Products July 16, 2014

PRI Adds Reporting Tool to Advisor Resource Center

The Pension Resource Institute, LLC (PRI) reached a partnership agreement with FRA PlanTools that allows PRI subscribers to easily order and access FRA PLANbenchmark reports.
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The PLANbenchmark tool allows retirement plan professionals to input information about a specific plan or client. The data is analyzed and turned into a customized report that shows plan sponsor clients how their plans stack up against the wider market.

“Benchmarking is not a perfect science, at least not for the 90% of the plans that hold less than $10 million in assets,” says Jason Roberts, chief executive officer of PRI. “Instead, benchmarking serves as a jumping off point from which the adviser and his client can identify outliers and drill down into the nature and scope of services provided to determine whether the plan is receiving adequate value.”

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He adds that his company’s clients are subject to Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) and Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) rules that require them to supervise the activities of their representatives, which include reviewing and approving reports that are given to clients.

“The reality is that many advisers, for better or worse, have reported that some of their smaller plans simply do not have the experience to adequately interpret the output of more sophisticated and detailed reports,” Roberts says.

Dave Witz, chief executive for FRA PlanTools, views the new partnership with PRI as a “chance to connect with plan advisers who may be interested in these services. Leveraging the reach of [the Advisor Resource Center] is an effective way to introduce and distribute our services through a trusted brand in the retirement plan marketplace,” he adds.

More information on the Advisor Resource Center is available here.

Deals & People July 16, 2014

Prudential Names Head of Multi-Asset Class Solutions

Prudential Investment Management has named Michael Schlachter as the head of its multi-asset class solutions group.
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The newly formed group will leverage the breadth of Prudential’s asset management capabilities across public and private fixed income, equities, real estate and alternatives to help investors solve issues around asset allocation, portfolio construction, dynamic de-risking and hedging. The group will serve institutional clients around the world.

“Our clients increasingly ask for our expertise to develop strategies across their portfolios that will enable them to achieve long-term objectives and absolute risk-adjusted performance,” says David Hunt, CEO of Prudential Investment Management, based in Newark, New Jersey. “Michael’s deep industry experience and understanding of our clients is invaluable as he leads the effort to create holistic investment solutions in collaboration with each of our asset management businesses.”

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Schlachter joins Prudential from Wilshire Associates, where he was most recently a managing director and lead consultant to multinational corporations, state governments and federal agencies, with an emphasis on asset allocation, risk and liability management, and portfolio structuring.

Schlachter joined Wilshire in 1999 and moved through a wide range of roles that included providing asset-allocation analysis and investment structuring for clients. He also has experience helping plan sponsors develop long-term strategic investment policies. Before Wilshire, he worked as a financial analyst at Goldman Sachs.

Schlachter holds a charted financial analyst designation and has an M.B.A. from the University of Chicago. He earned his bachelor’s degree in politics and economics from Princeton University.

Prudential Investment Management’s businesses offer a range of investment solutions for retail and institutional investors around the world across all asset classes. More information about the firm can be found at http://www.investmentmanagement.prudential.com.

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