(Boston, MA -October 15, 2003) � DALBAR, Inc. announced today that ICMA Retirement Corporation (ICMA-RC) was awarded the DALBAR Seal of excellence for its Defined Contribution Plan Participant Web Site. The Seal is awarded to outstanding web sites that effectively and efficiently meet the needs of plan participants. Before awarding the Seal, Dalbar conducts a series of tests on the web site to establish that it meets the principal objectives of its audience.
The results of these tests indicate that the Defined Contribution Plan Participant web site successfully meets the requirements of plan participants and is outstanding in:
- Offering the participant comprehensive guidance in selecting appropriate investment options.
- Allowing the participant to easily execute a wide range of important account management transactions.
- Keeping the participant thoroughly informed of important news regarding the plan, the account, and retirement planning in general.
- Using thorough explanations and providing industry-leading access to online assistance at every point on the site.
- Providing a thorough record of online activity and addressing the most common concerns associated with transacting online.
DALBAR, Inc., the nation�s leading financial-services market research firm, continues its over 25 year commitment to raising the standards of excellence in the industry. With offices in both the US and Canada, DALBAR develops standards for, and provides research, ratings, and rankings of intangible factors to the mutual fund, broker/dealer, managed account, life insurance and property and casualty insurance industries. They include behavior, customer opinion, service quality, communications, Internet services, and financial-professional ratings. www.dalbar.com
ICMA-RC is a private, not-for-profit corporation, created in 1972 to manage and administer plans exclusively for the benefit of public sector employers and employees. ICMA-RC (www.icmarc.org) today manages and is the administrator for $18 billion in public sector retirement plan assets in over 6,700 plans with 630,000 public employees.
Vantagepoint Investment Advisers (�VIA�), a subsidiary of ICMA-RC, is the investment adviser to the Vantagepoint Mutual Funds, an $8 billion complex of 19 actively managed, passive and lifestyle funds. VIA is a manager of managers and, where appropriate, uses multiple managers for its funds. ICMA-RC is the adviser to the VantageTrust, which, in addition to the Vantagepoint Funds, offers five non-registered ICMA-RC managed funds and a number of funds whose underlying manager is a fund from nationally recognized mutual fund families.
On second reference, please refer to the ICMA Retirement Corporation as ICMA-RC. Please do not refer to the corporation as ICMA, which is a separate entity, the International City/County Management Association.
