Lifecycle Funds: A Good Investment?

Lifecycle funds, also known as target-date funds, have been growing in popularity. A relatively new financial invention, these funds allow for a comparable lower-maintenance opportunity for the individual investor. Instead of needing to rebalance your portfolio periodically on your own, lifecycle funds theoretically rebalance for you. Furthermore, they automatically become more conservative as the years go by since you eventually approach and enter retirement.

Recently, some target funds have been under scrutiny for having more aggressive stock allocations than might otherwise be expected based on the target year. Of course, this only became a widely discussed issue after the market correction exposed the downside potential that had always been there.

Like nearly any investment product, lifecycle funds have relative advantages and disadvantages.

What do you think of them now?