Despite the changes that management might make in the portfolio, many investors could benefit from professional asset allocation and daily automatic rebalancing. I especially like Vanguard TDFs with their annual expense ratios of only 16 basis points. They work well in a qualified retirement plan.

http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/102816/000094039414001195/multicap_growthfundspprosupp.htm
497 1 multicap_growthfundspprosupp.htm MULTICAP_GROWTH_FUND_SP_PRO_SUPP_DTD_8_20_14
Eaton Vance Multi-Cap Growth Fund
Supplement to
Prospectus dated January 1, 2014 and
Summary Prospectus dated January 1, 2014
On September 19, 2014, Eaton Vance Multi-Cap Growth Fund will discontinue all sales of its shares, except shares purchased by: (1) existing shareholders (including shares acquired through the reinvestment of dividends and distributions); (2) employer sponsored retirement plans; or (3) fee-based programs (a) sponsored by financial intermediaries for which investment decisions are made on a centralized basis at the discretion of the firm (e.g., model portfolios managed by a firm or its investment committee); and (b) that have selected the Fund prior to the close of business on September 19, 2014.
August 20, 2014
16011 8.20.14

Well, for what it's worth, and IM<HO, it is open in many retirement accounts. I just started a new 401k with my new employer and Wellington is where I'm putting the money. Principal is the financial institution handling the 401k.

From Boglehead.org:
"The fund was created in 1985. In 1987 the New York Times noted: [2]
In the past two years, a number of firms have revived the 1960's fund-of-funds approach, in which a money manager invests in a variety of mutual funds, rather than directly in stocks or bonds... The Vanguard Group was one of the first organizations to revive the fund-of-funds concept when it offered its STAR Fund, which invests in shares of Vanguard's other mutual funds.
According to posters in the Bogleheads forum, STAR is an acronym for "Special Tax-Advantaged Retirement," although it was never limited to retirement accounts; it is one of a group of seven Vanguard funds each of which is formally a "portfolio" within a single "trust," an arcane fact of no practical importance"
Another unimportant fact...

Hi Bob C. Thanks for your response. It rings very true - years ago when we started our retirement savings we used...gasp...variable annuities. When we finally realized our mistake it took us 8 YEARS to gradually get out.
Anyway I have asked her to read all the responses including of course yours. It is interesting that you mention the equity index and the mid cap as those also caught my eye with particular attention to the ER and the 10 year returns. If she splits equally between the 2, her ER will average out about .5 - could be better but its not horrible.

These are horrible options, unfortunately. MetLife and Valic are the worst. TIAA-CREF is passable, but tell your DIL to NEVER put dollars in the TIAA guaranteed option. Once dollars are in that account, they cannot be moved to the CREF side. They can only be withdrawn over a ten-year time period at retirement. CREF has some ok funds, but I would avoid the Lifestyle funds altogether. And their emerging markets, managed allocation, and small cap funds are very weak. Stick with Social Choice Equity, Mid Cap Value, or Equity Index funds. Different institutions have different fund options available to participants. Just keep in mind that TIAA-CREF treats investors' dollars are their own. At retirement, they can make it very difficult to move dollars out of their custodianship. Unfortunately, insurance companies have a stranglehold on 403b options. If the college has a deferred compensation option (457), she might be better served with that, since T. Rowe Price and a handful of other fund companies have staked out claims to that territory. So...best bet is a 457 plan with a decent fund company. If that is not possible, TIAA-CREF is best 403b option, but stay away from TIAA account.

