04/06/2011

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Retirement investing is a "hair on fire" problem -- especially for baby boomers for whom retirement is a near and present danger. There is a real lack of consistent, unbiased information that a retiree can use to help improve risk adjusted returns. Blogger Jenny Hollingworth has been teaching herself about investing and has come to the point where she is going to choose a plan and make her first investments.

In her recent post New Steps she sorted through a list of alternatives and chose the Schwab OneSource Select List Funds.

The reason for her choice was:

• The highest possible rating for each plan is 5 stars.  So I bypassed anything that didn’t have 5 (because really, why go for less?)
• Picked out a name I knew: Schwab.  Specifically: Schwab OneSource Select List Funds. I selected it.  
• This is an application to Charles Schwab's OneSource Select List mutual funds. These funds are  No Load and No Transaction Fee (NTF) mutual funds. Based on Schwab's policy, the no load NTF funds have 90 days redemption fee period. As of 1/1/2010, there are total  140 OneSource Select List funds available from Schwab.

We are going to review the Schwab OneSource Select List Funds  to see whether she chose a good plan. The plan consists of 137 funds. These funds enable participants to gain exposure to 6 major assets: US Equity, Commodity, Foreign Equity, REITs, Emerging Market Equity, Fixed Income.

As of Apr 5, 2011, this plan investment choice is rated as above average based on MyPlanIQ Plan Rating methodology that was designed to measure how effective a plan's available investment funds are . It has the following detailed ratings:

Diversification -- Rated as great (98%)
Fund Quality -- Rated as average (54%)
Portfolio Building -- Rated as great (86%)
Overall Rating: above average (80%)

Portfolio Discussions

The chart and table below show the historical performance of moderate model portfolios employing strategic and tactical asset allocation strategies. For comparison purpose, we also include the moderate model portfolios of a typical 6 asset SIB (Simpler Is Better) plan . This SIB plan has the following candidate index funds and their ETFs equivalent:

US Equity: SPY or VTI
Commodity: DBC
Foreign Equity: EFA or VEU
REITs: IYR or VNQ or ICF
Emerging Market Equity: EEM or VWO
Fixed Income: AGG or BND
Performance chart (as of Apr 5, 2011)

Performance table (as of Apr 5, 2011)

With six asset classes and a wide number of funds, the returns beat the six asset class benchmark. With high scores in all categories, this plan delivers portfolios that have produced strong historical returns.

Symbols: SPY, VTI, EFA, VEU, EEM, VWO, IYR, VNQ, ICF, AGG, BND, DBC, HYG, JNK, PHB, AOM, AOK, CIU, BIV, ITM, MUB, TFI, PZA, MLN, IYH, IXJ, VHT, XBI, PBE, DBR, RYH, EFG, IXP, PTE, DGG, LTL, MTK, PTF, DBT, RYT, ROM, GWL, PFA, IVE, IWW, JKF, VTV, ELV, PWV, RPV, SCHV, SCZ, EFV, PID, DWM, IYF, VFH, IPF, PFI, DRF, RYF, IFGL, RWX, TZE, TZG, TZI, TZO, TZL, IGOV, BWX, WIP, IVV, IYY, IWV, VV, DLN, RSP, SCHX, IOO, VT, SHY, SHV, VGSH, PLK, USY, IEV, VGK, PEF, DEB, IVW, IWZ, JKE, VUG, ELG, QQQQ, RPG, SCHG, IJJ, IWS, JKI, VOE, EMV, PWP, RFV, UVU, IJH, IWR, JKG, VO, MDY, EMM, PJG, DON, EZM, MVV, IJS, IWN, JKL, VBR, DSV, PWY, RZV, UVT, IJR, IWM, JKJ, VB, DSC, PJM, DES, SAA, UWM, SCHA, GMM, PXH, DEM, SCHE, GBF, LAG, PCY, CSJ, BSV, VCSH, ITE, IXC, IPW, DBE, RYE, DKA, IEI, VGIT, IJK, IWP, VOT, EMG, PWJ, RFG, UKW, IJT, IWO, JKK, VBK, DSG, PWT, RZG, UKK, TIP, DBP, EPP, VPL, GMF, PAF, AAXJ, DND, EWJ, JPP, PJO, DXJ, GSG, BIL

Disclosure:

MyPlanIQ does not have any business relationship with the company or companies mentioned in this article. It does not set up their retirement plans. The performance data of portfolios mentioned above are obtained through historical simulation and are hypothetical.

