Changes to WealthBuilder Program
Please be advised that we will begin implementing changes to the WealthBuilder Strategies the week of December 9, 2015. An overview of these changes is provided below and will be made across the different investment objectives, if applicable.
Removal of BlackRock Equity Dividend Strategy
The BlackRock Equity Dividend Strategy invests in companies that can sustain and grow dividends. This leads to a lower-beta, high quality strategy that may struggle on a relative basis in strong markets. The fund underperformed its peer group and benchmark in 2012, 2013 and 2014, ranking in the 90th and 69th percentile of its peer group as of 8/31/14 over the 3- and 5-year period, respectively. In August of 2014, the firm hired an additional manager for the strategy. Given our favorable view on the equity market, underperformance of the fund and uncertainty surrounding the new manager, we decided to replace BlackRock Equity Dividend Strategy with Dodge and Cox Fund in September 2014. Given the size of the position and potential tax implications, we elected to implement this change gradually over a period of time. BlackRock recently announced that they will distribute a significant amount of capital gains for the Equity Dividend Strategy. As a result, we decided to exit the strategy in December this year.
Removal of PIMCO All Asset
The PIMCO All Asset Fund allocates across various asset classes by investing in a wide range of PIMCO mutual funds and ETFs. The manager takes a contrarian approach and tends to focus on what he calls “third pillar” assets including emerging market equities, emerging market bonds, high yield bonds, commodities, Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) and Treasury Inflation Protected Securities (TIPS). Many of these areas struggled in recent years. The manager has also increased the allocation to emerging market equities and bonds, amplifying underperformance of the strategy. It lagged its peer group and benchmark in 2013, 2014 and YTD, ranking in the 94th percentile over the 3- and 5-year periods as of 11/30/15. Given the increased risk profile and other managers within Allocation Strategies, we decided to remove the fund.
Questions may be directed to Liu Liu, CFA at BOK Financial at 918-594-7754.
