Delivering Complete Defined Contribution Solutions

No matter the size of a defined contribution (DC) plan, its ultimate goal is to help members pursue their retirement goals with confidence. AllianceBernstein’s dedicated DC team can deliver solutions that may lead to better outcomes.

DC Features

Bringing the best of DB to DC

Wouldn't it be nice to provide DC participants with benefits traditionally associated with DB plans?

AllianceBernstein can help DC plan fiduciaries move towards this goal.

Four "puzzle pieces" must be put in place to bring the best of DB to a DC plan.

Bringing the best of DB to DC

Flexible & Low Cost

  • A unique open-architecture investment platform supports active, passive and hybrid management services.
  • A flexible structure makes it easy to change the glide path and add, replace or remove managers without disrupting savers in the scheme.
  • Low-fee institutional vehicles and scale-based pricing reduce investment costs to help employees build wealth more effectively.

Bringing the best of DB to DC

Secure Lifetime Income

  • Sleep walking into an annuity early in retirement can seriously damage your wealth. There is a place for annuities, but not for young retirees.
  • We believe DC needs innovative retirement products which do not depend on immediate annuitisation.
  • Affordable flexible drawdown and other innovative retirement income solutions are the key to bringing DB-like security to DC members.

Bringing the best of DB to DC

Expert Investment Design

  • Four decades of investment and wealth-management experience give us insight into how to address the retirement challenge.
  • Research-driven target-date design seeks to maximise savings during working years and use those savings to provide an income in retirement.
  • A high level of diversification coupled with dynamic asset allocation helps reduce the risk of short-term market losses that can derail savers' investment strategies.

Bringing the best of DB to DC

Effortless Participation

  • Effective communications and enrolment support can simplify employee participation and help increase savings rates.
  • Dedicated client service team and seamless implementation make changing a scheme's investments smooth and simple.
  • A communications approach that is informed by our research into how participants think and feel about investing.
 

Helping Participants

In these uncertain and complicated times, an increasing number of pension scheme savers are responsible for funding their own retirement security. In the future, that will mean many savers will have to rely on their scheme’s default investment solution to generate an income when they stop work.

We believe that a default fund which progressively reduces risk as savers get older can make a big difference in helping them achieve their objectives. That is why AllianceBernstein has designed its target-date solutions to address these changing risks - savers join the fund with a target date closest to when they are expected to retire and we do the rest. And we can also make it easier for employees to participate and save more by providing a tailored communications approach and enrolment support to scheme providers.

Serving Scheme Providers

For providers, delivering good solutions to savers is a crucial responsibility. Age-appropriate target-date funds are likely to be the most effective solution for many savers.

AllianceBernstein has drawn on more than 40 years of experience in building asset-allocation strategies to design target-date solutions to help put savers on the right path up to and, in some cases, after retirement.

We can help get employees enrolled, contributing enough and investing appropriately with highly effective communications and implementation support.

Collaborating with Partners

The DC landscape is growing more complex, requiring a new level of partnership between providers to develop and deliver the next generation of DC solutions.

AllianceBernstein is leading the way, forging deeper relationships with platform providers, administrators and custodians, with each able to contribute its core strengths through our flexible, open-architecture platform.

Our dedicated strategic partnership team makes developing and implementing effective solutions easy, and AllianceBernstein gives financial advisors and consultants the tools they need—in-depth research insights, communications and implementation support.