SOURCES SOUGHT
R -- BENEFITS PLAN CONSULTANT
- Notice Date
- 10/20/2003
- Notice Type
- Sources Sought
- Contracting Office
- Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board, Office of Administration, Office of Administration-Procurement and Contracts, 1250 H. Street, N.W., Washington, DC, 20005
- ZIP Code
- 20005
- Solicitation Number
- TIB-RFI-04-02
- Response Due
- 11/17/2003
- Archive Date
- 11/30/2003
- Point of Contact
- Angela Allen, Contracting Officer, Phone 202-942-1693, Fax 202-942-1674,
- E-Mail Address
-
aallen@tsp.gov
- Description
- THIS IS A REQUEST FOR INFORMATION. IT IS NOT A REQUEST FOR PROPOSAL AND DOES NOT COMMIT THE GOVERNMENT TO AWARD A CONTRACT NOW OR IN THE FUTURE. NO SOLICITATION IS AVAILABLE AT THIS TIME. The Thrift Savings Plan (TSP) is a defined contribution, retirement savings and investment plan, similar to a 401(k) plan, for civilian employees of the United States government and uniformed services members. The TSP is the largest defined contribution plan in the world, with over 3.2 million participants and over $118 billion in assets as of September 30, 2003. The Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board (FRTIB) is an independent Federal agency charged by statute with administering the TSP. The FRTIB is exploring options for adding target asset allocation funds as an investment choice for TSP participants. Depending on the information that is provided in response to this RFI, the FRTIB may decide to contract with a con-sulting firm to advise it concerning the establishment and operation of such funds. If the FRTIB then decides to establish such funds, it may decide to contract with a private sector firm to manage such funds. The FRTIB is interested in obtaining information about the establishment and operation of two types of target asset allocation funds: 1. Funds that have a predefined investment objective, i.e., with target asset allocations appropriate to the particular objective that are maintained over time. These are sometimes referred to as ?lifestyle? funds. 2. Funds that have a predefined investment time horizon, i.e., with target asset allocations that will vary as the horizon date ap-proaches. These are sometimes referred to as "lifecycle" funds. The terms ?lifestyle funds? and ?lifecycle funds?, respectively, will be used in this RFI to refer to these two types of target asset allocation funds. The TSP currently has the following five investment funds, which are established by statute: The G Fund is invested in short-term nonmarketable U.S. Treasury securities that are specially issued to the TSP. The G Fund interest rate, set monthly, equals the average of market rates of return on U.S. Treasury marketable securities outstanding with four or more years to maturity. The F Fund is an index fund that tracks the Lehman Brothers U.S. Aggregate (LBA) bond index. The C Fund is an index fund that tracks the Stan-dard and Poor?s (S&P) 500 stock index. The S Fund is an index fund that tracks the Wilshire 4500 stock index. The I Fund is an index fund that tracks the EAFE (Europe, Australasia, Far East) stock index. These funds are described more fully in the booklets, ?Summary of the Thrift Savings Plan? and ?Guide to TSP Investments,? which can be downloaded from the TSP Web site, www.tsp.gov. The F, C, S, and I Funds are currently managed by Barclays Global Investors, Inc. The G Fund is managed in-house by FRTIB staff. It is the FRTIB?s current intent, if feasible, to establish lifestyle or lifecycle funds using only the current TSP investment options. In this RFI, the FRTIB is requesting information from employee benefits consulting firms concerning lifestyle and lifecycle funds, in order to help it address the following issues: 1. How the FRTIB should proceed in evaluating whether to establish lifestyle and/or lifecycle funds for its par-ticipants and, if so, the number and types of funds it should offer, including the advantages and disadvantages of different types of funds. 2. Recommended procedures for introducing lifestyle and/or lifecycle funds, including communications strategies for such funds. 3. Recommended methods for choosing target asset allocation percentages for lifestyle and/or lifecycle funds. 4. The ability to use the existing TSP funds exclusively to establish and operate lifestyle and/or lifecycle funds. 5. How lifestyle and/or lifecycle funds using the existing TSP funds exclusively could be operated using a manager other than the FRTIB staff and whether any investment management firms would be interested in such an arrangement. 