Upcoming Plan Changes For TIAA

The University of Hartford Retirement Plan Committee (“Committee”) is responsible for monitoring all aspects of the University of Hartford Retirement Plan (“Plan”). For the past 12 years, the Committee has relied on an independent regional investment advisory firm, Hooker & Holcombe Investment Advisors, Inc., to provide oversight of the Plan’s investments. Throughout this period TIAA has served as the Plan’s Record-keeper and Custodian of Plan assets.  

Upcoming Plan Changes 

Plan Fees

One of the responsibilities of the Committee is to monitor total Plan costs to ensure they are reasonable and commensurate with the services being provided to the Plan and its participants.  Currently all Plan costs (including recordkeeping/custodial, investment advisory, and auditor’s fees) are being covered by shareholder servicing rebates, which are rebates paid back to the Plan by some of the Plan’s mutual fund and annuity product providers rather than direct charges to participants.  A summary of all fees and rebates is provided to you in the 404(a)(5) Participant Fee Disclosure that you receive each year.  

Over the last several years trends in the retirement plan industry have been to adopt practices that are transparent and cost effective. These practices include:

• Utilizing the lowest cost share class of annuity contracts and /or mutual funds where appropriate (i.e. share classes that offer zero shareholder servicing rebates).
• Implementation of direct fee assessments against participant accounts for administrative, advisory and auditing services. The increased earnings realized by switching to lower cost share classes typically more than offsets the direct charges to participant accounts.
• Establishing explicit fee schedules that are fair and equitable to all participants. 

The Committee has voted to implement these industry standard practices effective July 1, 2021 with the goal of being clear and transparent regarding all fees. As noted above, the current fees are paid from fund revenue sharing.  In lieu of the current fee structure, Plan costs will be covered by a new investment level fee of 0.10% on all participant account balances, to be assessed quarterly. You may see either a debit or credit on your quarterly account statement depending upon the revenue share of the investments you have selected in the Plan.  

The fund lineup will be updated to include lower cost share classes. Where appropriate any and all revenue sharing over .10% will be returned back to each of your accounts. You will be receiving information from TIAA shortly with more details on these changes. Over the years, as the retirement plan industry has evolved, the Committee has been committed to reducing participant costs wherever possible, and this represents one more step in that process. 

Fund Changes

Following a fund review meeting with our advisor, the Committee has decided to replace two of the funds in the Plan’s lineup due to their failure to meet expectations. Templeton Global Bond Fund will be replaced by the PGIM Global Total Return Fund, and the TIAA-CREF Mid Cap Value Fund will be replaced by the MFS Mid Cap Value Fund. These changes will be implemented with the other changes mentioned above on July 1.  

You will receive a formal notice of these changes directly from TIAA on or around June 1. We plan to offer in person or zoom meetings for those with questions towards the end of June.