A STUDY OF FIDUCIARY OPINIONS WITH RESPECT TO SPECIFIC DOMESTIC AND INTERNATIONAL INVESTMENT VEHICLES FOR EMPLOYEE BENEFIT PLANS

This is an empirical study of the opinions of the three types of fiduciaries who have responsibility of overseeing and/or supervising the investment of private employee benefit plan assets in the United States. Specifically the opinions of the fiduciaries are explored with respect to the investment of employee benefit plan monies in certain domestic and international investment vehicles. The primary purpose of the study is to determine to what extent important differences emerge in the opinions of these types of fiduciaries over the investment of employee funds in certain international assets. International assets are defined as those assets that are not denominated in U.S. dollars.;The various statistical methods that were used in the study to determine significance included analysis of variance and multivariate analysis of variance.;The results of the study show significant differences between types of fiduciaries and investment orientation (i.e., differences between those fiduciaries currently using international investments as opposed to those using domestic investments only). Specific findings indicate that plan sponsor fiduciary types may be initially orienting future diversification strategies to domestic equity real estate and certain international investments.;A stratified random sample drawn from a universe of each of the three fiduciary types was given a questionnaire of twelve questions. The questions dealt with fiduciary concepts of prudence and with the inclusion of specific types of investments in a prudent portfolio. In addition, the respondents were asked to compile a hypothetical prudent employee benefit plan portfolio.