Defined contribution money managers, like their plan sponsor clients and the millions of U.S. workers who save for retirement with them, are navigating a much different world in mid-2022 than they did at the end of 2021.

“Certainly, these six months have been very different than last year and the year before, which is really quite a statement when you think that in the last two years we were in the middle of a pandemic,” said Anne F. Ackerley, New York-based managing director and head of BlackRock Inc.’s retirement group. “But with inflation, with market volatility, plan sponsors are looking at their lineups and saying, ‘Do (we) have tools in the toolkit that can help people?”

That’s a question DC money managers have been getting repeatedly in recent months, industry sources said, as stocks and bonds have tumbled while inflation has risen to its highest levels in 40 years.

“Plan sponsors are concerned about how do you give folks a sense of comfort amidst the storm?” said Matthew Brancato, principal and head of client success for Vanguard Group Inc.’s institutional investor group in Malvern, Pa.

The storm hadn’t yet hit at the end of 2021 when assets in defined contribution retirement plans climbed to a new year-end high, surpassing the previous record set the year prior.

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