Products September 29, 2016

PCS Reveals ‘Advisor Lab’ Fiduciary Toolkit

The new program from PCS enhances advisers' ability to establish and demonstrate compliance with the DOL's fiduciary rule reform. 
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PCS, provider of fiduciary retirement platforms, announced the launch of its new Advisor Lab Fiduciary Toolkit, aimed at enhancing financial professionals’ ability to comply with the Department of Labor (DOL) fiduciary rule.

According to PCS and others, the upcoming regulatory change associated with the fiduciary rule and its various selling restrictions and exemptions “has forced every retirement-plan enterprise to reassess its procedures. Advisers, home offices, plan sponsors—they are all feeling the pressure.”

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For advisers on the ground, Advisor Lab is presented as “a lead- and prospect-generation engine with an integrated DOL 5500 database.” Advisers can benchmark plans and create customized reports for plan sponsors using the system, among other functions.

“With an online proposal system and conversion stage workflow, advisers can efficiently engage with new plan sponsors and effect a turnkey conversion,” PCS explains. The Lab’s Fiduciary Toolkit adds detailed task-driven workflows, including auto-reminders, responsibility tracking and completion reporting to the Lab’s suite of FINRA-reviewed tools, as well as plan acquisition support, benchmarking services and “on-going management materials,” such as enrollment forms, fund fact sheets and fiduciary notifications.

From the home office perspective, PCS anticipates the DOL regulations will soon require that broker/dealer operations staff comply with much more extensive requirements. The Advisor Lab Fiduciary Toolkit provides an administration portal and dashboard that facilitate user management, providing data aggregation and reporting; compliance notifications; book-of-business analysis; and a document vault.

Additionally, the toolkit includes an individual retirement account (IRA) rollover solution. According to PCS, the toolkit’s automated rollover solution can reduce fiduciary risk associated with rollovers by providing the investor with “clear information about current versus proposed fees and services ­ a compliant rollover journey … It allows for the simple transition of assets with minimal market risk and enables advisers to compliantly maintain fees on assets leaving plans, as it is designed to fall under the Level Fee Fiduciary Exemption.”

More information is available at www.pcs401k.com. 

Products September 28, 2016

Morningstar Releases App for Advisers

The free app will allow advisers to tap into clients’ overall asset allocation, return, risk and market value across accounts in real time.
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Morningstar Research has released the Morningstar for Advisers App, which can sync to client accounts and portfolios while providing access to investment information from the Morningstar Advisor Workstation. 

The free app will allow advisers to monitor, display and analyze client holdings in real time.

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“Industry trends, including advancing technology and an ever-changing regulatory environment, are driving a fundamental shift in the way advisers interact with their clients,” says Scott Mackenzie, president and CEO for Morningstar Research. “In particular, as a result of the CRM2 implementation in mid-July 2016, the spotlight on investment fees means that advisers must be able to demonstrate their value in terms that their clients can easily understand. Advisers who can do this, leveraging interactive tools like the Morningstar for Advisors iPad app, are going to have a significant advantage.”

The app will allow advisers to view an aggregate summary of a client’s overall asset allocation, return, risk and market value across accounts. Advisers can also download and view previously generated client summary and portfolio reports.

In addition, the Morningstar Portfolio X-Ray tool will provide detailed data on the allocation and sector breakdown of the holdings in the portfolio.

To download the free app via iTunes, click here.

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