To:
Current Accenture 401k Plan Participants
From: Compass Investors
Re: Selecting Your 401k Advice Provider
As you have probably seen by now, Accenture has selected Financial Engines to
provide advice on how interested employees should invest their 401(k) money.
It is important you realize that you have a choice when selecting a 401k advice
provider and that this choice is critical to your future retirement income
security. The answers to the questions below will enable you to make an informed
decision. (Please note that if you are already a subscriber, are no longer an
Accenture plan participant or no longer wish to receive information from Compass
Investors about the HORIZON™ service, please let us know.)
QUESTIONS TO ASK WHEN SELECTING AN ADVICE PROVIDER
What is difference between the HORIZON™ and Financial Engine investment
approaches?
There are two primary approaches for managing a Retirement Plan: Formulaic
Asset Allocation (FAA) and Adaptive Asset Allocation™ (AAA).
Firms such as Financial Engines use a Formulaic Asset Allocation (FAA) investing
approach that requires you to hold a predetermined percentage of your plan�s value
in stocks, bonds or cash�the familiar �pie chart��at all times, regardless of market
and economic conditions. The percentage mix is set for you based on how you answer
questions about risk tolerance, age, life expectancy, etc. NOTE: Life Cycle and
Balanced mutual funds use an FAA style of investing.
By contrast, the Compass Investors HORIZON™ recommendations are based on
an Adaptive Asset Allocation™ (AAA) approach that responds to the realities of existing
market and economic conditions. Every 5 weeks HORIZON™ analyzes and then
identifies the best-positioned funds in your plan and the recommended percentage
of your plan�s assets that should be invested in each one. There are no predetermined
fixed percentages.
How do Financial Engine�s performance results compare to Horizon�s™ results?
Unfortunately, it is not possible to answer this most critical question because,
unlike Compass Investors, Financial Engines does not publish performance results.
Knowing performance results is indispensable for making this decision. After all,
would you buy a car that did not publish it�s crash and rollover test results? As
a guide, however, since Financial Engines and Life Cycle mutual funds both use an
FAA investing approach, you can compare the differences by comparing the performance
results obtained by the BEST Fidelity Freedom fund (an FAA mutual fund) and
Horizon™ AAA in the table below.
Comparative Average Annual Investment Returns
| Market Cycle Timeframe | Horizon™
AAA for Accenture |
The Best Fidelity Freedom Fund (An FAA Alternative) |
| Up/Down/Up Market Cycle (1/1/1997 - 12/31/2006) |
17.3% | 8.8% |
| Down/Up Market Cycle (1/1/2000 - 12/31/2006) |
9.4% | 3.5% |
| Average Across Both Market Cycles | 13.3% | 6.2% |
The above results indicate that plan values for
participants at retirement will be 3-4 times greater
with HORIZON™ than
with an FAA approach. And this is accomplished at 1/5th the cost.
Studies show that for your 401k plan to provide you with realistic retirement income
security, an Annual Average Return (AAR) of at least 12% is required over the long-term.
No FAA approach can achieve this performance level. Only an AAA approach like
Horizon™ can.
Does Financial Engines offer any subscription refund guarantees?
Financial Engines does NOT offer A lifetime Subscription Refund Guarantee. Compass Investors,
because of the consistency of our AAA approach, is the ONLY firm of its kind that offers a lifetime Subscription Refund Guarantee. In fact, we offer 2 of them. And one of them is that over
any 3-year period we will outperform the best performing FAA fund in your plan.
How do the two approaches protect plan value in a severe down market?
By having to hold a fixed percentage of your money in stocks, when being guided
by FAA such as Financial Engines uses, plan value is lost in a down market for as
long as it lasts.. But by being adaptive, HORIZON™ AAA shifts investments
from stocks into fixed income or cash as the market begins to go down. At a certain
point, there is nothing invested in stocks. With Horizon™, therefore, losses
are limited and plan value is protected.
How do the two approaches grow plan value during a strong up market?
By having to hold a fixed percentage of your money in bonds that typically lose
money in an up market�growth of your plan value will be restrained when using
FAA
such as Financial Engines uses. By contrast, during a strong up market,
Horizon™ AAA will typically have 100% of your plan in stocks making money therefore producing
the largest growth.
If my colleagues choose not to use Financial Engines, can they still
become HORIZON™ subscribers?
Yes. In fact, if you have any co-workers that
you think would be well served by HORIZON™ have them send us a request for
information (tell them to mention your name) to [email protected]. You might also consider forwarding this valuable
information about the two services along to them as well.
HOW TO ENROLL IN THE HORIZON™ ADVICE SERVICE
Send us a request for information to [email protected].
Regards,
Kevin Coppola
President, Compass Investors