Pioneer Investments Partners with Fee Benchmarking Firm

Pioneer Investments is partnering with Fiduciary Benchmarks, Inc. (FBi), a consulting firm specializing in providing plan fiduciaries with information on the reasonableness of fund fees.

The partnership will give Pioneer and its clients access to FBi’s benchmarking services to assess plan fees. Fiduciary Benchmarks has established protocols with more than fifty recordkeepers and produces thousands of reports annually for a range of service providers and fiduciaries to determine fee reasonableness, according to the company.  

Pioneer advisers will be able to access benchmarking reports that can help retirement plan fiduciaries satisfy their obligations under ERISA section 404(a)(1) and the upcoming ERISA section 408(b)(2) regulation, slated to take effect in January 2012, which will require the disclosure of compensation, status, and services related to a retirement plan.  

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“The signing of this partnership is consistent with Pioneer’s objective of making sure that our clients and prospective clients who are retirement plan administrators have access to the best possible tools to allow them to evaluate their plan fees, design, and adviser services,” said Jamie Axford, Senior Vice President and Director of Business Development for Pioneer’s Investment Only & Retirement Group.

U.S. Retirement Partners Acquires 403(b) Provider

U.S. Retirement Partners (USRP) has acquired USD Insurance and Financial Services, Inc. (USD), a 403(b) provider serving the K-12 education market. 

USD was founded in 2000 by Chris Quirarte and is headquartered in Los Angeles. The firm’s eight-person adviser team serves clients in school districts throughout Southern California. USD hopes to expand its adviser base to accommodate the current market size, the announcement said.

“Joining USRP will enable us to grow the business at a much faster rate,” said Chris Quirarte, president of USD.  “They have a strong suite of tools that will help us recruit, select and train new advisers quickly.  Because the Southern California opportunity is so large, we are looking at doubling our number of advisers in the next two years.”

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