Fund Universe

The Open Platform

Like the MCA Select Funds option, the MCA Fund Universe is designed for participants who prefer to allocate their retirement accounts on their own using, in part, funds that are not designated as MCA Select Funds.     

  • Most previous providers of school employee 403(b) investment products and services are no longer authorized to do so.  As a result there may, for example, be participants who bought funds from a previous provider that they want to keep. This might be because the fund has a sales load or other charge that the participant would be forced to pay if they were to sell the fund and allocate the proceeds to another investment option such as the ones offered by MCA.

  • The MCA Fund Universe option was designed primarily as a way to accommodate participants who own such funds and want to continue to own them, without having them pay a separate account maintenance fee, custody fee or other additional charge.  As and when they are ready to sell that fund (for example, after any sales charges have worn off), they will be able to do so without having to pay any trading fees.

  • The MCA custodial and trading platform is able to accommodate over 25,000 mutual funds from over 480 fund families.

  • Mutual funds from the MCA Fund Universe are added to the list of available investment vehicles only after (a) a participant has requested that a fund be added; and (b) MCA has run an evaluation screening on the requested fund and determined that it is appropriate to add it to the list of available options.  Requests are made by emailing them to MCA Funds Universe – Fund Addition Request, and making sure that the trading symbol and an indication of whether the fund is currently owned are included. 

  • Added funds will appear under the appropriate asset class category in the menu of fund options.  While it is MCA’s goal to be as accommodating as is reasonably practical, there may be situations where MCA feels that requested funds (or even previously added funds) are not appropriate fund options.  Participants owning funds that MCA intends to delete from the list of available options will be notified.

  • As part of the MCA Fund Universe option, MCA will make available a current list of fund families that have been ranked according to fiduciary score and other appropriate criteria.  This will give participants an idea of which fund families are, in MCA’s opinion, worthy of consideration based on selected evaluation criteria.

  • We believe that, for the vast majority of plan participants, choosing one of the MCA Managed Models option is the best alternative and that, for those participants desiring to allocate their own accounts, choosing MCA Select Funds list generally gives them the best tools with which to do this.  Nevertheless, we will attempt to accommodate as many requests to add funds to the list of available Fund Universe options as is reasonably practical.

  • As with all of the MCA investment options, the key is to be disciplined and continue to defer what you need and are able to do in order to keep your retirement plan on track. Make sure you make your retirement account a line item in your family budget.

 

(Download the PDF for a full listing of MCA available fund families)