T. Rowe Price Retirement Series

An experienced team continues to execute on an industry-leading research agenda, keeping the T. Rowe Price Retirement target-date series a cut above. Its two cheapest share classes retain their Morningstar Analyst Ratings of Gold, while the advisor share class is Silver and the R shares Bronze.

This series has boldly pushed the boundaries of target-date investing. The team has consistently advocated for higher equity allocations for investors, and in 2020 announced that the series would start with a 98% allocation to equities, which was 8 percentage points higher than the average target-date series. It remains elevated through the entirety of the glide path, owing to research the team has done that shows the largest risk facing investors is a shortfall at retirement.

One of the industry’s largest and most experienced multi-asset teams powers this series. Lead manager Wyatt Lee is a 20-plus year T. Rowe Price veteran, and he is joined by Kim DeDominicis and Andrew Jacobs van Merlen, who each have 15-plus years of experience at the firm. A deep and well-credentialed research team of 29 investment professionals supports them, with dedicated groups focusing on strategic allocation research and lifecycle modeling. Its size allows them to tackle an expansive research agenda, which has included revamps to the series' fixed-income allocations in 2017 and the equity allocations in 2020.

Investors gain access to some of T. Rowe Price's best funds in this series: 69% of series assets are in Morningstar Medalist funds. These include equity strategies such as Gold-rated T. Rowe Price Mid-Cap Growth (TRQZX) and satellite fixed-income strategies like Gold-rated T. Rowe Price Floating Rate (TRIZX). Neutral-rated T. Rowe Price New Income (PRCIX) is one of the few blemishes. Though the series’ core bond strategy has posted performance in the top-half of intermediate core bond strategies during the trailing five years, it’s gone through bouts of volatility in the past, including a 7.6% drawdown in March 2020. Though periods like this may cause blips of underperformance, over the longer term the series has thrived. All but one of its vintages with 10-year track records finished in the top decile of its respective category.