Deals & People March 8, 2011

Aon Hewitt, Financial Engines Team on Advice

Effective immediately, Aon Hewitt is bringing advice to its 401(k) recordkeeping clients.

 

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Under the relationship, Aon Hewitt Financial Advisors, LLC, an Aon Hewitt subsidiary, will serve as the provider of investment advisory services and serve as the fiduciary of the advice and management provided. 

According to the announcement, Financial Engines was selected to serve as the independent sub-advisor and will provide the advisory platform to deliver the service, expanding the established strategic alliance between Aon Hewitt and Financial Engines.

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“Our research1 shows that just 18 percent of workers are on track to meet their retirement savings needs,” said Scott Parry, leader of Aon Hewitt Financial Advisors. “Those employees who are falling short often make fundamental investing mistakes such as taking on inappropriate risk or not diversifying their portfolios that could easily be corrected given high-quality advice and management. By integrating the Financial Engines advisory platform into our broader administrative solution, we can deliver more personalized advice and management to 401(k) participants to help them avoid these pitfalls. This new service reflects our commitment to provide our clients with the right tools to help their workers save for retirement.”

The service will give participants whose companies choose Aon Hewitt for administration of their savings plan access to Financial Engines’ full suite of services including Online Advice and Professional Management. According to the announcement, Aon Hewitt’s experience with pension and retiree medical plans is integrated with the solution to offer the total retirement picture to plan participants. Additionally, for workers who enroll in Aon Hewitt’s Professional Management program, registered investment representatives will provide personalized advice including help with “savings, managing risk-appropriate portfolios, identifying their income needs in retirement, and turning their 401(k) savings into steady lifetime income,” according to a press release.

Aon Hewitt and Financial Engines will continue to support the delivery of advisory services under existing client agreements whereby Financial Engines provides advisory services directly to Aon Hewitt clients.

Compliance March 7, 2011

SEC Proposes Ban on Incentives that Encourage Risk

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) proposed a rule mandating that certain financial institutions keep away from compensation arrangements that encourage inappropriate risk taking.
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An SEC news release said the rule also requires the disclosure of the structure of firms’ incentive-based compensation practices. 

The proposed rule stems from Section 956 of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, which requires the SEC and several other agencies to jointly write rules and guidelines. The SEC-regulated financial institutions affected by the rulemaking include broker/dealers and investment advisers with $1 billion or more in assets. 

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The proposed rules would: 

  • Require reports related to incentive-based compensation to be filed annually with SEC; 
  • Prohibit incentive-based compensation arrangements that encourage inappropriate risk-taking by providing excessive compensation or that could lead to material financial loss to the firm; 
  • Provide additional requirements for financial institutions with $50 billion or more in assets, including deferral of incentive-based compensation of executive officers and approval of compensation for people whose job functions give them the ability to expose the firm to a substantial amount of risk; and 
  • Require firms to develop policies and procedures that ensure and monitor compliance with requirements related to incentive-based compensation. 

  

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