One of our most popular employee benefits is our array of retirement savings options. A committee of faculty, staff and administrators regularly review our plans to make sure our retirement savings options are the best they can be.
Effective March 31, we’re making four updates to further improve our plans:
- One streamlined investment lineup available to all participants, regardless of hire date
- New investment opportunities for employees who want to take a more active role in their investments
- New options to invest in funds that focus on environmental, social and governance responsibility
- Lower fees for most participants
You will receive information from TIAA or Fidelity, depending on which of our two retirement vendors you currently use.
You don’t have to take any action based on these updates.
One investment lineup for everyone
Currently, your investment options with our two retirement savings vendors, TIAA and Fidelity, depend on when you were hired. Our new lineup for funds will be the same for everyone who participates in our matching and voluntary retirement savings plans. You will have 25 investment choices with TIAA and 19 with Fidelity.
Previously, some investment options were only available to employees hired before July 1, 2015.
With these updates, some current investment options will no longer be available. If your current investment is going away, it will automatically be transferred to a similar option in our new lineup. Should you want to continue with the same fund you have now, most of these funds will be available in a new option. More information is below about these new options for active investing.
You do not have to take any action, but you will always have the option to change your investments now or any time in the future.
We will continue to offer a variety of “target date” or “lifecycle” funds, which are very popular. These funds are managed according to your age or target retirement date.
As a result of this update, our vendors will have fewer investments to administer, which lowers your expenses. That means more of your money is saved for your future.
New options for active investing
UK’s retirement savings plans have previously included a brokerage option only for the voluntary plan, but not the matching plan. TIAA calls this option a “Self-Directed Brokerage Account,” and Fidelity calls it “BrokerageLink.” With either vendor, it allows you to actively choose your individual investments. We will now make this available to all matching plan participants, which allows you to access thousands of stocks and mutual funds, including most of the funds that were in the former investment lineup. For more detailed information about these brokerage options, please see the information from TIAA and Fidelity.
Download Fidelity's guide to these changes
Download TIAA's guide to these changes
TIAA also provides separate booklets about their brokerage option.
TIAA matching retirement plan brokerage guide
TIAA voluntary plan brokerage guide
You may open a brokerage account with TIAA before March 12 or with Fidelity before March 15. You can also open a brokerage account any time after April 1 to access thousands of investment options, including funds that were previously available and mapped to a similar fund at a lower cost.
Environment, Social and Governance funds
Included in this new brokerage option are new Environment, Social and Governance (ESG) funds. These funds allow you to invest in companies that rate highly for their environmental, social and governance responsibility.
Lower fees for most participants
All plan participants pay TIAA or Fidelity a fee. Currently, that fee varies depending on your investments and how much you have saved. We’re leveling the fee for all our retirement savings plan participants to 0.06%, which is lower than most participants currently pay. Fees are not new; they are now just more transparent, and lower for most participants. This fee will appear on your quarterly statements.
Learn more
Get more information from TIAA
Download TIAA's guide to these changes
Get more information from Fidelity
Download Fidelity's guide to these changes