Deals & People June 2, 2011

Pioneer Investments Partners with Fee Benchmarking Firm

Pioneer Investments is partnering with Fiduciary Benchmarks, Inc. (FBi), a consulting firm specializing in providing plan fiduciaries with information on the reasonableness of fund fees.
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The partnership will give Pioneer and its clients access to FBi’s benchmarking services to assess plan fees. Fiduciary Benchmarks has established protocols with more than fifty recordkeepers and produces thousands of reports annually for a range of service providers and fiduciaries to determine fee reasonableness, according to the company.  

Pioneer advisers will be able to access benchmarking reports that can help retirement plan fiduciaries satisfy their obligations under ERISA section 404(a)(1) and the upcoming ERISA section 408(b)(2) regulation, slated to take effect in January 2012, which will require the disclosure of compensation, status, and services related to a retirement plan.  

“The signing of this partnership is consistent with Pioneer’s objective of making sure that our clients and prospective clients who are retirement plan administrators have access to the best possible tools to allow them to evaluate their plan fees, design, and adviser services,” said Jamie Axford, Senior Vice President and Director of Business Development for Pioneer’s Investment Only & Retirement Group.

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