[Open notice] "Temporary failure in name resolution" on Mac OS X server in scripts run from Apache

[Open notice] "Temporary failure in name resolution" on Mac OS X server in scripts run from Apache

Target Date Funds Are No Bargains, Study Says

By: Joe Mont

BOSTON (TheStreet) -- Investors may be losing as much as $1.3 billion a year because of target date funds' underperforming investments and fees, according to a study by Georgia State University.

Conflicts of interest can arise when fund managers turn to their own companies' mutual funds for employee retirement plans. Target date funds tend to select high-fee and underperforming funds, resulting in the worst-case scenario seen in research by Vallapuzha Sandhya, a doctoral student of finance at Georgia's J. Mack Robinson College of Business, data from 2003 to 2008 show.

With target date funds, investors choose a retirement year and let the fund automatically adjust a portfolio's exposure to stocks and bonds over time. Younger investors will likely have more aggressive portfolios, with upward of 90% devoted to stocks. In theory, the portfolios become more conservative as participants age. Target date funds are typically made up of other stocks and bond mutual funds.

There's an alternative that deserves greater consideration, Sandhya says: "Balanced funds" that can do the job as well, if not better, by mixing stocks and bonds. Unlike target date funds, balanced funds maintain their allocations, rather than adjusting for risk profile or market conditions. Popular examples includeVanguard Group's Vanguard Wellington(VWELX),T. Rowe Price's(TROW)T. Rowe Price Personal Strategy Balanced(TRPBX) and Wells Fargo's(WFC)Wells Fargo Advantage WealthBuilder Growth Balanced(WBGBX).

But traditional target date funds remain attractive. Assets in target date funds have skyrocketed from just under $2 billion in 1997 to $270 billion last month, according to the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Increased popularity, however, wasn't matched by improved oversight.

With the financial meltdown of 2008, many investors found that even as they were nearing retirement, their target date fund was heavy on equities and had impractical levels of investment risk. That exposure had a disastrous impact on assets assumed to be safe: Losses of 30% to 50% in winding down target date funds weren't uncommon as the recession took hold. In response, the SEC proposed tougher disclosure rules.

Target date funds need to disclose not only the asset allocation percentages in their marketing materials, but also the underlying funds in which they invest, Sandhya says.

"These funds are aimed at people too busy to focus on their investments," she says. While investors who actively manage their investments have their choice of mutual funds, those who do not are often put into target date funds, which are approved by the Department of Labor as default options -- billed as "just set it and forget it and everything is taken care of," Sandhya says, and many believe it.

"As a concept, target date funds are a good instrument for retirement plans. The problem lies in the way they are structured and whether they are doing the right thing for their investors," Sandhya says.

She explains that otherwise underperforming funds, which are seeing reduced inflows, can be propped up by feeding them into target date funds. Funds with higher-than-average fees are also chosen to boost profits at the expense of investors, Sandhya says.

She is quick to point out that many target date funds take great care to protect investors. Her research doesn't identify those using a "fund of funds" approach and investing internally, which "opens up all kinds of potential for conflicts of interest."

-- Reported by Joe Mont in Boston.

(check it out at http://www.thestreet.com/story/10819838/2/target-date-funds-are-no-bargains-study-says.html)

Akshaya - Columbia - Jessup - 2010 Final

Law School Team Finishes Strong in Jessup International Moot Court Competition

TEAM RETAINS TITLE AS U.S. NATIONAL CHAMPIONS; KEVIN LIN '11 RECEIVES PRIZE FOR BEST ORALIST

Public Affairs, 212-854-2650

 

Washington, D.C., April 7, 2010—Columbia Law School competed in the World Championship Round of the Philip C. Jessup International Law Moot Court Competition held March 21-27 in Washington.

 

The Law School team finished second in the White & Case International Rounds out of 105 teams from 76 countries that competed. The Law School retained its title as U.S. National Champion, and also won the Alona E. Evans Prize for best written memorial in the international rounds.

 

The Law School team of Jacob Johnston ’12, Akshaya Kumar ’12, Kevin Lin '11, Erik Lindemann '11 and Elisabeth Page '11 advanced to the Championship Round through 14 undefeated oral rounds against teams from the U.S., Poland, Taiwan, India, and Slovenia.

 

Kumar and Lin argued in the Championship Round, with Johnston serving as counsel. The round was judged by former International Court of Justice presidents Stephen M. Schwebel and Dame Rosalyn Higgins, along with Harold Koh, the top lawyer at the State Department.

