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To paraphrase the old Greyhound slogan, "Buy our Lifecycle Fund and leave the driving to us" seems to be the motto of the lifecycle or target fund industry.  Lifecycle funds allow you to pick a fund with your retirement date as an objective and they will manage the asset allocation decisions for you.  They start aggressively and move towards more income as you approach your retirement date.  The funds have grown rapidly with $70 billion in assets and more than 383 funds .

Since the asset allocation decision is the most important decision you make as an investor having a professional make it for you seems attractive.  There are things you need to beware of however.

1. Expenses - Most lifecycle funds are funds of funds.  That is they buy other mutual funds from their fund family to get the risk characteristics they desire.  Some of these families charge you twice (once for the underlying funds and once for aggregating them) for the same services and then add a sales load on top.  Avoid these funds.
2. Appropriate Allocations - Many lifecycle funds are not aggressive enough when you are young.  They don't have a high enough allocation to stocks.  When you are in your 20s the allocation should be closer to 90% in stocks not 50%.
3. Diversification - Some lifecycle funds only invest in 5 or 10 funds versus the best which may invest in more than 20.  Recently, lifecycle funds have started adding REITs, TIPS, Emerging-Markets debt, High Yield bonds, and Commodities. You want a fund that has Small Cap, Mid Cap and a good mix of these other asset classes.
4. Over concentration in asset classes due to buying outside the lifecycle fund.  You may go out and buy a bunch of funds on your own and end up with too high of a concentration in one asset class.
5. Benchmark Replication - Your lifecycle fund may have so many funds that it just gives you the market return.  In that case you might be better off buying a cheap index fund.
6. Volatility - If the lifecycle fund has a high allocation to stocks it will be volatile.  Some investors are not comfortable seeing big swings in the value of their fund and sell at the worst possible moment, when the price is at its lowest value.

T. Rowe Price Group, Inc. has some target funds that address many of these issues.  If you are considering lifecycle or target funds you may want to check them out.  Vanguard is another fund family that may work.