Originally from the UK, Jenny Hollingworth lives with her husband and two sons in Northern California. She is a wife, mother, writer, theatre director, coffee drinker, avid reader, keen walker, movie watcher, Jane Austen lover and observer of life, in no particular order. MyPlanIQ has no formal relationship with Jenny Hollingworth.

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04/04/2011

This article is part of a series of case studies we are conducting for various 401K plans. In this article, we will discuss how participants in NATIONAL SEMICONDUCTOR CORPORATION RETIREMENT AND SAVINGS PROGRAM can achieve reasonable investment results using asset allocation strategies. We will also discuss how those portfolios are positioned in today’s market environment.

National Semiconductor Corporation, a semiconductor company, designs, develops, manufactures, and markets analog and mixed-signal integrated circuits and sub-systems. It is one of the oldest semiconductor companies in Silicon Valley.

NATIONAL SEMICONDUCTOR CORPORATION RETIREMENT AND SAVINGS PROGRAM's 401K plan consists of 30 funds. These funds enable participants to gain exposure to 3 major assets: US Equity, Foreign Equity, Fixed Income. Three Core Asset ETF Benchmark's 401K plan consists of 3 funds. These funds enable participants to gain exposure to 3 major assets: US Equity, Foreign Equity, Fixed Income.

As of Apr 1, 2011, NATIONAL SEMICONDUCTOR CORPORATION RETIREMENT AND SAVINGS PROGRAM investment choice is rated as above average and Three Core Asset ETF Benchmark investment choice is rated as poor based on MyPlanIQ Plan Rating methodology that was designed to measure how effective a plan's available investment funds are . It has the following detailed ratings:

The chart and table below show the historical performance of moderate model portfolios employing strategic and tactical asset allocation strategies (SAA and TAA , both provided by MyPlanIQ). For comparison purpose, we also include the moderate model portfolios of a typical 3 asset SIB (Simpler Is Better) plan . This SIB plan has the following candidate index funds and their ETFs equivalent:

US Equity: SPY or VTI
Foreign Equity: EFA or VEU
Fixed Income: AGG or BND

Performance chart (as of Apr 1, 2011)

Performance table (as of Apr 1, 2011)

Currently Commodities, US Equity and Real Estate are doing well. Only US Equity is available to NATIONAL SEMICONDUCTOR CORPORATION RETIREMENT AND SAVINGS PROGRAM participants.

Even though National Semiconductor plan falls into what we call 'U.S. centric' catogories because of the only three asset classes it covers (U.S. equity, Foreign equity and fixed income), it compensates its lack of diversification by its excellent fund choices. In the large cap U.S. stock categoriy, it provides

Davis New York Venture A (NYVRX) -- Large-cap blend

Dodge & Cox Stocks (DODGX) -- Large-cap value

Fidelity Contrafund (FCNTX) -- Large-cap growth

All of them are excellent funds. In the mid cap category, it again has its three styles covered by high quality funds. These include

Fidelity Low Priced Stocks (FLPSX) -- Mid-cap blend

Lord Abbett Mid-Cap Value (LAVLX) -- Mid-cap value

Janus Funds Enterprise (JMGRX) -- Mid-cap growth

Three small cap funds are provided for small cap stocks. In foreign stock category are American Funds Euro-Pacific (RERFX) and Dodge & Cox Foreign Stocks (DODFX), both are well known and solid performers.

To summarize, NATIONAL SEMICONDUCTOR CORPORATION RETIREMENT AND SAVINGS PROGRAM participants can achieve reasonable investment returns by adopting asset allocation strategies that are tailored to their risk profiles. The company could further expand its fund coverage to other major asset classes such as emerging market stocks to allow better diversification.


Disclosure:

MyPlanIQ does not have any business relationship with the company or companies mentioned in this article. It does not set up their retirement plans. The performance data of portfolios mentioned above are obtained through historical simulation and are hypothetical.

