Products October 18, 2016

John Hancock Observes ‘National TPA Day’

The firm wants to recognize the contributions and expertise of third-party administrators to the success of the DC retirement system. 
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John Hancock is celebrating its second-annual National TPA Day and is urging other firms and industry stakeholders to pause and recognize the contributions and expertise of third-party administrators (TPAs).

According to John Hancock, TPAs are instrumental in supporting financial advisers and plan sponsors alike as they go about their respective roles in delivering employer-sponsored retirement plans.

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“National TPA Day is an opportunity for us to recognize the unique value, local expertise and high-touch service TPAs deliver to the industry,” observes Patrick Murphy, president of John Hancock Retirement Plan Services. “We created this annual celebration to thank TPAs for their ongoing partnership.”

The firm says TPAs and plan design consultants offer compliance expertise, helping to ensure a variety of unforgiving obligations are met under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) and other key pieces of the benefits law. “They also provide customer service and administration to help with retention, and they keep plan sponsors informed of legislative and regulatory changes,” the firm says.

John Hancock encourages other firms to help recognize the work of TPAs by observing National TPA Day annually on the first business day following the final Form 5500 deadline. This year, the filing deadline fell on Monday, October 17, making today National TPA Day.

The Markets October 17, 2016

Passive Fund Momentum Continued During September

Net redemptions from Money Market funds in September totaled $21.1 billion.
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Net new flows to long-term mutual funds and exchange-traded products (ETPs) totaled $14.1 billion in September, according to Strategic Insight, parent company of PLANADVISER.

Active and passive strategies continued to experience divergent trends in net investments. Passive funds led demand with $37.7 billion of inflows (including $27.5 billion to ETPs), while actively managed funds experienced aggregate net redemptions of $23.6 billion in September.

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Taxable Bond funds saw the strongest demand among long-term funds, attracting $22.1 billion of net inflows. The space’s year-to-date flows of $168.4 billion represent a substantial increase over the $39.9 billion seen during the first nine months of 2015. Taxable Bond flows in September were fairly evenly split between active and passive strategies, as active funds experienced net investments of $9.4 billion and passive funds gathered net flows of $12.7 billion.

Active U.S. and International/Global Equity funds saw outflows of $36.9 billion in September, while index equity exposures attracted net inflows of $24.6 billion. Net outflows among active funds were driven by redemptions in large capitalization strategies. Global and Alternative strategies, including Global Total Return, Managed Futures, and Commodities Broad-Based, gathered positive net flows among active funds in September.

Net redemptions from Money Market funds in September totaled $21.1 billion. Taxable Money Market funds experienced comparatively flat inflows of $1.9 billion, while Tax-Free Funds saw $23.0 billion of net withdrawals. The approaching October deadline for money market funds to comply with new regulations caused an even greater bifurcation among Taxable Money Market funds, as government funds saw net deposits of $220 billion while prime money market funds experienced net redemptions of $245 billion.

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