A short-term outlook could shortchange retirement investors.

In 2015, most sponsors of defined contribution plans only considered recent performance when reviewing potential investment managers, according to a recent study from Boston-based MFS Investment Management.

Nearly 60 percent of plan sponsors said they consider track records of three years or less when selecting managers for their plans, and almost three-quarters said they would put an investment manager under review based on one to three years of underperformance.

"Many sponsors have succumbed to short-term pressures -- and these are often misaligned with the long time horizons of plan participants," said Ryan Mullen, senior managing director and head of MFS' Defined Contribution Investments practice. "The effectiveness and skill of an investment manager can only truly be judged over a full market cycle, which is longer than three years."

Not only are plan sponsors myopic in their approach, but they are also overly focused on past performance, according to MFS.

Sponsors consider performance and fees as the most important factors when selecting target-date funds, according to the survey, with almost two-thirds of respondents reporting that they look at investment performance and 46 percent saying fees are among the most important factors.

MFS noted that plans relying on target-date funds to help participants save for retirement are actually engaging in actively managed funds, but that plan sponsors aren’t reviewing their fund manager’s decision-making process.

Forty percent of the sponsors surveyed said that asset allocation is among the most important factors they consider, and around one-third said they look at risk management when selecting a fund.

More than half of plan advisors said that asset allocation is among the most important criteria when selecting target-date portfolios, while 35 percent of advisors said an embedded risk management process is an important factor.

Non-proprietary target-date funds managed by someone other than the plan provider are gaining traction with plan sponsors. In 2015, 50 percent of sponsors surveyed offered non-proprietary target date funds.

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