NEST Corp., London, will likely search by the end of this year for managers to run a socially responsible investment fund and a Shariah-compliant fund that could become investment options for the new U.K. defined contribution plan, said Mark Fawcett, chief investment officer.
The SRI and Shariah-compliant fund options would be in addition to the 52 target-date funds that will serve as default options. NEST’s governing board and its investment committee have yet to approve non-default options for the plan.
Other possible options include funds with lower or higher risk profiles than the default funds. Those options, if approved, would use the same component strategies (equities, bonds and diversified beta) as the target-date default options. A search for managers to run those strategies began last week.