FYI: I’ve lost count of the surveys telling us that all Americans will suffer deprivation when they retire. I'm sure you have, too. A recent Harris Poll found that 74 percent of Americans worried about retirement. The National Retirement Risk Index now indicates that 53 percent of Americans are “at risk.”
Regards,
Ted
http://assetbuilder.com/scott_burns/if_retirement_is_so_terrible_where_are_the_riots

FWIW, I forewent (if that's a word) the annuity and still have the TIAA real estate fund in my 403b at a prior university employer (St Louis U). Perhaps they think I'll roll over eventually into an annuity, but I didn't have that understanding. In fact, as I rolled my money out of the annuity portion of my funds, I rolled it into the real estate fund. I had left that university for the private world temporarily, so that may have allowed this maneuver. As I recall,the transfer occurred at 10%/yr, so they tried to protect their participants.
A few years back that institution negotiated a good array of funds from other fund companies generally with the lowest ER each offered. My current employer offers TIAA, but only the usual choices, and I haven't chosen to play. TIAA apparently will yield to pressure if the institution is big enough, but I have no idea how this was accomplished.
I agree with those recommending the lowest cost index funds she can find. While bond funds may make one feel a bit better in the crashes, I don't see the point at 27, regardless of experts' recommendations. Start balancing 15 years (or 10) before retirement by changing the choices in your automatic investments.

+1 ...I don't know much about the other two vendors, but the the Real Estate account is unique and makes TIAA_CREF a worthy option.

TIAA-CREF would be my recommendation. Their programs come in many flavors, not all of which offer the same combination of retirement class funds and annuities. As a general matter, they have a nice series of target-date funds that are built purely around index funds. And their Real Estate account is, literally, in a class by itself. It invests directly in real estate rather than just in real estate securities. It utterly crashed in the 2008 market crisis; that was one disastrous 24 months period sandwiched by 18 years of remarkably steady returns.
David

FYI: (Click On Article Title From Google)
With all the investment options that advisers are pushing these days, you can easily get the impression that you are a slacker doomed to subpar performance unless your retirement portfolio is brimming with every asset imaginable.
Regards,
Ted
https://www.google.com/#q=how+much+diversification+is+too+much+wsj

Hi Guys,
This exchange really revolves around Dalbar’s consistent findings that the “Average Investor” almost universally underperforms the mutual funds that he buys by a huge number. Often this mythical “Average Investor” captures only between 20% and 40% of his mutual fund’s quoted returns. That’s devastating from a retirement perspective.
Our buddy, Vintage Freak, paints a dismally dark and uncompromisingly bleak portrait of the “Average Investor’s” investment acumen. Initially, his representative caricature has a moderately conservative investment approach. Unfortunately, he abandons his good intentions and does not stay the course. He fails the persistence and the patience tests.
His intemperate market actions quickly unmask him both as an inept and an unlucky market timer. The marketplace is a challenging task master, and our “Average Investor” pays the price for his imprudent and whimsical activity, a least according to Vintage Freak’s profile. It’s a sad tale of a dysfunctional investor, but plausible.
Rather than assembling some ad hoc stories, I thought it would be a worthwhile exercise to explore the wisdom or foolishness of our “Average Investor’s” game plan using Monte Carlo-based analyses. Thousands of reasonable cases can be generated and examined in just a few minutes.
Towards that end, I ran 4 cases on the Portfolio Visualizer’s website. If you wish to put their Monte Carlo simulator to use on your portfolio possibilities, here is a Link to it:
http://www.portfoliovisualizer.com/monte-carlo-simulation
The 4 cases that I input were designed to examine the benefits (or not) of a Dollar Cost Averaging (DCA) strategy compared to a full immediate commitment of monies, and the benefits (or not) of a broadly diversified portfolio contrasted against a single Large Cap Blend position.
I completed this brief study using the parameters that Vintage Freak invented. The time period was 20 years. I used the site’s statistical market category historical returns option without inflation for simplicity. The Monte Carlo code runs 10,000 random cases for each scenario.
For comparative purposes I postulated a diversified portfolio with 30% Large Cap Blend, 10% Small Cap Value, 10% REIT, 10% International Stock, 20% Short Term Corporate Bond, and 20% Total Bond holdings. According to the Portfolio Visualizer’s output, this diversified portfolio only compromised expected returns by a small amount (10.43% vs. 11.79%), but substantially attenuated the portfolio’s volatility (10.66% vs. 17.96%). Diversification is close to a free lunch.
The simulations demonstrated the wisdom of Dollar Cost Averaging over an immediate full commitment of money by a small margin. It is a small victory, but it is above a noise level.
The benefits from portfolio diversification were magnificent. The median returns for the diversified portfolio outdistanced those from the concentrated Large Cap Blend pace-horse by more than a factor of two for both the DCA and the Immediate full investment scenarios.
These analyses took only a few minutes to complete on the Monte Carlo simulator. And it was fun to do. I encourage all you guys to play what-if games with this excellent and practical investment tool. Monte Carlo was specifically designed during World War II to explore uncertain, complex events. It’s fully within Monte Carlo’s competency wheelhouse for the non-predictability of the marketplace. Learn and prosper.
I hope this little drill is helpful for a puzzled and perplexed someone out there in MFO space.
Best Wishes.

