Aperio Group Releases Catholic Advocacy Portfolio

Financial advisory firm Aperio Group LLC has partnered with Aquinas Associates to develop a portfolio that adheres to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ (USCCB) socially responsive investing guidelines.

The Catholic Advocacy Portfolio, which was designed for high net worth and institutional investors, seeks to match the performance of the broad equity market while meeting and exceeding the USCCB Guidelines. The funds in the portfolio underwent a screening process developed by Aquinas Associates, and will continue to be subject to active corporate participation. The Catholic Advocacy Portfolio is designed to track the broad equity market and is forecasted to have a tracking error of less than 1%. 

Companies included in the Aperio Catholic Advocacy universe must first prove that they do not exceed a maximum threshold involvement in abortion, contraception, cloning, human embryonic stem cell and fetal research, pornography, military weapons of mass destruction, landmines, tobacco, alcohol or gambling.  

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In order to fully comply with USCCB guidelines, Aquinas Associates (acting on behalf of investors) engages companies on issues such as human rights, racial and gender discrimination, labor standards, access to pharmaceuticals, affordable housing/banking, protecting the environment, global warming, access to water, and encouraging corporate responsibility.

Fiduciary Benchmarks Offering Services to UBS Advisers

Advisers in the DC Advisory program at UBS Financial Services Inc. will receive fee benchmarking services from Fiduciary Benchmarks, in partnership with BlackRock.

Advisers in the DC Advisory program at UBS Financial Services can obtain a benchmarking report for their clients or prospects by having the plan sponsor sign a form authorizing the benchmarking study. Fiduciary Benchmarks will then work with the plan’s recordkeeper to ensure that the data used for the benchmarking service is up-to-date, accurate, and consistent.  

Once the complete benchmarking report is received, BlackRock can help advisers better understand the report and highlight key opportunities to present to plan sponsors.  

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The announcement noted that demand for fee benchmarking services has increased significantly since the release of the interim final 408(b)(2) regulation on July 16, 2010, requiring the disclosure of fees and services related to retirement plans and is slated to take effect January 1, 2012.  

“There is a clear progression from transparency to disclosure to reasonableness to value. The 408(b)(2) regulation addresses transparency and disclosure. Our strength is in helping advisers and their plan sponsors get to reasonableness and value” said Craig Rosenthal, Senior Vice President in charge of Advisor Sales and Service at Fiduciary Benchmarks. “Reasonableness cannot be a fee-only discussion. Reasonableness can only be arrived at if you examine the support, services and success measures of your service providers. This is the value add service that FBI in partnership with BlackRock will be delivering to the UBS DC Advisory group.”  

More about the Fiduciary Benchmarks Service is at http://www.fiduciarybenchmarks.com.

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