As reported last month by The MFWire's sister publication, The 401kWire (login required), Sen. Herb Kohl (D-Wisconsin) has set his sights on target-date funds. In Tuesday's Wall Street Journal Fund Track, Daisy Maxey reports that Kohl, who chairs the Senate Committee on Aging, is prodding the Department of Labor to regulate the composition and marketing of target-date funds, and is urging the SEC to look into to the funds' composition and disclosure.

The senator plans to meet with labor officials "in coming weeks" to talk about target-date funds, Maxey reports.

Last month, Kohl and his committee held a hearing on called Boomer Bust? Securing Retirement in a Volatile Economy. Target-date funds were set to be one of several topics discussed during that hearing, but the subject barely came up (see The 401kWire, 02/25/09). In his opening statement, Kohl mentioned the "wide variety of stock exposure" among the funds and his concern about the lack of regulations on the funds' composition. He didn't ask questions on target-date funds, however, and his colleagues didn't mention target-date funds at all.

Meanwhile, Hartford Financial's announcement on Monday that it is adding six funds to its target-date lineup also gained coverage in the Fund Track column. Hartford's target-date menu now consists of nine funds with target-dates in five-year increments ranging from 2010 and 2050. 

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