Fiserv Upgrades Wealth Management Technology

Fiserv Inc. updated its Unified Wealth Platform with advanced trading and modeling capabilities, improved model data reporting and more intuitive user interfaces.

Advisers are the main beneficiaries of these improvements. Fiserv said the enhancements answer the increased demand for holistic advice and operational efficiency in managed accounts.

When managed accounts first rolled out 30 years ago, they were standalone from the separately managed accounts, explained Hilary Fiorella, vice president of marketing strategies and professional services at Fiserv. “The proliferation of different account types meant that firms had to manage multiple platforms,” Fiorella told PLANADVISER.

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The Unifed Wealth Platform creates a single architecture for advisers, Fiorella said, so that single-account registration can be used to manage multiple types of accounts: “The adviser has one view into the account,” she said.  “And in our case, it’s delivered in a single-user interface that is very intuitive, point and click.”

One of the features for advisers with discretion over assets on the platform is expanded access and control across models. Advisers can manage assets and trade across all managed account programs, including rep as portfolio manager, exchange-traded funds and mutual fund advisory in one location for greater efficiency. Advanced modeling capabilities allow advisers to present various scenarios in client discussions.

The user interface improvements to the Unified Wealth Platform reflect the next generation’s vision of managed accounts, according to Cheryl Nash, president of investment services at Fiserv. “This is a fresh look for Fiserv,” Nash said. “Clients who are adopting the new features of our platform are benefiting from its innovative design, consolidated views across accounts and, above all, the unparalleled integration of the front, middle and back office, as well as the resulting benefits for investors, their advisers and firms.”

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Middle-office operations professionals also will benefit from new capabilities. Fiserv has redesigned its operations user interface, adding improvements to processing, speed and usability, so new clients migrating to the Unified Wealth Platform will find it easy to learn. The Quick Access Toolbar provides a consolidated view of frequently used global functions, such as sleeve selection, universe selection and account searches. 

Fiserv data shows that model portfolio assets are on the rise. From the fourth quarter of 2011 through the fourth quarter of 2012, model portfolio assets climbed to $201 billion. Assets of that size require extensive tracking. In order to provide investment managers with greater insight into assets under advisement in the model programs in which they participate, Fiserv has added model manager reporting capabilities. An optimized login process provides single sign-on access to the platform’s middle-office component.

Fiorella explained that model data reporting allows the asset manager to track usage, ensure they are being paid appropriately and to see how successful they are with advisers. “It allows managers to oversee if a broker/dealer deviates from what they intended,” she said.

Unified Wealth Platform was introduced in 2011. (See “Fiserv Offers New Platform for Managed Accounts.”) Fiserv, based in Brookfield, Wisconsin, is a global provider of financial services technology solutions.

Fidelity Exec Calls for Extension of PPA

The retirement savings crisis can be averted, in part by “extending the scope of what has been a very effective piece of legislation,” an executive from Fidelity Investments contends.

Speaking at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Capital Markets Summit on April 10, Ronald P. O’Hanley, president, Asset Management and Corporate Services at Fidelity Investments, said the Pension Protection Act of 2006 (PPA) was a major stride toward improving individual retirement savings outcomes by expanding fiduciary safe harbors and enabling employers to more proactively drive workers to take advantage of and realize more benefits from their workplace plans.   

O’Hanley told Summit attendees that enabling automatic enrollment, automatic savings increase programs, and auto default to lifecycle investment strategies have had a major impact on getting more participants to enroll in plans and have been a key driver of improved outcomes for workers. However, he added that Congress needs to do more to fully realize PPA’s potential.  

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“Policymakers should take steps now to increase the default savings rate to at least 6%,” O’Hanley urged, noted that Fidelity research has shown employees who are auto-enrolled in their workplace plans, regardless at what level and regardless of income level, have nearly identical opt-out rates. He also contended that policymakers should require auto-increase programs as part of plan design, unless employees choose to opt out of participating. “Automatic annual increase programs are the single most effective driver of employee contribution increases, accounting for close to a third of all contribution increases last year and nearly two-thirds of increases by workers in their early 20s,” O’Hanley noted.   

He recommended policymakers further incent employers to adopt auto-increase programs by easing fiduciary and testing burdens and essentially expanding the PPA safe harbors in addition to mandating auto features—along with a participant opt-out—in all new plans, noting that the features cost the employer nothing incrementally and are proven drivers of retirement savings.

Financial Education  

Addressing the challenge of low financial literacy among workers, O’Hanley told Summit attendees: “We should all be doing everything we can to expand, promote and perhaps require financial education in the workplace."  

While he conceded that investors need proper protections in place, he added that their best interests can only be served if the regulatory framework allows for a wide range of tools to serve the needs of investors and provide the low-cost guidance, education and advice they want and need. O’Hanley said that the Department of Labor's (DOL) original Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) fiduciary investment advice proposal would have significantly expanded the definition of fiduciary investment advice, and “the effect of such a rule would shift the legal line between investment advice and education, and thus dramatically curtail the valuable education and guidance investors receive today.”  

He urged that Congress and others should keep the pressure on the DOL and reject any proposal that would limit the availability of education and guidance to American workers when the agency reproposes its rule.  

Other Solutions  

In his testimony, O’Hanley said lack of savings, lack of access to employer-sponsored retirement plans, longer life spans, low financial literacy and potential changes to the tax treatment of retirement savings (see “Americans Support DC Plan System”) are all threatening the future financial security of American workers. He called for simplifying and streamlining the savings vehicles that exist today to make them easier to use and more cost-effective for employers to offer, as well as providing new incentives and expanded choice of savings vehicles for people who do not have access to an employer-sponsored retirement plan.   

O’Hanley suggested lawmakers enable IRAs to be opened as early as birth, without the requirement of earned income, and said whether so-called auto-IRAs or some other retirement vehicle, lawmakers should devise administratively simple approaches that open retirement savings choices to individuals not covered by traditional defined contribution plans, while not imposing burdensome mandates on small businesses.  

More from the Capital Markets Summit can be found here.

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