Happy Friday, readers! The editors of PLANADVISER and PLANSPONSOR are hard at work prepping for next week’s PLANSPONSOR National Conference in Washington, D.C., one of our flagship annual events bringing together plan sponsors and providers from across the United States. Fair to say it’s been a whirlwind year for the industry, with even greater changes potentially right around the corner. This week’s editor’s picks spotlight some of the top trends and challenges we’ll explore next week at the conference.
Could Google one day be a top provider of investments or financial advice? What about Facebook, or Amazon? It may sound farfetched, but one industry expert says such a future might not be far off.
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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?
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The strongest-performing advisers are leading the way on aggressive plan design, embracing re-enrollment, stretching the match and making sure plans work for participants as they’re designed to.
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Reflecting the change in their own clients’ expectations, more financial advisers say they prefer to receive general thought leadership and market commentary from service provider partners, in lieu of more product-specific updates.
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“This is hardly the first time regulation will change the way advisers get paid and disclose important information to clients,” one industry executive observes, “so in that respect I am confident firms will be able to make it work under the new rule.”
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