Compliance June 20, 2007

EBSA to Hold Public Hearing About Advice Provision

The U.S. Department of Labor’s Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA) will hold a public hearing on July 31 to assess the feasibility of using computer models to provide advice to participants with individual retirement accounts (IRAs) and similar plans.
Reported by
The Pension Protection Act (PPA) amended the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) by adding a new prohibited transaction exemption that allows greater flexibility for investment advisers to give advice to participants of 401(k) plans and IRAs. One of the ways in which investment advice may be provided under the exemption is through the use of an unbiased computer model.
The department is required to determine the feasibility of such models in providing investment advice to IRA participants and report its finding to Congress by the end of the year. On December 4, 2006, the department published a request for information regarding the use of computer model investment advice programs for IRAs.
According to an EBSA news release, those wanting to address the hearing should submit a request to present oral comments by July 19 online to e-OED@dol.gov or the federal eRulemaking portal at www.regulations.gov. Information on the hearing agenda will be published on the eRulemaking portal.
The hearing will take place at the DoL in Room N4437B-D, 200 Constitution Ave., N.W. in Washington, D.C.
Products June 20, 2007

Northern Funds Added to PFPC’s AdvisorCentral Portal

PFPC, a member of The PNC Financial Services Group, Inc., has added Northern Funds to its AdvisorCentral portal.
Reported by
The AdvisorCentral portal is an online tool for financial advisers and broker/dealers providing aggregated mutual fund and 529 account information. Northern Funds is a family of mutual funds managed by Northern Trust Corporation.
According to the announcement, AdvisorCentral aggregates client information from approximately 50 industry-leading mutual fund companies and six transfer agencies, representing 48 million accounts. Financial professionals can use the portal to consolidate individual accounts into customized client portfolios, check prices, build transaction histories, and execute on transactions involving redemptions and exchanges.
Eric Schweitzer, senior vice president with Northern Trust, said, in the announcement, “Our participation in this centralized source of account data can expedite the adviser’s collection of data, enhance their analytics, facilitate certain types of transactions and potentially reduce demands on our own customer service resources.’
More information about PFPC can be found at www.pfpc.com.

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