Plan sponsors and participants can access a library of interactive tools to help participants prepare for potential challenges such as health care costs in retirement, college savings and withdrawing from Social Security.
J.P. Morgan Retirement Link, J.P. Morgan Asset Management’s bundled
defined contribution (DC) plan platform has expanded to address the
needs of small- and mid-market clients with assets from $1 million to
more than $50 million in search of a full suite of retirement services.
When the platform launched, it delivered bundled recordkeeping solutions for small to mid-sized retirement plans with assets up to $40 million.
Retirement
Link now provides a larger variety of resources through its team of
professionals. Plan sponsors and participants can access a library of
interactive tools to help participants prepare for potential challenges
such as health care costs in retirement, college savings and withdrawing
from Social Security. The platform has also updated its enrollment
experience by providing customized features unique to each plan and
participant to help plan sponsors communicate with participants beyond
investment advice.
To provide customers with access to these
tools and continue its level of personalized service, the group has
grown in 2016 welcoming a new head of sales for Retirement Link, Charlie
Cote, and three new client advisers covering the Western, Southeastern
and New England/Mid-Atlantic territories—Jason Graeb, Scott Caloway and
Scott Wendling.
Emerging Blockchain Technologies Could Reshape Asset Data Security
New research from State Street Corporation finds a majority
of asset managers believe they’ll be using “blockchain” data security technologies
within five years. So, what’s blockchain?
Survey data out from State Street Corporation finds the majority
of institutional asset owners and managers see a strong future for
so-called “blockchain” technology within the financial services space.
As defined by State Street, blockchain is basically the
opposite of hard currency. Very broadly, blockchain can be understood as a digital asset tied to an automatically maintained and distributed ledger that creates a
continuously growing list of data records built into the asset itself, preventing
tampering or illegal revision of financial records.
Among asset owners and managers responding to State Street’s
survey, the majority (57%) expect blockchain “to be widely adopted in the
investment industry in the next five years.” While the underlying sentiment rings
true, this may turn out to be an optimistic timetable, researchers warn, as
only 7% of institutional asset owners/managers say they are already working on
adopting blockchain technology features.
The survey, conducted in partnership with Oxford Economics, further
found that 74% of asset owners believe blockchain providers will be able to
quickly achieve the scale needed to support multi-trillion dollar investment
industries, compared to only 42% of asset managers. And, despite asset owners’
optimism, “nearly half (48%) said they don’t know enough about it, and asset
managers are even less confident, with 78% noting that they need more
education.”
From the perspective of retirement plan advisers, any effort
to get to know blockchain will likely coincide with wider cybersecurity shifts
tied to ongoing initiatives from both FINRA and the Securities and Exchange (SEC).
Each January the Securities and Exchange Commission signals its enforcement
priorities for the coming 12 months—this year the regulator clearly highlighted
the importance of adviser transparency, cybersecurity
and liquidity issues, among other familiar topics. FINRA has aired the same message in recent years.
“A majority of institutional investors are well aware that
blockchain, an emerging technology, could become an everyday application in
the near future,” says Antoine Shagoury, global chief information officer
at State Street. “What’s clear from our research is a lack of readiness and
uncertainty for how to best plan for this disruption, and a need for more
education.”
NEXT: Investment teams
anticipate biggest impact
It’s not hard to image how blockchain could be shaped to
support the challenging work of recordkeepers and third-party administrators,
given the willingness of courts to consider the actual
data of the retirement plan itself as being subject to Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) protections.
And of course, plan advisers themselves hold a great deal of sensitive data on
their own clients.
Given the technical nature of blockchain, it’s no surprise the State Street
survey shows information technology teams at asset managers anticipate
having the most work to do when it comes to studying and eventually implementing blockchain, “demonstrating
that institutions need to introduce talent with the skills necessary to adapt
to new technical demands.”
Perhaps more surprising, 81% of
asset managers also “agree that the adoption of blockchain will equally disrupt
their own investments teams.” As such, managers are still working to figure out
how the core components of blockchain will or will not fit into current
investing processes and partnerships.
Many managers project that
private use between small groups of clients and providers will trump any
standardized or mandatory public adoption of blockchain. “Regardless of industry-wide
adoption, more than half of asset owners and asset managers (55%) are convinced
that blockchain is most likely to be used privately by companies with their
clients,” researchers explain. “Only 13% believe blockchain will be used
broadly by the public.”
Hu Liang, senior managing
director and head of State Street’s Emerging Technologies Center, concludes the
survey report by noting blockchain is very quickly becoming a tangible reality.
“We are actively supporting several blockchain and blockchain-inspired
initiatives both internally and as part of a handful of consortia of the
world's biggest banks and technology companies.”