IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/pal/assmgt/v25y2024i4d10.1057_s41260-024-00349-0.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Performance dispersion among target date funds

Author

Listed:
  • Ivelina Pavlova

    (University of Houston – Clear Lake)

  • Ann Marie Hibbert

    (West Virginia University)

Abstract

There are significant differences in the performance of Target Date Funds (TDFs) with the same target year. Using a unique dataset from Morningstar, we show that within the same target year, funds with lower than the average expense ratio, or higher than average allocation to equities, outperform similar funds. This outperformance exists across all target year groups and is economically meaningful. Furthermore, deviations in the equity allocation have a greater impact on performance than does expense ratio. Using bootstrap simulations to investigate the impact over a longer horizon, we show that deviations from the average allocations or expense ratios have a meaningful impact on the retirement savings of an average investor.

Suggested Citation

  • Ivelina Pavlova & Ann Marie Hibbert, 2024. "Performance dispersion among target date funds," Journal of Asset Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 25(4), pages 369-382, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:pal:assmgt:v:25:y:2024:i:4:d:10.1057_s41260-024-00349-0
    DOI: 10.1057/s41260-024-00349-0
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1057/s41260-024-00349-0
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1057/s41260-024-00349-0?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Dichtl, Hubert & Drobetz, Wolfgang, 2015. "Sell in May and Go Away: Still good advice for investors?," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 38(C), pages 29-43.
    2. Gur Huberman & Wei Jiang, 2006. "Offering versus Choice in 401(k) Plans: Equity Exposure and Number of Funds," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 61(2), pages 763-801, April.
    3. Shlomo Benartzi & Richard Thaler, 2007. "Heuristics and Biases in Retirement Savings Behavior," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 21(3), pages 81-104, Summer.
    4. Pierluigi Balduzzi & Jonathan Reuter, 2019. "Heterogeneity in Target Date Funds: Strategic Risk-taking or Risk Matching?," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 32(1), pages 300-337.
    5. Edwin J. Elton & Martin J. Gruber & Andre de Souza & Christopher R. Blake, 2015. "Target Date Funds: Characteristics and Performance," The Review of Asset Pricing Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 5(2), pages 254-272.
    6. Patel, Saurin & Sarkissian, Sergei, 2017. "To Group or Not to Group? Evidence from Mutual Fund Databases," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 52(5), pages 1989-2021, October.
    7. Grinblatt, Mark & Titman, Sheridan, 1992. "The Persistence of Mutual Fund Performance," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 47(5), pages 1977-1984, December.
    8. Mao, Mike Qinghao & Wong, Ching Hin, 2022. "Why have target-date funds performed better in the COVID-19 selloff than the 2008 selloff?," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 135(C).
    9. William F. Johnson & Ha-Chin Yi, 2017. "Do target date mutual funds meet their targets?," Journal of Asset Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 18(7), pages 566-579, December.
    10. Agnew, Julie R., 2006. "Do Behavioral Biases Vary across Individuals? Evidence from Individual Level 401(k) Data," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 41(4), pages 939-962, December.
    11. Elton, Edwin J & Gruber, Martin J & Blake, Christopher R, 1996. "The Persistence of Risk-Adjusted Mutual Fund Performance," The Journal of Business, University of Chicago Press, vol. 69(2), pages 133-157, April.
    12. Utpal Bhattacharya & Jung H. Lee & Veronika K. Pool, 2013. "Conflicting Family Values in Mutual Fund Families," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 68(1), pages 173-200, February.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Francisco Gomes & Michael Haliassos & Tarun Ramadorai, 2021. "Household Finance," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 59(3), pages 919-1000, September.
    2. Elton, Edwin J. & Gruber, Martin J., 2013. "Mutual Funds," Handbook of the Economics of Finance, in: G.M. Constantinides & M. Harris & R. M. Stulz (ed.), Handbook of the Economics of Finance, volume 2, chapter 0, pages 1011-1061, Elsevier.
    3. Keith Cuthbertson & Dirk Nitzsche & Niall O'Sullivan, 2010. "Mutual Fund Performance: Measurement and Evidence," Financial Markets, Institutions & Instruments, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 19(2), pages 95-187, May.
