AllianceBernstein Adds New Retirement Plan Share Classes

An AllianceBernstein news release said the new categories – R, K, and I – are designed to meet the unique needs of sponsors and their participants.  

One of the primary benefits of the expanded share classes is that AllianceBernstein will provide a separate prospectus for its Retirement Shares, the announcement said. By doing so, AllianceBernstein eliminates the need to describe complicated retail commission options that do not apply to plan participants and improve the transparency of performance, fee and operating cost disclosure, the company said

In addition, AllianceBernstein has built in an administrative services fee into each of the share classes that is paid directly to the plan’s recordkeeper for their services. This expense is commonly referred to as a “Sub-TA Fee.” The recordkeeper then uses these dollars to offset the recordkeeping and administrative services fees normally billed directly to the plan or plan sponsor.

“We believe our expanded Retirement Shares provide plan sponsors the flexibility to choose a pricing model that strikes a balance between’s participants’ investment cost and the plan’s recordkeeping fees,” said Richard Davies, Executive Vice President, Retirement and College Savings Plans, for AllianceBernstein, in the announcement.

According to the company, the new share classes include:

• I Shares for the large and mega plan markets
• K Shares for small to mid group plans with at least $1 million in assets
• R Shares for small group plans, including start-ups, with assets up to $10 million.

More information about the company is at  http://www.alliancebernstein.com .