TIAA-CREF would be my recommendation. Their programs come in many flavors, not all of which offer the same combination of retirement class funds and annuities. As a general matter, they have a nice series of target-date funds that are built purely around index funds. And their Real Estate account is, literally, in a class by itself. It invests directly in real estate rather than just in real estate securities. It utterly crashed in the 2008 market crisis; that was one disastrous 24 months period sandwiched by 18 years of remarkably steady returns.
David

Domestic Energy/Heath-Bio
https://www.google.com/finance?q=NYSEARCA:IEO&amp;ei=xj3sU6CECYbPrQGu_4HwCA
https://www.google.com/finance?q=MUTF:FRAK&amp;ei=xj3sU6CECYbPrQGu_4HwCA
http://news.morningstar.com/fund-category-returns/energy-limited-partnership/$FOCA$LP.aspx
http://news.morningstar.com/fund-category-returns/equity-energy/$FOCA$EE.aspx
http://news.morningstar.com/fund-category-returns/health/$FOCA$SH.aspx
http://etfdb.com/index/health-care-select-sector-index/
An Economist's Perspective From Mesirow Financial's Diane C Swonk
"I debate with my colleagues on economics,
politics and psychology about the nature
of the changes that we are seeing: if they
are “cyclical,” then the effects of the
changes will be short-lived, and over within
a few months or quarters; or, if they
“structural,”then the effects of what we are
seeing will take much longer to play out;
it will take years to see the full impact and
could affect the lives of our children as well
as ourselves. This report takes a closer look at some of
the structural changes that we see emerging,
and how they are likely to affect the pace
and composition of growth going forward.
Technically we have shifted from a recovery
into an expansion. Waiting for a more
pronounced recovery, however, has been a
bit like waiting for Godot. Much of that
is because of the structural shifts we are
seeing in everything from a slowdown
across emerging markets, most notably in
China, to the ongoing challenges that the
Eurozone faces, and what those shifts mean
for monetary policy."
CHICAGO, August 13, 2014 – In the August issue of Themes on the Economy®, Mesirow Financial' s Chief Economist Diane Swonk muses on economic challenges and burdens that baby boomers are leaving for the millennial generation. "This will no doubt trigger some backlash, particularly among younger workers who will have to pay more into the system to keep the promises made, but they will not get much (if anything) in government-sponsored retirement benefits for themselves."
And, don't look to make it up in stock market, technology or housing bubbles; the Federal Reserve is keeping a much closer eye on the banks it regulates. Chair Janet "Yellen has talked about higher capital requirements and more conservative underwriting standards as ways that the Fed could deflate emerging bubbles. She has also praised the use of regulations targeted at tempering the rise in home prices..." The Fed plans to exit its QE3 program gradually, but the "fear is that the economy is more sensitive to rate hikes now than it was in the past. If the Fed acts too aggressively, it risks leveling the whole forest."
The picture looks different in other parts of the world, too. China will still represent opportunity but competition as well, and not just on the economic front, as it increases military spending. Swonk also cautions that, "stability in the Eurozone is illusory," with "the ongoing risk of deflation" and the effects on sovereign debt.
http://www.mesirowfinancial.com/economics/swonk/themes/themes_0814.pdf
Everything is Good!
Tonight's Headline
Shares, bonds rally as investors bank on ENDLESS stimulus.
Reuters By By Wayne Cole
2 hours ago
http://news.yahoo.com/asia-shares-investors-bank-more-stimulus-013020693--finance.html