    4. Beshears, John & Choi, James J. & Laibson, David & Madrian, Brigitte C., 2011. "Behavioral economics perspectives on public sector pension plans," Journal of Pension Economics and Finance, Cambridge University Press, vol. 10(2), pages 315-336, April.
    5. Andrea Flori & Fabrizio Lillo & Fabio Pammolli & Alessandro Spelta, 2021. "Better to stay apart: asset commonality, bipartite network centrality, and investment strategies," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 299(1), pages 177-213, April.
    6. Gerrans, Paul & Yap, Ghialy, 2014. "Retirement savings investment choices: Sophisticated or naive?," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 30(C), pages 233-250.
    7. Amparo Soler Domínguez & Juan Carlos Matallín Sáez & Emili Tortosa Ausina, 2011. "On the informativeness of persistence for mutual funds' performance evaluation using partial frontiers," Working Papers. Serie EC 2011-08, Instituto Valenciano de Investigaciones Económicas, S.A. (Ivie).
    8. Nicolas Aubert & Thomas Rapp, 2010. "Employee's investment behaviors in a company based savings plan," Finance, Presses universitaires de Grenoble, vol. 31(1), pages 5-32.
    9. Roberto Casarin & Andrea Piva & Loriana Pelizzon, 2008. "Italian Equity Funds: Efficiency and Performance Persistence," The IUP Journal of Financial Economics, IUP Publications, vol. 0(1), pages 7-28, March.
    10. William Droms & David Walker, 2001. "Persistence of mutual fund operating characteristics: returns, turnover rates, and expense ratios," Applied Financial Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 11(4), pages 457-466.
    11. Choi, James J. & Haisley, Emily & Kurkoski, Jennifer & Massey, Cade, 2017. "Small cues change savings choices," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 142(C), pages 378-395.
    12. Omneya Abdelsalam & Meryem Duygun & Juan Carlos Matallín-Sáez & Emili Tortosa-Ausina, 2014. "Is Ethical Money Sensitive to Past Returns? The Case of Portfolio Constraints and Persistence of Islamic and Socially Responsible Funds," Working Papers 2014/19, Economics Department, Universitat Jaume I, Castellón (Spain).
    13. Trabelsi, Mohamed Ali, 2010. "Choix de portefeuille: comparaison des différentes stratégies [Portfolio selection: comparison of different strategies]," MPRA Paper 82946, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 01 Dec 2010.
    14. Magnus Dahlquist & Ofer Setty & Roine Vestman, 2018. "On the Asset Allocation of a Default Pension Fund," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 73(4), pages 1893-1936, August.
    15. Dong‐Hyun Ahn & H. Henry Cao & Stéphane Chrétien, 2009. "Portfolio Performance Measurement: a No Arbitrage Bounds Approach," European Financial Management, European Financial Management Association, vol. 15(2), pages 298-339, March.
    16. Stephen J. Brown & William N. Goetzmann & Roger G. Ibbotson, 1997. "Offshore Hedge Funds: Survival and Performance 1989-1995," New York University, Leonard N. Stern School Finance Department Working Paper Seires 96-18, New York University, Leonard N. Stern School of Business-.
    17. Gao, Jun & O’Sullivan, Niall & Sherman, Meadhbh, 2017. "Performance persistence in Chinese securities investment funds," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 42(C), pages 1467-1477.
    18. Kronlund, Mathias & Pool, Veronika K. & Sialm, Clemens & Stefanescu, Irina, 2021. "Out of sight no more? The effect of fee disclosures on 401(k) investment allocations," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 141(2), pages 644-668.
    19. Dariusz Filip, 2011. "Performance Persistence of Equity Funds in Hungary," Contemporary Economics, University of Economics and Human Sciences in Warsaw., vol. 5(1), March.
    20. Maiia Sleptcova & Heidi Falkenbach, 2021. "Managerial Skill and European PERE Fund Performance," The Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, Springer, vol. 62(4), pages 665-690, May.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Target date funds; Expense ratio; Fund alphas; Portfolio risk;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J32 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs - - - Nonwage Labor Costs and Benefits; Retirement Plans; Private Pensions
    • D12 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - Consumer Economics: Empirical Analysis
    • G11 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Portfolio Choice; Investment Decisions

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:pal:assmgt:v:25:y:2024:i:4:d:10.1057_s41260-024-00349-0. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.palgrave-journals.com/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.