Symbols:nnsm, SPY, VTI, EFA, VEU, AGG, BND, AOM, CIU, BIV, GWL, PFA, IVE, IWW, JKF, VTV, ELV, PWV, RPV, SCHV, EFV, PID, DWM, TZD, TZG, TZL, TZV, IVV, IYY, IWV, VV, DLN, RSP, SCHX, IVW, IWZ, JKE, VUG, ELG, QQQQ, RPG, SCHG, IJJ, IWS, JKI, VOE, EMV, PWP, RFV, UVU, IJH, IWR, JKG, VO, MDY, EMM, PJG, DON, EZM, MVV, IJR, IWM, JKJ, VB, DSC, PJM, DES, SAA, UWM, SCHA, IJK, IWP, VOT, EMG, PWJ, RFG, UKW, IJT, IWO, JKK, VBK, DSG, PWT, RZG, UKK, TIP

Exchange Tickers: (nsm), (SPY), (VTI), (EFA), (VEU), (AGG), (BND), (AOM), (CIU), (BIV), (GWL), (PFA), (IVE), (IWW), (JKF), (VTV), (ELV), (PWV), (RPV), (SCHV), (EFV), (PID), (DWM), (TZD), (TZG), (TZL), (TZV), (IVV), (IYY), (IWV), (VV), (DLN), (RSP), (SCHX), (IVW), (IWZ), (JKE), (VUG), (ELG), (QQQQ), (RPG), (SCHG), (IJJ), (IWS), (JKI), (VOE), (EMV), (PWP), (RFV), (UVU), (IJH), (IWR), (JKG), (VO), (MDY), (EMM), (PJG), (DON), (EZM), (MVV), (IJR), (IWM), (JKJ), (VB), (DSC), (PJM), (DES), (SAA), (UWM), (SCHA), (IJK), (IWP), (VOT), (EMG), (PWJ), (RFG), (UKW), (IJT), (IWO), (JKK), (VBK), (DSG), (PWT), (RZG), (UKK), (TIP)

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03/31/2011

MidAmerican Energy Company is a domestic operation of MidAmerican Energy Holdings Company, a company of Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (BRK-A). As of 3/30/2011, David Sokol was the CEO of the company.

As many Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway's subsidiary companies, MidAmerican Energy Company has its own 401K retirement plan: MidAmerican Energy Company Retirement Savings Plan. These plans are different from each other. For example, Berkshire Hathaway Employee Savings and Stock Ownership Plan of General RE and  Berkshire Hathaway Profit Sharing Plan for Government Employees Companies are the other two plans for General RE and GEICO employees respectively.

the 401K plan consists of 13 funds. These funds enable participants to gain exposure to 3 major assets: US Equity, Foreign Equity, Fixed Income.

The following table shows what major asset classes are covered and what are missing:

Like many other company sponsored retirement 401K plans, this plan falls into what we called U.S centric 3-asset class category: it provides coverage to only the three major asset classes. For the US equities class, it provides large growth, large value and large blend style coverage as well as one Small Cap growth fund. On the fixed income side, in addition to the most popular PIMCO Total Return Fund (PTTRX), it provides a low cost SSGA Bond index fund.

In the following, we use two typical asset allocation strategies: strategic and tactical asset allocation strategies (SAA and TAA) to study how the plan participants can do.

Strategic Asset Allocation is based on well known modern portfolio theory and its key features include: diversification, proper fund selection and periodically re-balancing.

Tactical Asset Allocation works on a diversified array of assets provided by funds in a plan and adjusts asset mixes based on market conditions such as asset price momentum utilized by TAA.

The chart and table below show the historical performance of moderate model portfolios employing strategic and tactical asset allocation strategies. For comparison purpose, we also include the moderate model portfolios of a typical 3 asset SIB (Simpler Is Better) plan . This SIB plan has the following candidate index funds and their ETFs equivalent:

US Equity: SPY or VTI
Foreign Equity: EFA or VEU
Fixed Income: AGG or BND
Performance chart (as of Mar 30, 2011)

Performance table (as of Mar 30, 2011)

From the data above, this plan beats the three asset benchmark by virtue of the US asset class choices, indicating good funds covering US stocks, foreign developed country stocks and fixed income.

