Michigan Municipal Employees' Retirement System, Lansing, created a supplemental 457 plan for employees of the $6.9 billion system's member counties, cities, townships and other municipalities, confirmed Lisa Bond Brewer, a MERS spokeswoman.
The 457 plan, launched Jan. 1, uses the same investment option lineup as MERS' 401(a) and hybrid retirement plans.
The lineup offers 11 customized target-date funds managed by AllianceBernstein; five diversified manager-of-managers portfolios with the asset allocation set by internal investment staff; 21 separate strategy funds known as the expanded fund sleeve; and a self-directed brokerage window.
Three of the internally managed diversified portfolios were introduced Jan. 1, Ms. Bond Brewer said. The newest offerings are the MERS Balanced Income Fund, MERS Capital Preservation Fund and MERS Capital Appreciation Fund. The older funds are the MERS Total Market Fund and MERS Established Market Fund. All five of the diversified funds use combinations of the 21 investment managers in the enhanced fund sleeve.
