Strengthening retirement plans with evidence-based investing

For plan sponsors and retirement plan financial professionals, expectations continue to rise. Increasing fiduciary scrutiny, evolving participant needs and persistent market uncertainty are reshaping how retirement plans are evaluated and managed. In today's environment, delivering consistent, defensible outcomes requires more than investment performance alone — it requires thoughtful plan design, disciplined governance and a long-term strategy grounded in research.

That's why we're excited to announce our collaboration with Dimensional Fund Advisors, a firm widely recognized for translating decades of financial research into practical retirement investment solutions.

Together, we're focused on helping financial professionals and plan sponsors navigate growing complexity with greater confidence through evidence-based investing and flexible retirement plan solutions designed around participant outcomes.

Why this partnership matters

At its core, the TruStage®/Dimensional partnership is designed to help financial professionals and plan sponsors address two critical priorities:

• Meet fiduciary obligations with greater confidence.
• Improve participant outcomes through evidence-based investment design.

As part of this collaboration, Dimensional manages a suite of target-date funds specifically designed for retirement plans. These solutions offer flexibility in portfolio construction, allowing plan sponsors to better align investment strategies with participant needs, retirement timelines and risk preferences.

Rather than relying on a one-size-fits-all approach, plan sponsors can select the appropriate level(s) of risk from the aggressive, moderate and conservative glide paths — enabling a more customized approach to managing risk over time.

Underpinning these portfolios is Dimensional's disciplined investment philosophy: a systematic, evidence-based asset allocation framework grounded in decades of financial research. This approach incorporates insights such as factor-based investing and avoids relying on market forecasts or manager discretion, helping create a more transparent and repeatable investment process.

That distinction matters. Today's fiduciary environment increasingly rewards disciplined, well-documented investment processes over short-term market predictions or performance chasing — a topic explored further in Dimensional's Fiduciary Resource Guide.

Rethinking retirement outcomes

One of the central challenges in retirement planning is balancing growth potential, retirement income needs and risk throughout a participant's financial journey.

Traditional investment approaches often emphasize equity exposure patterns or short-term fixed income allocations that may not fully optimize retirement income outcomes. Dimensional research, outlined in Researching Retirement: Myths and Realities About Asset Allocations, offers a different perspective — one focused on aligning investment strategies with how participants actually live and spend in retirement.

Their research highlights several important insights:

• Income-focused asset allocation strategies may deliver similar retirement spending outcomes with lower overall risk.
• Simply increasing equity exposure during retirement does not necessarily improve income outcomes and may increase variability and failure rates.
• Proper diversification and liability-aware investing can help align portfolios more closely to real retirement spending needs.

For financial professionals and plan sponsors, the takeaway is clear: how portfolios are constructed — and the specific risks they are designed to address — matters just as much as performance itself.

Thoughtfully designed target-date funds can play an important role in supporting retirement outcomes, particularly when they incorporate disciplined asset allocation and a clear philosophy around managing retirement income risk.

Supporting fiduciary excellence

At the same time, fiduciary responsibilities continue to grow more complex.

Under ERISA, fiduciaries are expected to act:

• Solely in the interest of participants
• With prudence, care and diligence
• Through a well-documented and repeatable decision-making process

Meeting fiduciary expectations today requires more than investment selection alone. It calls for thoughtful governance structures, disciplined oversight and repeatable decision-making processes that can stand up to increasing scrutiny. Dimensional's Fiduciary Resource Guide explores these considerations in greater detail.

Our partnership with Dimensional brings these elements together by providing financial professionals and plan sponsors access to:

• A flexible target-date framework with multiple glide path options
• A systematic, research-driven investment approach
• Tools and resources that support fiduciary oversight and documentation

Together, these capabilities can help retirement plans build stronger frameworks for serving participants while navigating evolving industry expectations.

Featured resources for financial professionals and plan sponsors

To help put these principles into action, we're highlighting several key resources designed to support retirement plan strategy and fiduciary best practices.

A comprehensive resource designed to help financial professionals and plan sponsors navigate todays fiduciary landscape with greater confidence.

Topics include:

• Plan governance structures and committee design
• Investment selection and monitoring frameworks
• Fee benchmarking and compliance best practices
• Sample investment policy statements and documentation templates

The guide is intended to help fiduciaries establish and maintain a prudent, process-driven approach to retirement plan management.

This research-backed resource explores how asset allocation decisions influence real retirement outcomes.

Highlights include:

• Why traditional allocation assumptions may fall short
• The role of income-focused strategies in retirement
• How risk should be evaluated in the context of retirement income — not just market volatility

Learn more about the philosophy and structure behind Dimensional's target-date solutions, including:

• Glide path design across aggressive, moderate and conservative options
• A systematic, evidence-based asset allocation framework
• Integration of long-term financial research into portfolio construction

Looking ahead

As retirement plans continue to evolve, financial professionals and plan sponsors need solutions grounded in research, supported by disciplined governance and designed around real participant outcomes.

Our partnership with Dimensional reflects a shared commitment to helping retirement plans navigate increasing complexity with greater clarity, flexibility and confidence.

By combining evidence-based investing with thoughtful fiduciary support, we believe retirement plans can be better positioned to serve participants today while preparing for the challenges and opportunities ahead.

Contact your TruStage® Retirement Solutions representative to discuss how our alliance with Dimensional Fund Advisors can help you provide brighter financial futures to more of your plan participants.