However, missing coverage on REITs and emerging market stocks, two of the major asset classes for a diversified portfolio contruction, does reduce the diversification effect. Furthermore, the somewhat incomplete offering of various styles in US stocks (for example, small cap value and all mid cap stock styles are missing) would further reduce opportunities to take advantage of varous economic cycles. For example, the following table compares the performance between two tactical asset allocation portfolios, one contructed using funds in MidAmerican Energy Company Retirement Savings Plan, the other using funds in Berkshire Hathaway Employee Savings and Stock Ownership Plan of General RE, the other subsidiary in Berkshire Hathaway.

Portfolio Performance Comparison

To summarize, MidAmerican Energy Company Retirement Savings Plan participants can achieve the best investment returns by adopting asset allocation strategies that are tailored to their risk profiles.

MidAmerican Energy Company Retirement Savings Plan would do well by their employees to consider reviewing their existing funds and adding additional asset classes.

Symbols: BRK-B, SPY, VTI, EFA, VEU, AGG, BND, AOM, CIU, BIV, GWL, PFA, IVE, IWW, JKF, VTV, ELV, PWV, RPV, SCHV, EFV, PID, DWM, IVV, IYY, IWV, VV, DLN, RSP, SCHX, SHY, SHV, VGSH, PLK, USY, IVW, IWZ, JKE, VUG, ELG, QQQQ, RPG, SCHG, IJR, IWM, JKJ, VB, DSC, PJM, DES, SAA, UWM, SCHA, IJT, IWO, JKK, VBK, DSG, PWT, RZG, UKK

Exchange Tickers: (BRK-B), (BRK-A), (BRK.A), (BRK.B) (SPY), (VTI), (EFA), (VEU), (AGG), (BND), (EEM), (VWO), (IYR), (VNQ)

Disclosure:

MyPlanIQ does not have any business relationship with the company or companies mentioned in this article. It does not set up their retirement plans. The performance data of portfolios mentioned above are obtained through historical simulation and are hypothetical.

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02/27/2011

We have already examined the Morningstar 401K plan. We explained why it is a model of plan creation - providing a manageable number of funds with broad asset class exposure that enables portfolios that can deliver solid returns. We also provided an ETF clone which enabled portfolios that underperformed the original.

Performance chart (as of Feb 25, 2011)

Performance table (as of Feb 25, 2011)

The chart is a little misleading as the ETF Clone has fewer choices until recently because of the newness of the ETF funds. If we look at the table and consider just the five year return figures we can see that the strategic asset allocation returns are similar but there is an additional 3% garnered from the original.

This has prompted further analysis of the funds which we present here.

We tracked returns for all of the funds used in each portfolio over 5, 3 and 1 years. Some of the ETFs are sufficiently new that there wasn't five year data. We then created a score which was the summation of the five year number multiplied by three, the three year number multiplied by 1.5 and the one year number.

Instead of looking at each fund individually, we added the scores in each of the major asset classes together:

This gives us some insight on the different portfolios.

• US equity returns are running neck and neck - indicating that to improve the returns of the ETF portfolio, looking at the US equities should only be undertaken when the other asset classes have been examined
• There is a significant gap in the international equities. The Vanguard Europe Pacific ETF looks like it will help but this is an area for shoring up the ETF portfolio
• The Emerging Market ETF outperforms the original so, while it may be better to improve performance, that is a secondary task
• Real estate runs neck and neck so look at that later
• Commodities, the ETFs are running ahead so, again, we can look at that later
• Fixed income is probably the biggest area where the difference is explained. It is the largest single asset category in terms of funds invested (in most cases) and there is a significant difference between the two. The original plan has two of the leading managed fixed income funds which shows consistently higher performance.

The takeaway is that to look to improve returns from the Clone ETF, focus needs to be applied on international and fixed income asset classes.

As we go through this exercise, this will bring to the fore a elephant in the ETF space - are there times when managed funds do outperform indexed funds - intuitively it would seem so and fixed income in this market seems to suggest itself as a prime example.