It achieves a most amazing result when the author simply dismisses inflation because Charlotte probably will be able to add to her investments through her adult life. That's great for Charlotte, it means she's earning more than it costs her to live, but I thought we were talking about what we as parents or grandparents can do for Charlotte by contributing $1 each day for 18 years. If I did the math right, if we use the Fed's target rate of 2% inflation, then her $4.2 million at age 65 is worth a little less than $1.2 million in today's terms. Its still not an insignificant sum, but inflation can't simply be dismissed because Charlotte will add to her investments.
My older kids were lucky enough to inherit a bit of money from their great grandmother when they were young and I invested $4000 in PRHSX for my last one on the day she was born. I don't really want my kids to think about those gifts as retirement money, but for whatever they decide I'd hope they've at least had a decent head start.

thanks mrdarcey , that's good
Apparently also in this new book, Rational Expectations, he presents his 'forecast' for future performance by asset class. Would be nice to see that. Something along the lines of what GMO does, although I don't know if he goes out 7 years like GMO does, or has chosen some other time frame.
Also, he recently came out with a booklet called something like "If You Can", where he presents the three fund portfolio [Vanguard Total Stock Market; Vanguard Total International Stock Index, and Vanguard Total Bond Market Index fund] as a simple and effective way to invest for retirement, especially if you are new to the workforce.

yes sir work for govt for 10 yrs now as nurse in healthcare @ Veteran hospital.
Their g fund is the best if you are near retirement. my portfolio [41 years old] divided equally in portion I, C, 2040 funds, and large cap/ 20% split in [10% G funds/10% and Money market, proximately 75-80s% in stocks and 20s% in fixed income.
probably retire in 20s+ yrs so don't mess w/ it until near retirements
their fees for the funds etfs are maginal/good reasonable [barclay] company that manage the funds/
one of my colleague at work just retire last wk, he is 70s yr old, he was very greedy and put all his 650sk in china and i fund in 2007 prior the crash. now his portfolio is about 760s after the the rise and more distrubutions, he has learnt his lesson and he is 100% G funds now prior to retirement which is the best thing he did few months prior to retirement...
their 2030s or 2040 or 2050 funds are also very good if your wifey want to play 'couch potato to investment game' and don't have to do much - stay passive and active at same time

In my retirement portfolio .I use etfs mainly for sectors or enhancing managed funds I own. I own IYE, IYJ, PJP (one of two faves), PKW (other fave), RHS, VNQ, XLP and VIG. I added VIG since when I moved to Merrill, I could no longer add to VDIGX which I owned, but VIG is pretty close.

How much are you willing to take for this scenario in retirement?

People love insurance...especially in retirement. LT treasuries are insurance against equity risk and maybe a number of other kinds of risks. If you buy a 20 yr treasury individually at age 65 it will mature just in time for longevity risk to come due at 85. With no loss of face value and a coupon paid along the way to offset inflation. If you prefer a fund, buy a Zero Coupon Treasury fund. The fund actually liquidates in this same manner. BTTRX is one that "matures" in 2025.
To me its just insurance. EDV is "equity insurance". I'm bringing this up just after a small fire (market hiccup). Look at what the value of "equity insurance" really looks like. Here's EDV in 2009 when VTI got really burned:

How much "equity insurance" does someone need? Hmm...now that's a good question to ask someone a lot smarter than me. Please don't ask an insurance saleman.

It all looks very inviting and gives me a sense of timing or making the correct choice when the opportunity looks poor. Bond have not gone in the direction expected so you are a winner. How much are you willing to take for this scenario in retirement?

FYI: Managed accounts—in which 401(k) participants hire professionals to invest their retirement assets—are increasingly popular. But are they worth it?
A new report from the U.S. Government Accountability Office concludes that while these accounts can deliver higher returns and lower risk to 401(k) participants, they also charge higher fees that can offset some or all of their advantages.
Regards,
Ted
http://blogs.marketwatch.com/encore/2014/08/05/managed-accounts-too-pricey-for-retirees/tab/print/