Products October 9, 2017

Financial Engines Releases Health Care Planner

Two new solutions aim to help employees pay off their college debt and plan for health care expenses in retirement.
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Independent investment adviser Financial Engines has launched a College Expense Planner and a Retirement Healthcare Expense Planner. Both utilize empirical forecasting methodologies to offer actionable information.

The Financial Engines Retirement Healthcare Expense Planner enables users to estimate what they might need to pay for Medicare premiums and out-of-pocket healthcare expenses once they stop working. The planner leverages Financial Engines’ partnership with HealthView, a provider of healthcare cost-projection software. With the planner, users receive a location-specific estimate for how much they can expect to pay for healthcare services in retirement. That estimate can then be integrated into their overall retirement income goal.

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The Financial Engines College Expense Planner helps develop a saving and investing strategy to pay for college. It helps people estimate how much they will need to save for their children’s college expenses and gives them a sense of where they stand today in relation to their savings targets. The planner incorporates third-party tuition cost growth estimates for public and private colleges and a variety of portfolio forecasting options to estimate the savings users could have when their children are ready for college.

“Our new digital planners address key areas where people need help navigating unfamiliar systems, so they can develop smart saving and investment strategies,” explained Karen White, vice president of consumer products at Financial Engines. “By offering accessible, easy-to-use tools on topics that cause a lot of stress and uncertainty, we’re inviting more people into the financial planning conversation and are helping them connect the choices they make today with the options they’ll have tomorrow.”

The launch of the planners is a part of Financial Engines’ continued commitment to deliver holistic financial wellness solutions through digital tools, multi-channel communications and advisor interactions.

“These two new digital planners represent a reimagining of how we can help 401(k) participants achieve their goals,” explained White. “Building on many years of success driving better retirement outcomes, we’re developing additional innovative digital tools to provide personalized help with the big and small financial challenges that can sometimes eclipse long-term planning. By engaging people throughout their journey, we can help them balance the now with the next, empowering them to make choices with confidence.”

Data & Research October 9, 2017

DOL Fiduciary Regulation in Global Perspective

Morningstar’s “Global Fund Investor Experience” report shows that, with strong regulations, come stable markets. 
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Morningstar has released its latest biennial update to its “Global Fund Investor Experience” report, grading the quality and dependability of services delivered to mutual fund investors in 25 countries across North America, Europe, Asia and Africa.

Countries ranked in the index are given a rating of either top, above average, average, below average or bottom. Researchers identified the United States as the most investor-friendly market, but no country received a bottom overall grade. Importantly, more than half of the markets received an overall grade of average, indicating “widespread improvement in investor experiences across multiple markets driven by globalization, stronger regulation, and adoption of best-practice principles.”

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Here in the U.S., there is no shortage of debate surrounding the Department of Labor (DOL) fiduciary rule reforms and other regulatory initiatives, which together represent a significant strengthening of the regulatory regime concerning tax-qualified retirement plan investing. As the report lays out, strong regulatory oversight, as exemplified by the DOL rulemaking, remains essential to ensuring the highest quality investor experiences.

Anthony Serhan, managing director of research strategy, Asia-Pacific, at Morningstar, and co-author of the study, notes that regulations such as the fiduciary rule, and similar efforts in Europe, have already started reshaping important aspects of the investing marketplace. Notably, regulators are increasingly “enforcing bans on commissions, requiring or encouraging better disclosure from fund companies, and adopting technologies that can lead to lower costs for investors.”

For U.S. readers, the research highlights the difficult debate on taxation and health care reform that will very likely continue for years to come. Also notable, India joined the U.S. in receiving a grade of top in the disclosure category. The two countries operate “the only two markets requiring disclosure of remuneration practices for fund managers,” Serhan points out.

This year, calculations of asset-weighted median fees in the major asset classes—equity, fixed income and allocation—show continued downward pressure, Morningstar finds. The full report is available for download here. 

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