We will examine this deeper in an upcoming article

Disclosure:

MyPlanIQ does not have any business relationship with the company or companies mentioned in this article. It does not set up retirement plans. The performance data of portfolios mentioned above are obtained through historical simulation and are hypothetical.

Symbols:DBC,PCRIX,EWX,NEWFX,ODVYX,VWO,JNK,PHIYX,PRRIX,TIP,AGG,PTTRX,GVI,LSBDX,PRWBX,SHY,BSV,VBISX,VEA,VWILX,EFV,TBGVX,REFDX,VNQ,FSLBX,XLF,IWV,OAKMX,SLASX,VIG,VINIX,VTI,CISIX,HACAX,MGK,VUG,RWMFX,VTV,BRWIX,IWP,POAGX,VOT,VASVX,VOE,AOM,VGSTX,OTCFX,VB,PSVIX,VBR,

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02/27/2011

We recognize that technology continually changes the world charging into every aspect of our lives. Investing has also been significantly changed with instant access to news and the lead measured in milliseconds. Significant swings of the market can be impacted by the touch of a button.

For the longterm or retirement investor, the impact is more muted but still present and with the emergence of new investing apps, perhaps a larger change is occurring. Historically, plans for the long term investor have been limited to a relatively few funds, hopefully well chosen to give an easily comprehensable set of choices that still enable the creation of a strong portfolio to deliver good returns.

We have already reported on what we think is one of the best --Morningstar's 401K plan has only 26 funds that give access to six major assst classes. Based on MyPlanIQ's Plan Rating methodologythey achieve top ratings. This is about as good as it gets -- good diversification, great choice of funds, ability to create a non correlated portfolio and strong historical returns.

However, if we have access to applications that will automatically sift and sort a large number of funds, do we need to limit the number of funds in a plan?

To contrast this, we also reviewed a Shell 401k Plan which offers an extraordinary number of funds -- which we compare with the Morningstar alternatives.

Without a technological solution, the number of funds in the Shell plan is overwhelming, but if there is an application to sort and select, more funds can actually be better.

We can compare the rating of both plans.

The Shell plan wins in diversification by having excellent coverage of the five main asset classes and some of the sub-classes which contribute to better returns. Morningstar is close behind with one more major asset class but less coverage of the secondary styles.

Morningstar funds are higher quality making it easier to select a strong portfolio which makes it easier to build a portfolio and hence Morningstar comes out on top in the ratings.

If we now compare historical results of the two plans:

We see that in the five year time horizon, the performance of the plans are nearly identical -- note that the Sharpe index is higher for the Morningstar plan.

This nicely contrasts the brute force and elegant approach to retirement fund planning.

What we see going forward are more and more ETF plans with many alternatives in them (Vanguard has 64, TD Ameritrade has 101) that offer more of the brute force alternatives.

With investing apps to sort and rank the choices, this should enable investors to leverage these plans to get good returns at a low cost.

Disclosure:

MyPlanIQ does not have any business relationship with the company or companies mentioned in this article. It does not set up retirement plans. The performance data of portfolios mentioned above are obtained through historical simulation and are hypothetical.

Symbols:SPY,VTI,EFA,VEU,EEM,VWO,IYR,VNQ,ICF,AGG,BND,DBC,HYG,JNK,PHB,AOM,CIU,BIV,GWL,PFA,IVE,IWW,JKF,VTV,ELV,PWV,RPV,SCHV,EFV,PID,DWM,IYF,VFH,IPF,PFI,DRF,RYF,IVV,IYY,IWV,VV,DLN,RSP,SCHX,SHY,SHV,VGSH,PLK,USY,IVW,IWZ,JKE,VUG,ELG,QQQQ,RPG,SCHG,IJJ,IWS,JKI,VOE,EMV,PWP,RFV,UVU,IJS,IWN,JKL,VBR,DSV,PWY,RZV,UVT,IJR,IWM,JKJ,VB,DSC,PJM,DES,SAA,UWM,SCHA,GMM,PXH,DEM,SCHE,GBF,LAG,CSJ,BSV,VCSH,IJK,IWP,VOT,EMG,PWJ,RFG,UKW,TIP,GSG,