Product and Service Launches – 4/25/25

OneDigital implements Broadridge’s suite of solutions; Vanguard introduces fixed-income model portfolios for advisers; T. Rowe Price launches pension-linked emergency savings accounts; and more.

OneDigital to Implement Broadridge Retirement’s Suite of Solutions

Broadridge Financial Solutions announced that OneDigital Financial Services will implement Broadridge’s suite of retirement solutions into its national platform.

Through the implementation, OneDigital’s advisers will gain more time to focus on helping plan sponsors run their retirement plans, while the firm’s home office benefits from “robust compliance oversight” and business intelligence tools, according to the announcement.

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OneDigital will implement Broadridge’s suite of solutions, including retirement data aggregation, business intelligence services, fiduciary focus toolkit, RFP director, fee benchmarker and enterprise proprietary fund scoring solutions.

Broadridge will also integrate with OneDigital’s existing capabilities, including allowing OneDigital to create custom fund scoring capabilities to deliver investment research to the firm’s advisers, as well as to deliver retirement plan data aggregation to support the business intelligence needs of management and compliance teams. 

Vanguard Introduces Fixed-Income Model Portfolios for Advisers

Vanguard announced it is bringing its fixed-income portfolio construction expertise to financial advisers through the launch of the firm’s first dynamic asset allocation fixed-income model portfolios.

Vanguard Fixed Income Risk Diversification and Vanguard Fixed Income Total Return join the firm’s lineup of model portfolios, providing financial advisers access to “broadly diversified, low-cost … Vanguard-managed solutions.”

The model portfolios aim to help advisers spend more time scaling their practice and deepening client relationships.

T. Rowe Price Launches Pension-Linked Emergency Savings Accounts

T. Rowe Price announced the launch of its in-plan emergency savings accounts for plan participants. This solution was made possible by the passage of the SECURE 2.0 Act of 2022, which allows non-highly-compensated employees to save up to $2,500 toward emergency expenses within their 401(k), 403(b) or governmental 457(b) if permitted by the plan.

Once participants reach the $2,500 limit, any additional contributions are automatically converted to non-ESA Roth contributions toward their retirement account.

ESAs are the latest addition to T. Rowe Price Retirement Plan Services’ suite of emergency savings solutions, including an out-of-plan savings app that allows employees the ability to save three to six months of expenses toward emergency savings. T. Rowe Price also supports emergency expense withdrawals, which allow employees to withdraw up to $1,000, penalty-free, from their retirement plan for emergency expenses.

Plan sponsor clients can adopt one or any combination of the optional solutions.

Income Lab Updates Integration With Schwab Advisor Services

Income Laboratory Inc., a retirement planning software creator, announced a new upgraded integration between Income Lab and Schwab Advisor Services. The new integration allows advisers using Income Lab to access their client information from Schwab Advisory Center via a new real-time API connection.

Advisers are now able to access client profiles and account details from within Income Lab to build retirement plans quickly and keep them up to date.

“At Income Lab, we are laser-focused on revolutionizing retirement and empowering advisers who carry out this mission every day,” said Johnny Poulsen, Income Lab’s co-founder and CEO, in a statement. “By making retirement planning faster and more efficient, we streamline advisers’ processes, giving them more time to serve more people.”

EmpiRx Health Launches Pharmacy Care Network

EmpiRx Health, a pharmacy benefits management company, announced the launch of AllyRx, a national pharmacy care network built specifically for pharmacy and grocery retailers.

AllyRx provides pharmacist-led PBM services and solutions to “help retailers improve their employees’ health outcome while reducing prescription drug costs.”

The new AllyRx network will leverage EmpiRx Health’s “pharmacist-centric” service model and artificial intelligence-powered technology platform to bring pharmacy care experience to the employees, patients and local partners of pharmacy and grocery chains, according to the announcement.

 

Questions About Service Provider Selection Stem From Pentegra MEP Case

The jury's verdict and monetary award may serve as a warning for other situations in which plan sponsors and service providers may share ownership or leadership.

Following a jury’s decision to award more than $38 million to a class of more than 26,000 plan participants of Pentegra’s multiple employer plan, the issue of working with providers affiliated with the plan sponsor is sure to be a hot topic.

In Khan et al v. Board of Directors of Pentegra Defined Contribution Plan et al., originally filed in September 2020, the jury found that fiduciaries of the MEP, which has more than $2 billion in assets, breached their fiduciary duties under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act by paying unreasonable recordkeeping and administrative fees.

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The lawsuit has a complex procedural history, but the core of the plaintiffs’ complaint remained allegations that in retaining Pentegra Services Inc. as a service provider, the defendants failed to ensure that the fees paid by the plan were reasonable for the services received. The defendants’ attempt to dismiss the lawsuit was denied by U.S. District Judge Philip M. Halpern in March 2022.

Halpern, presiding in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, wrote in his pre-trial order that the case would be tried in two parts.

The first part, decided this week, addressed Count I—which alleged Pentegra breached its duties by causing the plan to pay unreasonable fees—and was tried by jury. The second part will address Count II—which accuses Pentegra of committing prohibited transactions by causing the plan to retain PSI and pay plan assets to PSI—and will be adjudicated in a bench trial.

Andrew Oringer, a partner in Wagner Law Group, which is not involved with the case, says an employer using its own affiliated company as a service provider is a kind of closeness not typically seen in plans governed by the ERISA.

“It’s a little bit more novel and unusual here because you’re talking about [a] multiple employer plan where it’s not even 100% clear who is acting as fiduciary and who isn’t,” Oringer says. “But that said, what you’ll find in most situations involving the retention of service providers … [is] people advising on ERISA plans advise in favor of steering clear of any possible interlocks and any possible relationships.”

The plaintiffs accused Pentegra of profiting from collecting additional fees directly from employers who participated in the MEP.

According to a summary of the case, Pentegra President and CEO John Pinto was a non-voting board member of the plan and was also the president of PSI. Pinto, as well as the other board members, were named in the lawsuit and found by the jury to have breached their fiduciary duties.

When the plan sponsor has a relationship with the service provider, Oringer says plaintiffs’ lawyers are more likely to pursue a case.

For plan sponsors, Oringer says the court ruling is a warning sign about the use of providers with even a slight affiliation.

“Where there are situations where it does make sense to use a provider that has some kind of an interlock, … I think it’s a warning sign to absolutely ramp up the procedures that are used to select and monitor [a service provider],” Oringer says.

Troy Doles, one of the attorneys from Schlichter Bogard LLC who represented the plaintiffs, says he and his firm are pleased with jury’s decision.

“As the court recognized, we are all very thankful for the careful attention they devoted to this very important trial,” Doles says. “The case is not over, but [the decision] was a very important step on behalf of the 25,000-plus employees and retirees that participate in the Pentegra Defined Contribution Plan for Financial Institutions.”

The plaintiffs are seeking to recover up to $157 million from Count II, as well as “affirmative equitable relief related to the future management and operation of the plan.”

The court set a filing date of May 2 for additional parties related to Count II.

Pentegra is represented by Groom Law Group in the case.

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