MFS Reveals Retirement Plan Enhancements

April 1, 2005 (PLANSPONSOR.com) - MFS Retirement Services has announced enhancements to its retirement business to help its advisor financial intermediaries and make it easier for participants understand their MFS retirement plan.

According to an MFS news release, these changes include:

  • a suite of five R share classes, designed for retirement plans. These share classes provide proportional pricing to accommodate smaller plans with under $1 million in assets to those with more than $100 million and give participants a delineation of the expenses and asset-based fees associated with each class.
  • a new administrative pricing schedule that calculates fees on total plan assets, not just MFS assets, which the company said simplifies the plan’s fee structure and potentially lowers the fee per participant for plan sponsors.
  • an increase in the number of investment options for plans in the small market segment to include more non-MFS funds. In addition, MFS now provides a payment of 10 basis points of assets to third-party administrators for plans between $0 and $10 million in assets for the services they provide.
  • the launch of a Workplace Retirement Center, which offers a lifecycle approach to retirement education and planning to help participants across their life stages from enrollment to the development of IRA rollover and income distribution strategies.

MFS said it has also recently completed the rollout of a new individualized expense report to plan sponsors and participants to help them understand the costs associated with investing in their retirement plan. To ensure that fees and expenses are transparent to shareholders, MFS said it provides participants with an estimate of his or her actual expenses – in dollar terms – on their quarterly statements.

More information on the Boston-based company is at www.mfs.com .

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