Products February 5, 2010

The Value Quotient Releases Fiduciary Management Solutions

The Value Quotient announced the release of CLIENTconnect, fiduciary management solutions delivered by financial advisers to their 401(k) and 403(b) clients.
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CLIENTconnect offers templates, which are nine immediately downloadable files in Excel, Word, PowerPoint, and Publisher that are fully customizable. According to the announcement, the templates facilitate risk management, expense management, and plan utilization by enabling the adviser to calculate and assess plan costs, execute results-oriented plan committee meetings, insure important initiatives are successfully completed, identify problems, and more. The cost for the bundle of nine templates is $79.

CLIENTconnect also includes The Fiduciary Materials Binder, which Value Quotient said addresses the problem faced by many plan sponsors of deficient due diligence Best Practices. The 3-inch binder comes with 13 pre-printed tabs labeled with the names of fiduciary items the plan sponsor should be retaining, including plan committee minutes, other evidence of plan monitoring, employee education materials, and more. The Binder sells for $129 and can be customized with an adviser’s logo and/or name at no additional cost.

“CLIENTconnect enables advisers to establish a value proposition based on delivering results, which reduces their risk of losing existing relationships and improves their competitive edge in winning new relationships,” said Jessica Weiner, founder of The Value Quotient, in an announcement.

The solutions are available at www.valueq.biz.

Compliance February 5, 2010

West Virginia Mulls State Retirement Plan for Small Businesses

The West Virginia Senate's Pensions Committee is discussing a plan to have the state set up retirement accounts for employees of small businesses.
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A report on the West Virginia Public Broadcasting System’s Web site said Senate Bill 437 would allow the state to set up Voluntary Employee Retirement Accounts (VERAs) to give workers without an employer-sponsored retirement plan a way to automatically deduct money from their paychecks. The program would be operated by the state treasurer’s office, and would cost $1 million initially, but the costs would be recouped by participation fees.

Administration of the program would be contracted out to private businesses.The news report pointed out that workers without employer-sponsored plans could set up individual retirement accounts (IRAs) on their own, but they aren’t doing that. Ted Boettner, executive director of the West Virginia Center on Budget and Policy, told the PBS that half of West Virginia’s workers don’t have any retirement savings.

While most committee members were in favor of the bill, others expressed concern that it could cost taxpayers dollars and place a burden on the state. “I just don’t think that the state of West Virginia should be involved in providing retirement plans for employees that don’t work for the state,” said state Senator Michael Oliverio, according to the news report.

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The Treasurer’s Office already runs the state’s 457 plan.

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