October 26, 2012
--- AllianceBernstein enhanced its FastTrack presentation with
new data and input from plan sponsors and plan participants. ---
Marketed to advisers, AllianceBernstein Retirement
FastTrack—the name identifies it as a retirement program, says Todd Mann,
director and institutional retirement specialist at AllianceBernstein—is
intended to put advisers in the retirement business fast track, relative to
their competitors.
At a retirement solutions forum, Mann discussed ways for
advisers to accelerate the retirement portion of their business. Slightly over
half of participants at the event (53%) deal with plans under $10 million; 34%
deal with plans in the range of $10 million to $50 million, and 12% deal with
plans over $50 million.
According to Mann, there are 320,000 advisers nationwide,
but the defined contribution (DC) landscape is dominated by a very small group
of advisers. A majority of those surveyed (81%) said more than 40% of their
revenues come from DC sales; 15% said DC plans account for 20% to 40% of
revenues; and just 4% said less than 20% of revenues are in DC plans.
More advisers are gravitating toward retirement as a
business line, Mann said, and many advisers are assembling teams to be able to
address corporate retirement clients. According to Mann, research shows that
plan sponsors need support from advisers in the form of investment review
services, keeping up to date with regulation, and participant education.
When working with advisers, plan sponsors value reasonable
fees and quick responses. Those sponsors who have participated in a FastTrack
presentation say it provides a refreshing and different way to review their
retirement plan, Mann told PLANADVISER.
The program gives sponsors immediate feedback and allows them to address any issues and get their plan to perform better. FastTrack also
enables a plan sponsor to understand their firm’s plan relative to other plan
sponsors. Sponsors are given the latest research on their colleagues across the
country, Mann said, including data on pension and defined benefit (DB) plans,
but it is clear that the trend is in DC plans.