Products July 9, 2013

Retirement LLC Merges with TPA

Retirement, LLC, of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, will merge with third-party administrator I AM, Inc. of Traverse City, Michigan.
Reported by

Retirement, LLC is an independent third-party administration firm and recordkeeper for more than 1,400 tax-qualified retirement plans. I AM, Inc. is a retirement plan consulting organization advising and assisting companies with their qualified retirement planning. It was acquired by Randall Kamps in 2001.

“We are committed to grow and consolidate this market segment, and having a market presence to serve this client-base is strategic to our mission,” said Robert Krypel, CEO of Retirement, LLC. “We are thrilled to have I AM, Inc. as part of our growing organization, and we welcome them to the Retirement, LLC family.”

Never miss a story — sign up for PLANADVISER newsletters to keep up on the latest retirement plan adviser news.

“Joining forces with Retirement, LLC was a significant decision for our organization. We now have the infrastructure which will allow us to enhance the value proposition for our current clients as well as introduce it to any size organization here in Michigan and throughout the upper Midwest,” said Randall Kamps, I AM, Inc. president and CEO.

Products July 9, 2013

Northern Trust Enhances Performance Attribution Tools

Northern Trust Corporation has launched an enhanced version of its performance attribution tools.
Reported by

The enhancement consists of the implementation of daily security-level detail for fixed income within its Investment Risk and Analytical Services (IRAS) product suite for investment managers and institutional investors.

Northern Trust is using a “Successive Pricing” model to provide a fixed income analysis tool, leveraging the company’s performance data. It is fully integrated with the company’s IRAS Fundamentals ad hoc analysis application and is intended for clients seeking to better understand the sources of return in their investment portfolios. By analyzing the relationship of a security to market factors such as interest rate and foreign exchange changes, the model is intended to account for performance on a variety of fixed income instruments including bank loans, swaps, options, repos, and futures.

Want the latest retirement plan adviser news and insights? Sign up for PLANADVISER newsletters.

“Our new daily security-level attribution model allows Northern Trust to deliver a more granular breakdown of returns generated within fixed income portfolios,” said James Haran, senior product manager for IRAS at Northern Trust. “While we have been able to provide fixed income attribution for many years, this model enhances our ability to highlight individual market factors such as curve, carry, yield, duration, and maturity and the resulting impact on client portfolios.”

According to Haran, the model analyzes the securities within a portfolio and benchmark to determine the pricing impact resulting from changes in underlying markets, and is integrated with other performance and risk reporting, so clients can see absolute and relative returns along with risk metrics on their portfolios.

«