Transition Bulletin Mailing  – The Directed Account Plan Board of Directors has selected Great-West Financial as the new provider of recordkeeping, communication, and investment education services effective October 3, 2014. The  DAP Board of Directors will remain the Plan fiduciary and controls the investments, which are not changing, as well as the funds that are made available. The DAP also controls the types of investments available in the Self-Directed Brokerage Account. BNY Mellon will remain the trustee for all of the investments in the DAP. The links below contain all of the information that was included in the mailing.

Transition Bulletin

Disclosure of Plan Fees –

This Disclosure of Fees Notice reports all of the participant level fees. Your distributions will not change on Great-West’s recordkeeping platform unless you make a change. The wiring fee that is reported on this report pertains only to wires. There is not a participant level fee for the standard form for receiving distributions which is by check or EFT (electronic funds transfer) direct depo (Discover https://www.achievefinance.com/short-term-loans) sit.  QDRO stands for Qualified Domestic Relations Order entered into upon a legal separation or divorce. This fee pertains to those requesting QDRO services. The loan maintenance fee and loan origination fee pertain to CommunityAmerica employees who originate a loan after October 2, 2014.

Plan Blackout Notice

The Board made the decision to reduce the target allocation of Thornburg International Value due to consistent underperformance to its benchmark and style drift. DFA Emerging Markets Value and MFS International Value were increased to balance the allocation in this option. The new target allocations effective 8/18/14 can be found by clicking here.

The July 2014 Heads Up newsletter is now available online. This newsletter contains an article titled, “Nobody Likes Change” along with Plan News and Performance.   Click Here to read your latest newsletter.

Who is Great-West Financial Brochure

The Directed Account Plan Board of Directors has selected Great-West Financial^© as the new provider of administration and recordkeeping services for the DAP.  The transition date of participant accounts to Great-West Financial is scheduled for October 2014.

As part of our commitment to provide you a plan with low fees, above benchmark performance, and investment options for all risk levels, DAP conducted an extensive selection process.  After evaluating several service providers, Great-West Financial was selected based upon the extensive scope and outstanding quality of services to Plan participants.  This is an exciting change that can benefit you in many ways:

• Ability to retain all current Plan features at a lower cost to the DAP participants
• Improvement in Plan communications and a very user-friendly website
• Ability for more choice in the core fund line-up
• Ability for future enhancements that will allow;

• Spouses to use the DAP for their IRAs
• Spousal beneficiaries to withdraw smaller Minimum Required Distributions (MRDs) – thus allowing them to pay less in taxes and keep more of their DAP assets deferred for future beneficiaries

• We will have a recordkeeping partner that is committed to helping the Plan grow through the addition of new participants

 The Transition Process

To ensure accurate processing and verification of participant accounts, a transition period will occur in late September and early October. Your money will remain invested in the financial markets without interruption. Detailed information on the transition process and any necessary action on your part will be clearly communicated in a comprehensive Transition Bulletin, scheduled to be mailed to your home address in the coming months, and if you still are afraid of the process you can get financial advice from https://www.ledge.com.au/.

What do you need to do? Stay in the Plan!

Do nothing today!  Your assets remain invested and services continue as usual.  The DAP provides you and your beneficiaries a retirement program with low fees and investment flexibility.  We are able to provide this superior offering largely due to our scale of accounts of more than 1,500 pilots and beneficiaries.  You and your beneficiaries always have access to your account, and can cash an account out at any time. This has always been the case and continues with our new provider.  Don’t feel the need to liquidate or transfer your accounts as a result of this upcoming change, as you would miss out on positive and beneficial enhancements with Great-West Financial.

Incumbent, Fidelity Investments, may proactively solicit you to transfer your accounts to an individual retirement account or retail account.  By moving your account, you likely lose the benefit of a very low-cost plan made available via DAP, and DAP loses a long-time participant.  The DAP has worked well for you for over 20 years. Let us continue to work well for you in the future with our new partner, Great-West Financial.  Please keep your funds invested with DAP!

About Great-West Financial

Great-West Financial helps millions of Americans build greater financial security.  With more than a century of experience and a history of financial strength and stability, Great-West Financial has earned the reputation as a trusted financial partner – to and through retirement.

Great-West Financial is the nation’s fourth-largest retirement plan recordkeeper (PLAN SPONSOR, June 2013, based on total participant accounts at December 31, 2012).  It provided 401(k), 401(a), 403(b) and 457 retirement plan services to 30,000 plans representing 4.9 million participant accounts and $220 billion in assets at December 31, 2013.  Great-West provides recordkeeping, administration, or investment services to 20 of the 50 states – more than any other service provider.

link to Great-West Financial Brochure

We look forward to communicating more information to you about this exciting change as we make the transition to our new service provider.  If you have any questions, please call: Michelle Silberberg, Executive Director; or Marty Zygmund, Investment Officer of the DAP; at (314) 739-7373.

The Directed Account Plan Board of Directors is made up of three outside board members, two plan sponsor board members and two participant board members. One of the outside board member seats had been vacant and after conducting an extensive search, we are happy to announce that Jim Rich has been appointed to this position. Mr. Rich has recently retired from a career at IBM spanning over 24 years. Mr. Rich served as IBM Retirement Fund’s Chief Investment Strategist for over 19 years leading in the development of the strategic and tactical asset allocation for a $55 billion defined benefit plan and consulting on the defined benefit and defined contribution stragies of the plan’s $40 billion overseas retirement plans. Mr. Rich will make a strong contribution to the DAP Board with his high level investment management background and his keen interest in serving the Directed Account Plan’s participants.

The April 2014 Heads Up newsletter is now available online. This newsletter contains an article titled, Capturing the Benefits of Risk-Adjusted Return” along with Plan News and Performance. Click Here to read your latest newsletter.

The January 2014 Heads Up has been posted to this website. You will find the 2013 Year-End Review containing performance and the 2013 plan expense overview. The DAP 2013 Plan Expenses are also updated on the Manager Fact Sheets and the link to the 2013 Plan Expense Overview is found under the “About DAP” section.

The Board selected Brandes International Small Cap Equity as the replacement fund for Royce Global Value that was terminated and removed from the International Stock Option. Brandes International Small Cap Equity was added to the International Stock Option on 12/20/13. The new target allocation is 34% BlackRock ACWI Ex-US IMI Index, 12% Templeton Instl. Foreign Equity, 12% Thornburg Intl. Value, 12% Marsico Intl. Opportunities, 10% American Century Intl. Growth, 8% Dimensional Emerging Markets Value,  8% TCW International Small Cap and 6% Brandes International Small Cap Equity.

The Board selected Broad Run Mid Cap Growth as the replacement fund for Turner Mid Cap Growth that was terminated and removed from the Growth Stock Option. Broad Run Mid Cap Growth was added to the Growth Stock Option on 12/12/13. The new target allocation for the Growth Stock Option is 10% Broad Run Mid Cap Growth, 10% Wellington Mid Cap Opportunities, 20% Marsico Focus, 20% T. Rowe Price Stock, 20% Primecap Odyssey Growth and 20% BlackRock Growth Index.