Hot Off the Presses

Plan Sponsor & Participant Tools

ftwilliam.com released two new 403(b) plan documents, updated with requirements of the 2007 final regulations. The offering includes a full-scope 403(b) plan document with an ERISA/non-ERISA option that allows sponsors to provide matching and nonelective contributions and elective deferrals, and a limited-scope, non-ERISA 403(b) plan document that allows for elective contributions.

ING is making available 403(b) plan documents that public schools can adopt to meet the new IRS 403(b) requirements.

The Guardian Insurance & Annuity Company, Inc. (GIAC), and PMFM, Inc., announced that PMFM’s 401k Toolbox’s managed account service now offers a fiduciary warranty when it is used as the qualified default investment alternative (QDIA) in a qualified retirement plan that utilizes The Guardian Advantage as its funding vehicle. Specifically, PMFM warrants that 401k Toolbox satisfies the ERISA criteria to be an “investment manager’ for the participant accounts over which 401k Toolbox will have discretionary control.

Diversified Investment Advisors, Inc., introduced Plan SponsorDIRECT, a newly enhanced version of its plan sponsor Web site. Among the most important enhancements are Plan SponsorDIRECT’s report-generation capabilities with user interfaces that enable sponsors to schedule reports using both preset and customizable filters.

ERISA Expertise LLC, a plan services provider, introduced the Roth 401(k) Analyzer V3.0. The product, a report generator, permits advisers, HR and planning professionals, or participants to select from three reports to illustrate how changes in one’s future tax rate affects retirement benefit distribution outcomes.

Mutual of Omaha is now offering plan sponsors a retirement platform that integrates with existing third-party administrators (TPAs). The new third-party administrator solution provides plan sponsors with access to Mutual of Omaha’s menu of investment options, recordkeeping services, participant education programs, and personalized customer service, while allowing the TPA to handle testing and reporting functions.

Adviser Tools

A new online account-management tool from Principal Financial Group provides retirement-focused financial professionals “fast, tailored access to client data,’ according to the company. The Retirement Dashboard gives financial professionals access to information on their qualified retirement plan clients with The Principal, including account value comparisons, distribution information, and participation rates.

SLM Holdings, Inc., a financial software company, has launched an online network that provides financial professionals access to information concerning high-net-worth individuals, their companies, and their retirement plans. The Gazoota.com service tracks new executive appointments, promotions, insider transactions, and merger and acquisition activities, and allows users to create mailing lists and daily e-mail alerts that deliver updated information.

Parametric Portfolio Associates and IW Financial have teamed up to design­customized tax-managed separate accounts strategies for advisers and institutions seeking to incorporate socially responsible, faith-based, terror-free, and other values-based criteria in their investment portfolios.

Envestnet has unveiled the Envestnet Sustainability Platform that integrates three major components to incorporate the tenets of sustainability into the process of constructing client portfolios. Also part of the updated Envestnet platform is a refreshed marketing initiative that involves an expanded product set, a new look and feel for the firm’s marketing mate­rials, enhanced content for adviser-based sales support tools, and a new Web site (envestnetadvisor.com).

Morningstar unveiled Morningstar Site Builder, a Web-based platform of Morningstar’s financial adviser tools, content, and reports that investment firms can add to their existing adviser Web sites. Site Builder includes Morningstar investment research, portfolio analysis tools, and sales and educational materials to augment firms’ online Web properties.

TD AMERITRADE Institutional has unwrapped Select Portfolio Solutions, a new managed accounts platform created in conjunction with FundQuest. The platform enables advisers to construct client-specific recommendations for individual investors through a breadth of nonproprietary investment choices offered by FundQuest, including unified managed accounts (UMAs), separately managed account (SMA) models, mutual fund models, and others.

Investment Benchmarking

Standard & Poor’s has renamed the sector indices acquired from Goldman Sachs in February 2007 to the S&P North American Sector Indices. The S&P North American Sector Indices are a family of indices designed as equity benchmarks for U.S. traded securities in seven broadly defined economic sectors.

Russell Investments launched global style equity indexes on April 1. The new indexes, such as the Russell Global Large Cap Growth Index and Russell Global Large Cap Value Index, will reflect key growth and value segments of the Russell Global Index.

Dow Jones Indexes and Transparent Value LLC launched the Dow Jones Required Business Performance (RBP) Index series, indexes that measure the likelihood that a company can deliver the performance required to support its current stock price according to Transparent Value’s proprietary RBP methodology. The Dow Jones RBP Large-Cap 130/30 Indexes, the first indexes in the series, use the RBP probability metrics to create 130/30 investment strategy indexes based on U.S. large-cap stocks.

Mutual Funds

Van Kampen Retirement Strategy Trust filed a registration statement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for 10 new target retirement date funds. The funds consist of nine portfolios with target retirement dates from 2010 to 2050 (in five-year increments) and an “in retirement’ fund. The funds will operate on a glide path that actively manages the asset allocation through a participant’s accumulation phase and another 15 years beyond the retirement date.

Thrivent Asset Management has launched the Thrivent Partner Worldwide Allocation Fund, subadvised by five firms known for their international investing expertise, and the Thrivent Equity Income Plus Fund, an equity fund that aims to help protect investors in retirement from inflation.

