Vantagepoint Funds and VT PLUS Fund Are Being Made Available to Private Sector Defined Contribution Plans

Investment Weekly News

By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Investment Weekly News -- ICMA-RC, which has served public sector retirement plans and employees for over 45 years, is now making the VT PLUS Fund and certain Vantagepoint Funds managed by ICMA-RC available to private sector defined contribution plans on an investment only basis. ICMA-RC currently serves more than a million retirement accounts in approximately 9,000 public sector plans. The defined contribution investment only (DCIO) expansion into the private sector is expected to increase fund assets in support of ICMA-RC's mission to help public sector employees build retirement security.

"ICMA-RC has provided retirement investments and services to the public sector for more than 45 years and we continue to focus on that mission," said ICMA-RC President and CEO Bob Schultze. "We expect that making the Vantagepoint Funds available to private sector employers will benefit public sector plan sponsors through asset growth, which is likely to produce economies of scale. This is a positive step for ICMA-RC, our current public sector clients, and private sector plan participants who can now invest with us."

The VT PLUS Fund, which has more than $10 billion in assets, was a top performing stable value fund for the 1-, 3-, 5- and 10 years ending June 30, 2017, based on data from the Hueler Analytics Stable Value Pooled Fund Comparative Universe.1

Based on total return, 96%, 73%, and 84% of the Vantagepoint S11 class actively managed equity, fixed income, target-date and target-risk funds2 outperformed their Morningstar category peer medians3 for the 1, 5-, and 10-year periods ended June 30, 2017, respectively.

"Making the VT PLUS Fund and multi-managed Vantagepoint Funds available to private sector defined contribution plans will bring historically strong performance and thoughtfully constructed investments from industry-leading managers to a key segment of the retirement market," said ICMA-RC Senior Vice President and Chief Investment Officer Wayne Wicker. "Our experienced in-house investment team is pleased ICMA-RC has decided to expand the availability of our funds to include participants in private sector defined contribution plans."