MetLife Offers Ibbotson Plan Sponsor Advisory Service

A MetLlife news release said the Ibbotson product is now available to plan sponsors in the small and mid-sized defined contribution plans that MetLife administers.

The announcement said plan sponsors who purchase this service from Ibbotson can get independent guidance when choosing an investment option lineup for their participants. Ibbotson shares fiduciary responsibility with the plan sponsor for investment selection. Ibbotson will start with more than the 100 investment options that make up MetLife’s defined contribution investment menu.

These investment options have already been screened and analyzed by MetLife’s Investment Strategies Group. After analyzing these investments, Ibbotson recommends a list of options in five core asset classes and 10 supplemental asset classes/categories.

“Increasingly, plan sponsors for small and mid-market plans want professional assistance in building a well-diversified retirement program for their plan participants,” Bill Slater, vice president, MetLife Retirement & Savings, in the statement. “Our alliance with Ibbotson, a professional, third party investment advisory service, is designed to enable plan sponsors to choose from among the best available options in a variety of asset classes.”