Charles Schwab introduced a suite of funds designed to generate a targeted annua­l payout. The Schwab Monthly Income Funds are comprised of three funds, each with a different annual payout target, to help investors plan for their income needs. Schwab says the funds differ from other income solutions currently available from Schwab in that they offer a target payout range to give investors an indication of projected annual income.

Sun Life has added three diversified fund family portfolios to further boost adviser choice when determining the best option for clients. The newest offerings include the Franklin Templeton VIP Founding Funds Allocation, as well as the AllianceBernstein VPS Balanced Wealth Strategy Portfolio, and the Van Kampen UIF Equity & Income Portfolio. With these additions, Sun Life now offers a total of nine fund family portfolios.

Transamerica IDEX Mutual Funds unveiled its new moniker: Transamerica Funds. According to the company, the shortened name better leverages Transamerica’s strong brand recognition and is part of a recent company evolution as an asset manager.

Blue Marble Investments (BMI) has unveiled online, professionally managed portfolios that invest solely in socially responsible mutual funds. EarthFolio screens and selects socially responsible funds using rigorous social screening processes, and provides them in professionally managed, pre-packaged portfolios that can be accessed online.

Henderson Global Investors launched the Henderson Global Real Estate Equities Fund, an institutional share-class mutual fund that aims to achieve long-term capital appreciation primarily by investing in property-related securities throughout the world.

ETFs

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has proposed two new rules under the Investment Company Act to allow exchange-traded funds (ETFs) to operate without first getting SEC exemptive orders. “Permitting most ETFs to come directly to market without the cost and delay of obtaining an exemptive order would also allow staff to focus on more novel and difficult requests,” said Andrew J. Donohue, Director of the SEC’s Division of Investment Management.

Claymore Securities, Inc., announced that eight of its ETFs are included as underlying investments in the Fiserv Trust Target-Date Blueprint Funds, bank collective investment funds managed by Fiserv Trust Company.

RevenueShares Investor Services, based in Paoli, Pennsylvania, has launched three ETFs on the New York Stock Exchange. The company will rank the three ETFs—RevenueShares Large Cap Fund, RevenueShares Mid Cap Fund, and RevenueShares Small Cap Fund—by top-line revenue rather than market capitalization.

Bear Stearns Asset Management (BSAM) announced the launch of the first actively managed ETF. The Bear Stearns Current Yield Fund (AMEX: YYY), the first product launched by the Bear Stearns Active ETF Trust, is composed of a variety of short-term fixed-income instruments.

State Street Global Advisors (SSgA), the investment management arm of State Street Corporation, has filed an application with the SEC for exemptive relief for a series of actively managed, target-date ETFs. Investing in a diversified sampling of equity and fixed-income ETFs, the proposed new SPDR Exchange-Traded Funds will seek to deliver risk-adjusted returns through a multi-asset-class investment strategy.

Annuities

AXA Equitable Life Insurance Company is offering a new rider, Guaranteed Withdrawal Benefit for Life (GWBL), available with the company’s Accumulator variable annuity, which provides for a minimum 200% benefit base guarantee if no withdrawals are taken during the first 10 years of the contract or until age 70, whichever is later.

The U.S. division of Sun Life Financial Inc. has introduced new investment options for its Masters Variable Annuity suite. New options include a 90/10 Masters Model for customers seeking investments heavily weighted in stock funds, as well as three diversified fund family portfolios. Sun Life also enhanced the Build Your Own Portfolio option for customers who wish to customize their investment strategy within any of the four Masters variable annuities.

TIAA-CREF has announced the addition of international equity investments to its CREF Social Choice variable annuity account. In conjunction with the change in portfolio composition, the account’s composite benchmark will change to include the MSCI EAFE + Canada, alongside the Russell 3000 and Lehman Brothers U.S. Aggregate indexes.

Deals

Effective March 1, 2008, The Scarborough Group, Inc., became two companies—Scarborough Capital Management, Inc. (SCM), and Retirement Management Systems, Inc.—offering services to 401(k) participants and financial advisers, respectively. SCM will provide wealth management services to individual clients and 401(k) participants on a flat-fee basis, and will provide financial planning and asset management advice.

Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company (MassMutual) agreed to purchase The First Mercantile Trust Company from SunTrust Banks, Inc.

As part of RBC’s (Royal Bank of Canada) global brand strategy, RBC Dain Rauscher has changed its brand name to RBC Wealth Management. RBC Wealth Management also introduced a new technology platform and announced the formation of a single U.S. broker/dealer that gives clients and employees increased access to the products and services from RBC’s global network of financial solutions.

Phoenix-based MJM401k, LLC and San Ramon, California-based Fortress Wealth Management, Inc., have completed an agreement whereby the Defined Contribution Consulting Division of Fortress will be merged with MJM401k. The two companies have worked together informally for the past several years. Retaining the MJM401k name, the combined firm provides consulting services to more than 50 plans, covering more than 15,000 participants and more than $600 million in assets.

Mutual of Omaha has agreed to acquire the assets and personnel of Retirement Marketing Services (RMS), a Dublin, Ohio-based independent wholesaler specializing in marketing retirement products in the 401(k), 403(b), 457, and individual rollover markets.

*Illustration by Callum McKeveny