6. The potential fees and other costs associated with operating lifestyle and/or lifecycle funds by an outside manager, using the existing TSP investment funds exclusively. In order to elicit the required information, the FRTIB is requesting that each responding organization provide, within 30 days of the date of this RFI, the following: 1. Information showing that the organization meets the minimum criterion. 2. Any information that the organization believes would help the FRTIB address the requests made above, including, but not limited to, answers to the following questions: a. For lifestyle and lifecycle funds, respectively, how many funds are typically offered by an employee benefit plan that offers such funds? What are the relevant trends related to such funds, such as whether plans are offering more or fewer funds, the size and types of plans offering such funds, and other similar information? b. How many lifestyle and lifecycle funds, respectively, would you recommend, and how would these funds be distinguished from one another? c. What are the typical investments of a lifestyle fund portfolio and of a lifecycle fund portfolio? For each type of fund, how should target asset allocations among these investments be determined? Could the fund be established using fixed asset allocations or would you recommend targets or flexible ?ranges? of targets? Would a manager be willing to manage a fund that did not allow such asset allocation flexibility? With respect to lifestyle funds only, if the eligible investments of the portfo-lio vary by risk tolerance, which portfolio investments are generally included or excluded as risk tolerance increases/decreases? With respect to lifecycle funds only, how do portfolio investment options vary as the investment horizon decreases? We note that the TSP's active participants range in age from approximately 20 to 70. How would this affect the num-ber or structure of lifecycle funds offered to TSP participants? d. Would you recommend using active or passive investments in a lifestyle or a lifecycle fund?s portfolio? Why or why not? e. What are the recommended performance benchmarks for lifestyle and lifecycle funds, respectively? How much portfolio turnover should be expected as a result of strategic asset allocation decisions? f. What are typical investment fee structures for lifestyle funds and lifecycle funds, respectively? What portion of such fees is related to management of the fund?s investments in the component funds and what portion is due to investment management fees of the underlying component funds? g. In your opinion, could lifestyle or lifecycle funds be successfully operated using the existing TSP investment funds exclusively? What are the advantages and disadvantages of doing so? h. What range of investment management fees could be expected for management of a lifestyle fund or a lifecycle fund composed exclusively of the existing TSP funds? i. Which firms, if any, would be willing to enter into a contract to manage a lifestyle fund or a lifecycle fund composed exclusively of the existing TSP funds? j. What methods are most effective in communicating the features of lifestyle funds or lifecycle funds to plan participants? k. What percentage of participants should we expect to participate in lifestyle funds or lifecycle funds, respectively? For such participants, what percentage of their plan assets could we expect them to put in a lifestyle or lifecycle funds? l. How can we educate participants to use lifestyle funds or lifecycle funds appropriately? What measures, if any, do you recommend to reduce market timing of these funds, or to encourage appropriate inclusion of these funds in participant portfolios? The TSP intends to engage in further information gathering with responding organizations meeting the minimum criterion set forth in section 5, including holding meetings with representatives of such organizations to obtain further information. The responding organization has advised at least two clients with plans having 10,000 or more participants concerning the establishment or operation of ?lifestyle? or ?lifecycle? funds. INTERESTED FIRMS MUST SUBMIT RESPONSES IN ORIGINAL AND ONE COPY BY 3:30PM EST ON NOVEMBER 17, 2003. NO FAX OR EMAIL RESPONSES WILL BE ACCEPTED.
- Place of Performance
- Address: VARIOUS LOCATIONS
- Country: USA
- Country: USA
- Record
- SN00454853-W 20031022/031020213638 (fbodaily.com)
- Source
-
FedBizOpps.gov Link to This Notice
(may not be valid after Archive Date)
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