Imagine an individual-account (defined-contribution) retirement plan that does not provide participant-directed investment.
Imagine the participants range from 18-year-olds to workers in their 90s.
If you were the plan’s trustee or investment manager with complete authority and responsibility to decide the plan’s investment policy, what would you do?
Would you decide an asset allocation grounded on some average of the participants’ ages?
Is there another method you might use to balance the potentially differing interests of younger and older participants?
Is there some other way—without changing the plan’s provisions—to manage this fiduciary challenge?