Ameritas Launches Net Asset Value Retirement Plan Platform

The retirement plans division of Ameritas Life Insurance Corp. announced the launch of Ameritas GPS, a “fully transparent mutual-fund based retirement platform.”

The new Ameritas GPS retirement plan platform provides recordkeeping, a wide array of investment options and Mesirow Financial Investment Strategies investment advisory services for plans in the micro- to small-market space.

According to Ameritas, the new platform, available to plan sponsors through their broker/dealers and registered investment advisers (RIAs), is designed to provide financial professionals flexibility in customizing retirement plans to the specific needs of their business-owner clients.

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“Our new platform is a competitive complement to our successful group variable annuity offering, and enables us to take advantage of the opportunities available in the growing NAV [net asset value] market space,” explains Bret Benham, senior vice president for Ameritas retirement plans. “Ameritas GPS allows financial professionals to have a hands-on, individualized approach with their clients. This objective approach puts financial professionals in the driver’s seat and allows them to offer their clients an extensive array of mutual fund investment options while customizing the services to fit their clients’ needs.”

The platform is available both bundled and unbundled, featuring 3(21) and 3(38) fiduciary investment advisory services through Mesirow. “The efficiency and appeal of the new platform lies in its interactive online capabilities that streamline the processes and procedures required of today’s plan sponsors,” the firm suggests.

For more information on the Ameritas GPS platform, contact the Ameritas sales desk at 800-923-2732. 

IFP Plan Advisors Unveils Retirement Resource Desk

The Retirement Resource Desk from IFP Plan Advisers will provide specialist support in the areas of advisory practice management, reporting and business development. 

IFP Plan Advisors, a division of hybrid registered investment adviser (RIA) Independent Financial Partners (IFP) in Tampa, Florida, is launching a new team of specialists, dubbed the “Retirement Resource Desk,” to support the reporting and business development needs of its advisory clients. 

The Retirement Resource Desk is designed to lighten the workloads of the division’s advisers by allowing them to outsource the production of quarterly investment monitoring reports, semi-annual provider benchmarking reports and investment due diligence reports to a member of the central IFP Plan Advisors team. The desk staff will also act as an RFP response center and assist with proposal generation and tracking, according to IFP.

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“These are critical parts of the work of our retirement plan advisers, but they are also a very time consuming,” explains Kimberly Shaw Elliott, president of IFP Plan Advisors. “By taking reporting off of our advisers’ plates, we free them to spend more time with their clients and look for new ones. Our Retirement Resource Desk will also help with that by including a client prospecting center.”

The Retirement Resource Desk’s business development liaisons will identify plan sponsor prospects through branded email campaigns, educational video content and calling programs. They will also work to help increase the brand awareness of the advisers within a defined geographic region, rank the prospects and secure meetings on behalf of the advisers.

“Our team will be able to tee up qualified prospects for our advisers and allow them to do what they do best—show plan administrators how they can serve their businesses and employees,” adds Jay Bloom, IFP Plan Advisors director of business development.

In addition to creating the new dedicated support team, IFP Plan Advisors has added three new tools to its technology suite. These include Envestnet Retirement Solutions, integrating regulatory, data and investment tools designed to provide holistic practice management information; Financial Soundings Insights Reports, providing each employee of a plan sponsor client a personalized report; and a new system for generating and tracking proposals.

For information is available at www.ifpartners.com. 

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