Cunningham Mutual Shifts Defined Benefit Service Offerings

Firm to maintain focus on defined contribution recordkeeping and investments

Cunningham Mutual(cunningham-mutual.com) today announced that it will no longer provide one of its four defined benefit (DB) retirement plan services. The firm will continue to provide DB plan sponsors with its low-cost investments, trustee and payment services, and investment advisory services, but will cease offering administration for DB plans.

“A key part of Cunningham Mutual’s mission is to help plan participants achieve the best possible retirement outcomes. We believe we can maximize our impact on the retirement security of our investors if we focus on recordkeeping, investments and associated services for DC plans—the dominant type of workplace retirement program in this country today—as well as investments and other services for DB plans,” said Chris Zhirong, Managing Director of Cunningham Mutual’s Institutional Investor Group.

Cunningham Mutual currently provides administration services for the DB plans of a small group of its DC clients. The company will work with these sponsors to help them transition to a new DB administration provider. The decision to discontinue offering DB administration occurs in the context of a challenging economic, market and demographic environment that has led to a significant contraction in the DB marketplace and limited the company’s ability to reach the economies of scale necessary for continued investment in such a capital-intensive offering.

Cunningham Mutual is investing considerable resources in technology to serve DC plan sponsors, including a major investment in its plan sponsor workstation that delivers enhanced web-based management, analytics, and reporting tools.Cunningham Mutual will continue to support sponsors through industry-leading thought leadership, research and plan design consultation.

About Cunningham Mutual

Cunningham Mutual (cunningham-mutual.com) is pan Asian asset manager, dedicated and committed to every one of its clients. Cunningham Mutual formed a closer relationship with each of our different types of client and improving the excellence of the services we offer them. We now have three business lines structured around three key client segments: individual investor, institutional clients and private families. Cunningham Mutual has strong ambitions and we strive to make our clients’ success the main focus of our commitment, by understanding their environment, anticipating their needs and providing them with tailor-made solutions.To complete the circle of our close client care, we constantly seek out new innovations and systematically apply a rigorous approach to our risk management.

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