Products November 17, 2009

MG Advisory Services Adds Plan Proposals to RetireTool(k)it

MG Advisory Services, LLC, a provider of products and services to financial advisers, broker/dealers, and TPAs, has expanded its RetireTool(k)it product to include plan proposals explaining the open-architecture approach.

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MG Advisory Services, a subsidiary of Matrix Financial Solutions, said the proposal assists advisers in explaining the benefits of open architecture, roles and responsibilities of all the parties involved, and investment recommendations based on the plan sponsor’s investment policy statement.

“The plan proposal is an important part of our open-architecture process as it bridges the gap between open architecture and bundled product offerings,” said Stewart Cohune, president, MG Advisory. “It clearly and easily enables advisers working in an open-architecture environment to set expectations and educate plan sponsors about the overall retirement plan process. This clearly eliminates a major barrier for open-architecture advisers and allows them to confidently sell open-architecture to their clients.”

Highlights of the plan proposal product include:

  • an automated plan proposal that competes with bundled providers,
  • reports that compare a current fund list against proposed fund list,
  • a fund matrix and fund fact sheets,
  • a proprietary RetireTool(k)it fund scorecard, and
  • expectation outline to plan sponsor.

 

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More information is available at www.matrixfinancialsolutions.com.

Products November 17, 2009

Callan Unveils Target-Date Analytics Product

Callan Associates has launched a set of target-date fund analytics for individual funds as well as fund families.

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Callan said its TDVantage product evaluates target-date fund performance using Callan’s Target Date Index Series, which combines index returns with target-date fund industry-average asset class weights from the Callan TDF Consensus Glidepath. The product also includes performance attribution that separates glide path return (asset allocation) from implementation return (fund selection, fees, etc.) and compares results to a fund’s industry peers.

Callan said the product also:

  • breaks target-date fund asset allocations into 17 asset classes and provides a comparison to the asset allocation of the full target-date universe and indexes;
  • provides a return, risk, and fee analysis of the entire target-date fund family in one snapshot that is customized to the way a plan’s participants actually use the funds; and
  • gives sponsors a vantage point to determine if their funds are competitively priced relative to peers.

“TDVantage is designed to assist DC plan sponsors in achieving their fiduciary obligations with respect to monitoring, evaluating and tracking their target-date funds,” said Lori Lucas, defined contribution practice leader at Callan. “With Callan’s benchmarking approach, plan sponsors can objectively evaluate the value added of all of their target date managers’ decisions, including active management and asset allocation decisions.”

According to Lucas, TDVantage is customized to each DC plan to give plan sponsors an understanding of how well participants fared given their individual TDF choices and how they would have fared if they had invested in different suites of available TDFs.

Callan said the product can also appeal to providers who, if they subscribe to TDVantage, will receive access to analytical reports, including:

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  • a graphics and report package;
  • a quarterly analysis;
  • peer group and target-date index comparisons and rankings;
  • total target-date fund family analysis and individual target-date fund reports;
  • asset allocation comparisons with macro and micro level analysis; and
  • detailed glide path and implementation return attribution and peer comparisons.

 

For more information, contact Judith McKinney at 312.346.3536 or mckinney@callan.com.

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