What is a target date fund and why should you care?

If you have a 401(K) or another similar retirement account, you probably hold target date funds. Target date funds are a great innovation to help households save and prepare for retirement. However, target date funds are complex and opaque. We provide an unique benchmark for each target date fund to provide salience in how much you are actually paying. We rank target date funds based on these benchmarks, with the best funds receiving five bullseyes and the worst receiving one bullseye.