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The University of Oklahoma Human Resources Website

Retirement Plan Investment Selection Process

1. DETERMINE YOUR INVESTMENT STYLE

Investor Questionnaire – A good approach is to do an investor questionnaire to determine your risk profile.  You will find a questionnaire on each of the investment company’s website. This will tell you if you are a conservative, moderate or aggressive investor.  Based on the results of the questionnaire, you will be shown a model portfolio to help you select the right percentage of stock, bond and money market funds for your level of risk.

2. SELECT AN INVESTMENT COMPANY

Investment Company Choices –The four companies from which you may choose are shown below:

  1. Fidelity
    800-343-0860
  2. ING
    800-525-4225
  3. TIAA-CREF
    800-842-2776
  4. Vanguard
    800-523-1188

Information about each company can be found on their website, or you may want to call their representatives if you have specific questions. You may invest in one or all of these companies; however, each company provides an adequate diversification of funds for most participants. Periodically, some of the investments companies send representatives to our campus for group or indvidual meetings. Consult the Workshops and Events section for a schedule.

3. SELECT FUNDS FOR INVESTMENT  

Investment Performance Report – One way to get a quick overview of selected funds from all four companies is to go online to the investment performance of selected funds for 1, 5 and 10 years. This report is updated quarterly and includes a representative list of funds available. The complete information and performance information for all available funds is on each company’s website.

Build Your Investment Portfolio

Based on the results of your Investor Questionnaire, you will be in a position to select (1) the type of funds and (2) the percentage that should be invested in each fund to match your risk profile.

Want a More Automatic Fund Selection Process?

Retirement Date Portfolios – You may prefer to use “pre-packaged” or “all-in-one” fund approach. One version of this approach is shown on the Investment Performance Report under Retirement Date Funds.  You simply select the fund that is closest to your projected retirement year.  The investment manager then allocates the investments automatically within each fund, going from aggressive to conservative as you approach your retirement date.

Asset Allocation or Model Portfolio – Another version of the "pre-packaged" or "all-in-one" fund is called Asset Allocation or Model Portfolio. Once you have determined whether you are a conservative, moderate or aggressive investor, you can select the fund that matches this style. Some examples are shown on the Investment Performance Report under Asset Allocation Funds.  Another approach is to select the Model Portfolio that matches your investment style.  These portfolios will suggest the percentages of cash, stock and bonds to select.