Changes to the Lafayette College Retirement Plan Investment Lineup

The Lafayette College Retirement Plan Committee (the “Committee”), which includes faculty and staff who represent a cross-section of the College’s constituencies, meets on a quarterly basis along with Fiducient Advisors, the College’s investment consultant, to review the Lafayette College Retirement Plan (the “Plan”) investment options, fees and its recordkeepers.  We are pleased to announce that the Committee has initiated the following two changes to the investment lineup of the Plan offered on both recordkeeper platforms (TIAA and Fidelity):

1. A new fund will be added to the investment line-up on both administrative platforms that is mission-aligned to Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) investing.  This new investment, DFA U.S. Sustainability Core 1 Portfolio Fund, will be an available investment option beginning April 13, 2023.
2. The share class of one of the investment options offered through the Plan will change.  The new share class will offer you the same investment strategy and risk, but the overall expense will be lower.  The old share class was the Vanguard Extended Market Index Fund Admiral Shares and the new share class is the Vanguard Extended Market Index Fund Institutional Shares.  As a result of this transfer, the fund code, ticker, and gross expense ratios will change, and any assets currently invested in this fund as well as future allocations will map over without any action on your part.  The Plan accepted this share class exchange opportunity for the purpose of lowering fees on the fund given that the requirement to join the lower share class was changed for Lafayette and now permits the Plan to move to the lower fee Vanguard Share Class.  This change is applicable on both recordkeeper platforms beginning April 13, 2023 and if you have this fund in your investment portfolio, you do not need to take any action unless you choose to do so.

Going forward, the TIAA and Fidelity platforms will include a parallel lineup of eleven (11) mutual funds, and TIAA also includes five (5) TIAA and CREF annuity investments.  Investments continue to include a mix of index and actively managed funds, mutual funds and annuity offerings, and a selection of investments from various well-known financial institutions across the industry, including Vanguard, TIAA and CREF, MetWest, and The Hartford.  A suite of Vanguard Target Date Funds are included with each line-up.

The changes described above will take place without any action required on your part.  You will receive a personalized communication from your current record keeper, either TIAA and/or Fidelity in the next several days.  You may also refer to your dedicated retirement plan website at TIAA, https://www.tiaa.org/lafayette or Fidelity, https://www.netbenefits.com/lafayette.

For more information on the Lafayette College Retirement Plan, including how to access your account, administrative fees, your ability to change your Plan investments, and scheduling an individual counseling session with TIAA and/or Fidelity, please refer to our HR webpage, https://hr.lafayette.edu/retirement-savings-plan/.