The glide path may end at the target date (a “to” fund) or continue to shift assets beyond the target date (a “through” fund). A through fund will hold a larger percentage of equities longer into retirement — typically 10 to 20 years — to guard against the risk of running out of money during a long retirement. However, this creates more short-term risk in a down market. During the Q1 2020 market collapse, target-date funds with a “to 2020” glide path lost 8.4%, while those with a “through 2020” glide path lost 10.6% because they contained a higher equity allocation. On the other hand, these “through” funds did better in the long bull market running up to the 2020 bear market.2