American Funds Enters Target Date Market

The fund family’s adviser Capital Research and Management filed with Securities and Exchange Commission this month to add nine new target-date retirement funds to its offering, joining the growing club of fund companies to add the product, according to the Boston Globe.

The funds are targeted to retirement dates in five-year increments from 2010 to 2050, and each will be a fund of funds that uses American’s funds as the underlying investments.

The swelling popularity of these funds stems largely from the fact that they require less of participants up front than risk-based funds and some claim that providers strongly push target-date funds because they produce bigger profits (See  One Size Does Not Fit All ).

Another recent addition to the target-date market is John Hancock (See  John Hancock Enters the Lifecycle Market ), which entered the market with eight funds in November.