Fundsters interested in the target date side of the mutual fund business may want to take a look at Chuck Jaffe's column from yesterday. The MarketWatch columnist writes that the SEC's proposed target-date fund reforms -- requiring the use of graphs to display target date funds' glidepaths and the inclusion of assets allocation numbers at the target date in the name of the fund -- don't go far enough.

"The problem is that such disclosures don't tell you much about where a fund is now or how it will get from here to there," Jaffe argues. "It also oversimplifies asset allocation, by not disclosing how much of the portfolio is domestic versus international, or the percentage of equities in blue chips versus micro-caps."

Jaffe reiterates the widespread worry about different target date funds having different glidepaths. He advocates designating some target date funds as aggressive for their target and others as conservative, or switching target dates to target ages combined with risk tolerance, slowly shifting the age number for a given fund forward as its shareholders age.

While fundsters may hear from some shareholders who read Jaffe's piece, the columnist himself isn't optimistic about the chances of his own proposal (or any other that's, in his view, stronger than the SEC's proposal) being adopted. 

Edited by: Neil Anderson, Managing Editor


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