Products November 21, 2017

Morningstar to Unveil Office Cloud

It will enable advisers to manage their practices and portfolios

Reported by

Morningstar has announced that in the first quarter of 2018, it will introduce Morningstar Office Cloud, a cloud-based practice and portfolio management platform for advisers—designed to replace multiple legacy systems.

Advisers can migrate client data from other portfolio accounting systems onto the new platform. Existing Morningstar Office users can migrate to Morningstar Office Could with no data conversion required.

“Amid increased regulatory uncertainty and heightened investor expectations, advisers are being challenged to rethink existing business models and better demonstrate the value of their advice to clients,” says Tricia Rothschild, chief product officer at Morningstar. “With Morningstar Office Cloud’s fully-integrated data and research capabilities, advisers can focus on what really matters—helping their clients reach their financial goals.”

The platform can be integrated with other third-party software packages and includes a client web portal that clients can log onto to access their information in real time, be it from a computer, laptop, iPad or mobile phone.

Visit http://www.morningstar.com/company/morningstar-office for more information about Morningstar Office Cloud.

Compliance November 21, 2017

PBGC Wants to Keep Requiring Disclosures for Distressed DB Plan Terminations

The agency has requested that the OMB continue to allow it to do so.

Reported by

The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) is requesting that the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) approve a collection of information under its regulations on the disclosure of termination information for distress terminations, and for PBGC-initiated terminations of defined benefit (DB) plans.

As background, Sections 4041 and 4042 of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) govern the termination of single-employer defined benefit pension plans that are subject to Title IV of ERISA. A plan administrator may initiate a distress termination undersection 4041(c), and the PBGC may itself initiate proceedings to terminate a pension plan under section 4042 if PBGC determines that certain conditions are present. 

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Sections 4041 and 4042 of ERISA were amended by Section 506 of the Pension Protection Act (PPA) to require that, upon a request by an affected party, a plan administrator must disclose information it has submitted to the PBGC in connection with a distress termination filing, and a plan administrator or plan sponsor must disclose information it has submitted to the PBGC in connection with a PBGC-initiated termination. 

The PBGC is also required to disclose the administrative record relating to a PBGC-initiated termination upon request by an affected party.

This collection of information was most recently approved by OMB, and the PBGC is requesting that OMB approve the collection of information for three years, without change.

The agency is seeking public comments about its request. More information is here.

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