401(k) Investment Options
The 401(k) Savings Plan provides a variety of investment options, organized into four tiers, with varying levels of expense, risk, and return opportunity.
Here is a quick description of each tier.
- Tier I: Allocation Funds: For employees who don’t want to make investment changes all the time or who want investing to be easy.
- Tier II: Indexed Funds: For employees who like a professional manager but want to keep fees low.
- Tier III: Actively Managed Funds: For employees who want a professional working hard to maximize return and are willing to pay for it.
- Tier IV: Specialty Funds: For employees with a specific investment focus.
To learn more about the investment objective and performance of each fund, review the quarterly Fund Fact Sheets on Empower.
To assess your tolerance for investment risk and choose the investments that best fit your savings goals, check out Your Guide to Investing in the BMO 401(k) Savings Plan.
Tier I: Allocation Funds
| Investment Options | Overview |
|---|---|
|
Target Date Retirement Index Series BlackRock LifePath 2025 BlackRock LifePath 2030 BlackRock LifePath 2035 BlackRock LifePath 2040 BlackRock LifePath 2045 BlackRock LifePath 2050 BlackRock LifePath 2055 BlackRock LifePath 2060 BlackRock LifePath 2065 |
Designed for: Participants who want to simplify investing by choosing a single fund with diversified investment opportunities appropriate for the participant’s timeframe to retirement. The funds automatically rebalance over time and become more conservative as the target date approaches. Invests in: BlackRock LifePath Funds, Class H. |
|
Target Allocation Funds Conservative 20/80 Target Allocation Moderate 40/60 Target Allocation Balanced 60/40 Target Allocation Growth 80/20 Target Allocation |
Designed for: Participants seeking a predetermined level of risk to be monitored and maintained by an investment professional. Participants are responsible for choosing and switching between appropriate risk funds during the different phases of their investment horizon. Fund changes do not happen automatically, you decide when to move money to a different fund. Invests in: BlackRock Target Allocation Funds, Class K. |
Tier II: Indexed Funds
| Investment Options | Overview |
|---|---|
| Market Duration Bond Index |
Designed for: Participants seeking a cost-effective investment with low volatility. Invests in: BNY Mellon Aggregate Bond Index Fund, Institutional Class. |
| TIPS Index |
Designed for: Participants seeking protection against inflation. Invests in: BNY Mellon TIPS Index Fund, Institutional Class. |
| U.S. Large Cap Core Index |
Designed for: Participants who want to achieve a total return corresponding closely to the return of the S&P 500® Index.1 Invests in: BNY Mellon Stock Index Fund, Institutional Class. |
| U.S. Mid Cap Core Index |
Designed for: Participants seeking the growth potential of mid-sized companies, while maintaining the benefits of passive management. Invests in: BNY Mellon Mid Cap Stock Index Fund, Institutional Class. |
| U.S. Small Cap Core Index |
Designed for: Participants seeking long-term growth who can tolerate the price fluctuations and volatility inherent in small-cap index investments. Invests in: BNY Mellon Small Cap Stock Index Fund, Institutional Class.2 |
| Non-U.S. Equity Index |
Designed for: Participants seeking exposure to investments outside of the U.S. while maintaining the benefits of passive management. Invests in: BNY Mellon ACWI ex-U.S. Fund, Institutional Class.3 |
Tier III: Actively Managed Funds
| Investment Options | Overview |
|---|---|
| Stable Value |
Designed for: Participants looking to maintain safety of principal while generating interest income generally exceeding that of a money market fund. Invests in: Stable Value Fund, managed by Invesco. |
| Market Duration Bond |
Designed for: Participants seeking the higher level of current income associated with intermediate-term bonds and who can bear the share price fluctuations characteristic of longer-term instruments/securities. Invests in: MetWest Total Return Bond Fund, Class C. |
| Real Asset |
Designed for: Participants seeking:
Invests in: PIMCO All Asset Fund, Institutional Class. |
| U.S. Large Cap Core |
Designed for: Participants seeking an active fund manager to provide long-term total return from a portfolio of select equity securities attempting to outperform the S&P 500 Index. Invests in: JPMCB U.S. Analyst CIT Class CF-F. |
| U.S. Mid Cap Core |
Designed for: Participants who seek long‐term growth of capital. Invests in: WTC-CIF II MidCap Opportunities 53. |
| U.S. Small Cap Core |
Designed for: Participants who want to capture the returns and diversification benefits of a broad cross-section of U.S. small companies. Invests in: Dimensional US Small Cap Portfolio, Class T. |
| Non-U.S. Equity |
Designed for: Participants who want to expand diversification of their portfolio by investing in foreign securities. Invests in: MFS Institutional International Equity.3 |
| Emerging Markets |
Designed for: Participants with a long-term investment horizon looking for long-term growth of capital, and who are willing to accept the fluctuations and risks associated with investments in emerging market companies. Invests in: T. Rowe Price® Institutional Emerging Markets Equity, Class B.3 |
Tier IV: Specialty Funds
| Investment Options | Overview |
|---|---|
| High Yield Bond |
Designed for: Participants who seek consistent excess returns in the high yield market over full credit cycles. Invests in: American Century High Trust, Class II. The Fund seeks to generate attractive income and capital appreciation over time. Under normal circumstances, the fund invests at least 80% of its net assets, plus any borrowings for investment purposes, in a portfolio of high yield bonds (also known as “junk bonds”) rated below investment grade, or, if unrated, determined to be of comparable quality. Maturity is not a consideration in selecting the fund’s investments. |
| BMO Stock |
Designed for: Participants who wish to own Bank of Montreal Common Shares. Invests in: BMO Stock Fund, with approximately 1%-2% in the EB Temporary Investment Fund for daily liquidity purposes. |
- The S&P 500® Index is an unmanaged index consisting of 500 widely held U.S. common stocks. The stocks in the index are chosen based on industry representation, liquidity and stability. The index is designed to reflect the returns of many different sectors of the U.S. economy.
- Historically, small capitalization stocks have been more volatile than larger capitalization stocks.
- International investing, especially in emerging markets, poses greater potential risks as well as rewards when compared with U.S. investing, as a result of market and currency fluctuations caused by political and financial factors abroad.
