner journals and has given invited lectures in numerous academic and non-academic settings.  Dr. Hu received a Ph.D. in economics from Stanford University. 401(k) Fridays Podcast Overview Struggling with a fiduciary issue, looking for strategies to improve employee retirement outcomes or curious about the impact of current events on your retirement plan? We've had conversations with retirement industry leaders to address these and other relevant topics! You can easily explore over one hundred prior on-demand audio interviews here. Don't forget to subscribe as we release a new episode each Friday!