 

“We really pushed each other to perform at our best,” Page said. “It was wonderful, going into the elimination rounds, to know that we had no weak links, and that every member of the team could give an amazing performance.”

 

Although Australia National University took home the Jessup Cup, Lin won the Stephen M. Schwebel Prize for best oralist in the Championship round, which he received from Schwebel himself.

 

“Competing in the Jessup tournament was one of the most amazing experiences in my life,” Lin said. “It was an honor to meet and compete against teams from countries all over the world.”

 

This year’s team was led by Lindemann and Page, who defeated teams from India and Slovenia in three elimination rounds to enable Columbia to reach the final. Lindeman received the third-place individual oralist award, and Page received the 14^th-place oralist award.

 

The team received coaching from Suyash Paliwal ’10, last year’s first-place overall oralist. Jessup alumni and law students also helped prepare the team for the final rounds. The team’s faculty advisor was Lori Damrosch, the Henry L. Moses Professor of Law and International Organization.

 

The Philip C. Jessup Moot Court at Columbia Law School is sponsored by an endowment from Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy LLP.

 

The Jessup Competition is the world’s largest moot court competition and the oldest dedicated to international law. It is named after Philip C. Jessup ’24, who taught international law and diplomacy at Columbia from 1925 until 1961. He published on maritime law, neutrality, collective security, and his most influential book, The Modern Law of Nations (1947). Jessup helped draft the statutes for the International Court of Justice (ICJ) and the International Law Commission and served the U.S. government in a variety of advisory and representative posts. In 1961 he left Columbia for a nine-year term as United States representative to the International Court of Justice.

Previously, Columbia has claimed three world championships–in 1963, 1965, and 2006.

 

Columbia Law School, founded in 1858, stands at the forefront of legal education and of the law in a global society. Columbia Law School joins its traditional strengths in international and comparative law, constitutional law, administrative law, business law and human rights law with pioneering work in the areas of intellectual property, digital technology, sexuality and gender, criminal, national security, and environmental law.

Akshaya - Columbia - Jessup - 2010

Law School's Jessup Moot Court Team Competes in International Championship After Sweeping Regionals

WINNING FOUR AWARDS AT REGIONALS, STUDENTS HEAD TO DC FOR CHAMPIONSHIP ROUND

Media Contact:  Nancy Goldfarb, 212-854-1584  nancy.goldfarb@law.columbia.edu
Public Affairs Office 212-854-2650 publicaffairs@law.columbia.edu

 

New York, March 19, 2010 - A team from Columbia Law School is competing in the International Championship round of the Philip C. Jessup International Moot Court Competition between March 21^st and 27^th in Washington. The team took first place last month at the Super-Regional Northeast Round, competing against 23 law schools. The team also took the second-place-overall Memorial Award.

 

Team members Erik Lindemann ’11, Elisabeth Page ’11, Akshaya Kumar ’12, Kevin Lin ’11, and Jacob Johnston ’11 took home three individual awards. Out of 120 competitors, Lindemann won the fifth-place Oralist Award and Page won tenth place. Kumar won the highest score for a single-round competitor.

 

The Jessup Competition is the world’s largest moot court competition and the oldest dedicated to international law. More than 500 teams from 80 countries entered this year, developing arguments for both sides of a fictional dispute submitted to the International Court of Justice, the primary court of the United Nations. This year’s question involves sovereignty over land and natural resources, self-determination of peoples, bilateral investment treaties, and expropriations.

 

Teams submit written memorials for both sides in January and plead as Applicant and Respondent in oral rounds throughout the competition. Columbia Law School is one of 80 teams to advance to the White & Case International Rounds in Washington, which includes preliminary and advanced rounds for the International Championship. 

 

Lindemann and Page, both veteran Jessup competitors and last year’s national champions, are coaching this year’s team. The teammates undertook a rigorous schedule, including practice moots at federal courthouses and law offices where Jessup alumni are employed, as well as mooting before Law School professors, including Lori Damrosch, Henry L. Moses Professor of Law and International Organization, the team’s faculty advisor.

 

The competition is named after Professor Philip C. Jessup ’24, who taught international law and diplomacy at the Law School from 1925 to 1961. He helped draft the statutes for the International Court of Justice (ICJ) and the International Law Commission, and in 1961 began a nine-year term as a U.S. representative to the ICJ.

 

Columbia was one of three law schools to compete in the first Jessup competition, held in 1960, and has since claimed three world championships–in 1963, 1965, and 2006. For more information about the tournament, visit the Jessup web site.