NEW YORK, June 22 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ --
AllianceBernstein today announced the launch of its Multimanager
Retirement Strategies (MRS) target-date solution, which combines
the strength of four world-class, institutional investment managers
in one target-date fund. Institutionally-priced, MRS is a
cost-effective and diversified alternative to single manager
target-date funds, with the distinct flexibility of providing the
glide path that best meets the needs of the plan and its
participants.
"More and more defined contribution plan sponsors are
recognizing that the single-manager target-date funds they
originally chose — perhaps retail mutual funds offered by their
recordkeepers — might not be keeping up with the best thinking on
target-date design available in the marketplace today," said
Thomas J. Fontaine, Global Head of
Defined Contribution at AllianceBernstein Defined Contribution
Investments ("ABDC"). "Yet they are not quite ready to take a
fully customized approach, perhaps due to the perceived effort to
create and monitor these portfolios on an ongoing basis. For
these plans, we designed Multimanager Retirement Strategies, which
diversifies manager risk while maintaining the simplicity and
convenience of a prepackaged solution."
Benefitting from the strength of four highly-respected
institutional money managers with a combined $4 trillion in assets under management, MRS
delivers a compelling multimanager service with a blend of active
and passive investment strategies. The managers include
PIMCO, State Street Global Advisors, Wellington Trust Company, NA,
an affiliate of Wellington Management Company, LLP, and
AllianceBernstein.
By leveraging the operations and technology platform
AllianceBernstein has developed to deliver custom target-date
portfolios, MRS gives the plan sponsor the option for future
flexibility to change managers that is absent in a mutual fund
structure.
"Through our experience in designing customized target-date
solutions over the past four years for some of the country's
largest plans, we've gained valuable insight into what plan
sponsors want and need in their target-date portfolios. Many
sponsors realize the dominant role these funds will play in their
plans and are seeking better solutions," said Mark Fortier, Head of ABDC Product and Partner
Strategy. "MRS is a simple solution that grows with a plan
and can adapt to its needs over time."
MRS is available to defined contribution plans with a minimum of
$50 million in target-date assets.
To learn more about MRS, please go to
www.abdc.com/multimanager-retirement-strategies.
ABDC is a business unit of AllianceBernstein that offers a full
range of solutions to meet the needs of defined contribution plan
sponsors and participants. For more information on ABDC, please go
to www.abdc.com.
About AllianceBernstein
AllianceBernstein is a leading global investment-management firm
that offers high-quality research and diversified investment
services to institutional clients, individuals and private clients
in major markets around the world. AllianceBernstein employs more
than 500 investment professionals with expertise in growth
equities, value equities, fixed-income securities, blend strategies
and alternative investments and, through its subsidiaries and joint
ventures, operates in more than 20 countries. AllianceBernstein's
research disciplines include fundamental research, quantitative
research, economic research and currency forecasting capabilities.
Through its integrated global platform, AllianceBernstein is
well-positioned to tailor investment solutions for its clients.
AllianceBernstein also offers high-quality, in-depth research,
portfolio strategy and brokerage-related services to institutional
investors, and equity capital markets services to issuers of
publicly-traded securities.
As of March 31, 2010,
AllianceBernstein Holding L.P. (NYSE: AB) owned approximately 36.6%
of the issued and outstanding AllianceBernstein Units and AXA, one
of the largest global financial services organizations, owned an
approximate 62.3% economic interest in AllianceBernstein.
SOURCE AllianceBernstein