BPA is pleased to announce some significant enhancements to our Fund Research page within the participant and plan sponsor websites. This component of our website is offered through Newkirk Fund Central™ — licensed by BPA from Newkirk Products, Inc (NPI).
Following are some of the enhancements made to this page as of January, 2009 (per NPI):
- Longer performance histories. Revised fund pages display performance originating from the oldest share class and re-calculated by Morningstar to reflect the expenses of each share class. The result will be longer performance histories for many funds. We’ve also added calendar-year performance for the past ten years for the fund and its benchmark.
- Expanded fund-related fee information. The new fund pages will continue to include the gross expense ratio as required by regulations, but also will display the net expense ratio (in response to client requests), management fee, 12b-1 fee, and other expenses. Although the new fee disclosure regulations remain in flux, this information will be helpful to plan sponsors and participants in better understanding the expense structure of various funds.
- New asset allocation and additional fund composition data. Previously, fund pages displayed one set of composition data – largest holdings, asset allocation, equity sectors, regional breakdown, or bond diversification – for each fund. The new fund pages display the asset allocation for each fund, as well as an additional set of composition data from largest holdings, equity sectors, regional breakdown, country breakdown, bond quality breakdown, bond maturity breakdown, and bond sectors.
- Enhanced fund-characteristic information. The pages include the management style (active or passive) for all funds, as well as 30-day yields and duration for bond funds, average market cap and number of securities for stock funds, and seven-day yields for money market funds. In addition, fund pages will display the Morningstar Category, 3-Year Risk Rating, and 3-Year Performance Rating, where available.
To see the new information, please visit the participant website, select the “Fund Research” link within the Account Inquiry tab, then select the Web Link column for any fund in the table.
We hope you find these enhancements helpful as you continue to research funds and make investment decisions within your account.