Fundamentals of 401(k) Investment Menu Construction

Part 1 of 3: Getting Started

Guest: Matthew Sommer, CFA, CFP

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Constructing an investment menu is something all 401(k) plans need to do.  And, like most things, to get a good outcome for your plan and participants, the devil is in the details!  To help you as a plan fiduciary I am excited to introduce our first three part mini-course of the podcast!  This episode is Part One where we discuss fundamentals and key building blocks of investment menu construction.  To help provide perspective I invited Matt Sommer, Vice President and Director of Defined Contribution Services at Janus Capital.  As a both a CFA and a CFP, Matt provides valuable and more importantly understandable insights on trends in investment menu design.  Our conversation ranges from fundamental concepts such as how many investments are plans offering, how investment menu design correlates to plan size and thoughts offering self-directed brokerage accounts.  Also, be sure to listen for some considerations for plan fiduciaries around investment risk based on where we sit in the second half of 2016 and in the midst of an equity bull market and declining interest rates.  If you haven’t already, be sure to subscribe to the podcast on iTunes or your favorite podcast app to be notified when the next two episodes are released.  Now, I hope you enjoy part one!

Guest Bio

 Matt Sommer is Vice President and leads the Defined Contribution and Wealth Advisor Services team at Janus. In this role, he provides advice and consultation to financial advisors surrounding some of today’s most complex retirement issues. His expertise covers a number of areas including regulatory and legislative trends, practitioner best practices, and financial and retirement planning strategies for high-net-worth clients. 

 

Prior to joining Janus, Mr. Sommer spent 17 years at Morgan Stanley Wealth Management and its predecessors. He held a number of senior management positions including Director of Financial Planning at Citi Global Wealth Management and Director of Retirement Planning at Smith Barney. 

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Mr. Sommer received his undergraduate degree in Finance from the University of Rhode Island and received a Masters of Business Administration with a specialization in Finance from the Lubin School of Business at Pace University. Mr. Sommer currently serves on the CPWA® examination committee.