Target date fund

[3] Their popularity in the US increased significantly in recent years due in part to the auto-enrollment legislation Pension Protection Act of 2006 that created the need for safe-harbor type Qualifying Default Investment Alternatives, such as target-date funds, for 401(k) savings plans.

[4] A similar approach, called age-based asset allocation, was proposed by Mark Kantrowitz in the mid-1990s and was rapidly adopted by all 529 college savings plans.

[5] Target-date funds are aimed at people planning for retirement and have appeal because they offer a lifelong managed investment strategy that should remain appropriate to an investor's risk profile even if left unreviewed.

[13][14] In the US, the use of Target Date Funds accelerated from 2006 onwards with the introduction of automatic-enrollment pensions legislation, where the convenience of a single 'fund for life' made them the most popular type of default strategy.

[15] As of March 2020, assets in target-date mutual funds and collective investment trusts (CITs) totaled approximately $1.9 trillion.

Note that the actual sizes of the books of different managers are difficult to estimate, as many hold assets in vehicles other than mutual funds.

Major TDF managers in the UK include: Retail: Architas BirthStar (managed by AllianceBernstein), Fidelity Institutional: AllianceBernstein, BirthStar, BlackRock, Fidelity, JPMorgan, NEST, State Street Global Advisers Multi-employer pensions schemes (also known as 'master trusts') are amongst the early adopters of Target Date Funds in the UK market.