Investment options available

Participants can pick the mix of investments that best match their needs from the plan’s streamlined investment lineup.

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Simply Retirement by Principal® investment options offer attractive performance with a competitive return, helping make the most of employees’ contributions and any matching contributions provided by the business owner.

Wilshire Advisors LLC will be the plan’s 3(38) investment fiduciary and Wilshire Advisors LLC provides objective, independent third-party oversight for the screening, selection, and monitoring of the investment options available for Simply Retirement by Principal®. The firm also makes changes to the investment lineup when they deem appropriate.

If you’re working with a financial professional, they may assist you with selecting an alternative investment lineup for your plan. Talk to your financial professional for more information about the investment options for your plan.

Participating employees have the option to choose their mix of investments from the plan’s investment lineup based on the asset classes below*:

US Equity
US Equity Large-Cap

This asset class is generally composed of investment options that invest in stocks or shares of ownership in large, well-established, U.S. companies. These investment options typically carry more risk than fixed income investment options but have the potential for higher returns over longer time periods. They may be an appropriate choice for long-term investors who are seeking the potential for growth. All investment options in this category have the potential to lose value.

US Equity Small/Mid-Cap

This asset class is generally composed of investment options that invest in stocks or shares of ownership in small to medium-sized U.S. companies. These investment options typically carry more risk than larger U.S. equity investment options but have the potential for higher returns. They may be an appropriate choice for long-term investors who are seeking the potential for growth. All investment options in this category have the potential to lose value.

International Equity

This asset class is composed of investment options that invest in stocks or shares of ownership in companies with their principal place of business or office outside the United States. These investment options often carry more risk than U.S. equity investment options but may have the potential for higher returns. They may be an appropriate choice for long-term investors who are seeking the potential for growth. All investment options in this category have the potential to lose value.

Fixed Income

This asset class is generally composed of investment options that invest in bonds or debt of a company or government entity (including U.S. and Non-U.S.). It may also include real estate investment options that directly own property. These investment options typically carry more risk than short-term fixed income investment options (including, for real estate investment options, liquidity risk), but less overall risk than equities. All investment options in this category have the potential to lose value.

Target Date

Target date portfolios provide a diversified exposure to stocks, bonds, and cash for those investors who have a specific date in mind for retirement or another goal. These portfolios aim to provide investors with an optimal level of return and risk, based solely on the target date. Over time, management adjusts the allocation among asset classes to more conservative mixes as the target date approaches. All investment options in this category have the potential to lose value.

Capital Preservation

Stable-value portfolios seek to provide income while preventing price fluctuations. The most common stable-value portfolios invest in a diversified portfolio of bonds and enter into wrapper agreements with financial companies to guarantee against fluctuations in their share prices. These wrapper agreements typically provide price stability on a day-to-day basis, thereby insulating each portfolio's net asset value from interest-rate volatility.

Real Estate

Real estate portfolios invest primarily in real estate investment trusts of various types. REITs are companies that develop and manage real estate properties. There are several different types of REITs, including apartment, factory-outlet, health care, hotel, industrial, mortgage, office, and shopping center REITs. Some portfolios in this category also invest in real estate operating companies. All investment options in this category have the potential to lose value.

About Fiduciary Services and Wilshire Advisors LLC

Managing obligations as a fiduciary can be challenging, from navigating the landscape of available investment managers to monitoring plan investments and more.

That means the investment professionals at Wilshire Advisors LLC are responsible for the creation and oversight of the investment lineup for Simply Retirement by Principal®. As a result, participants can benefit from the same investment manager research resources that help select investment options for some of the largest retirement and pension plans in the world.

What does Wilshire Advisors LLC do?

Wilshire Advisors LLC helps screen and select plan investments for Simply Retirement by Principal®. They routinely monitor the investments in the plan and apply a rigorous review process, then make appropriate adjustments. If Wilshire Advisors LLC makes a change to any investments in the Simply Retirement by Principal® lineup, plan sponsors will receive an email, and the required participant notices will be sent to the participants’ email accounts and be accessible via the dashboard.

Why Wilshire Advisors LLC?

Wilshire Advisors LLC is a diversified global financial services firm that offers:

  • Objectivity with independent third-party investment evaluation based on more than 40 years of providing investment guidance to some of the largest plan sponsors in the country.

  • A tested process for screening, monitoring, and recommending investment options for the plan’s investment lineup.

Wilshire is an investment advisory firm with more than 50 years of investment consulting services, analytics and customized investment solutions. They have a long and tenured history in providing investment solutions to some of the world’s largest retirement plan sponsors. They take the same institutional resources and advisory solutions typically reserved for billion-dollar retirement plans directly to financial professionals serving plan sponsors both large and small through the Wilshire 3(21) and 3(38) fiduciary services offering. Wilshire helps plan sponsors manage their fiduciary obligations, not just in designing the menu and selecting investments, but also monitoring them on an ongoing basis.

Intended for financial professional, TPA, and plan sponsor use.

*below: As of Sept 30, 2024.

*Representing combined assets of more than $9 trillion: As of Sept 30, 2024.

*More than 39,000 plans: As of Sept 30, 2024.

*Over 70 investment professionals contributing to investment manager research: As of Sept 30, 2024.