Hot off the Presses
Participant and Sponsor Tools
LPL Financial LLC has added capabilities from Morningstar Associates, Financial Finesse and Wealth Management Systems to its Worksite Financial Solutions retirement planning services platform, which allows plan sponsors to help participants prepare for retirement through a range of financial education, advice and account transition services.
A mobile application (app) from Transamerica Retirement Solutions, the Retirement Outlook Estimator lets users input their desired retirement age, annual salary, investments and retirement savings in order to generate a personalized retirement outlook that compares the projected retirement income with the user’s retirement goals.
The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has released a video of Form 5500 and extension filing tips, along with the agency’s Office of Employee Plans list of guidelines. Advice includes keeping plan-year dates and changes in plan names explicit; avoiding abbreviations and variations; and being clear with employer identification numbers (EINs) and three-digit plan numbers.
The CoRI Retirement Indexes from BlackRock are designed to give investors approaching retirement an immediate metric that translates current savings into an estimate of future retirement income. The calculator can also assess the savings needed to generate a desired amount of annual income throughout retirement.
Bank of America’s investment businesses, through the work of its ESG Council, have launched a program for clients to align their investments with environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues. Merrill Lynch Wealth Management and U.S. Trust now offer more than 180 ESG-themed investments to individual and institutional investors.
SunGard has released MyRetirement income calculator, which allows defined contribution (DC) participants to determine spending amounts in retirement. The Web-based tool uses information from SunGard’s Relius Administration recordkeeping system, as well as probability tools plus Monte Carlo analyses to show annual withdrawal rates from multiple model portfolios at different probabilities of success.
American Funds has unveiled 3(21) and 3(28) fiduciary services to plan sponsors, wherein plans pay a minimal annual fee of between $300 and $1,000, depending on service and plan size, to Wilshire Associates.
Pensionmark Retirement Group has unveiled a retirement plan solution for small businesses. The service offers the benefits of a cost-effective retirement plan with 3(38) investment fiduciary services, 3(21) named noninvestment fiduciary services and administrative outsourcing.
Adviser Tools
Mesirow Financial has rolled out “adviser-friendly” fiduciary services for Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) sections 3(21) and 3(38). The 3(21) service offers approved investment options to build a customized investment lineup while mitigating fiduciary risk. The 3(38) service offers three investment lineups for specific demographics of participants, and Mesirow Financial assumes discretion for selecting, monitoring and replacing investment options. The services are available through CPI’s ClearDirection 401(k) retirement program.
The Plan Profit (k)alculator from Nuveen Investments is intended to help advisers communicate the value of their services through a financial picture of their retirement plan business. The tool offers four categories to use when determining what impacts the profitability of a plan and identifies areas of improvement that may enhance business and plan results.
John Hancock Financial Network now markets itself to advisers under the name Signator Investors. Signator offers an open product platform, including a range of investment, advisory and protection products from a number of providers, while supporting an adviser’s autonomy and independent brand.
Lincoln Trust has created the Lincoln Trust Plan Comparison Tool to help advisers compare 401(k) plan costs. The tool generates side-by-side plan cost comparisons and information about the positive impact of cost reduction on long-term savings.
TD Ameritrade Institutional has brought its brand to technology, with a “Veo Integrated” logo. The branding makes it easy for registered investment advisers (RIAs) to identify technology providers that have built integrations with the Veo adviser platform. The logo appears on websites, brochures, videos and other marketing materials from participating technology providers.
An integrated portfolio management and research tool, Raymond James Financial’s Portfolio Management Center is powered by FolioDynamix and incorporates proprietary research. The tool is available to advisers at Raymond James as part of the firm’s Advisor Access platform and enables a fully discretionary modeling, rebalancing and trading platform for an adviser’s business.
Principal Funds has rolled out “Mastering the Advisor RFP,” a free download to guide advisers through a streamlined request for proposals (RFP) process. The research-based tool kit offers insights to use when responding to RFPs. Five factors that can drive successful outcomes, such as demonstrating a unique value proposition and building a repeatable process, are identified and detailed.
The Enterprise Management Consulting program from LPL Financial LLC assists the firm’s affiliated large enterprises with growth, profitability and adviser support. Business strategy consultations develop a plan based on financial management, operational efficiency, growth maximization and organizational design.
Investments
MainStay Investments, a New York Life company, rolled out non-revenue share classes (R6 shares) for several mutual funds, offered at net asset value (NAV), without front-end sales charges, contingent deferred sales charges (CDSCs) or 12b-1 fees. The funds include the MainStay Epoch Global Equity Yield Fund, MainStay High Yield Corporate Bond Fund and MainStay Large Cap Growth Fund.
A zero-revenue share class was added to Manning & Napier’s Pro-Mix Collective Investment Trust (CIT) Fund family. The share class will help plan sponsors clarify administrative costs paid by participants and recognizes the trend of more transparent, fee-conscious investments in 401(k) plans.
Goldman Sachs Asset Management (GSAM) has launched a stable value fund to meet retirement plan sponsor demand for pooled stable value funds. Eligible plan investors in the Fifth Third Stable Value Fund can transition to Goldman Sachs’ Stable Value Collective Trust.
Nuveen Investments has created a suite of large-cap equity mutual funds managed by Nuveen Asset Management Chief Equity Strategist and Senior Portfolio Manager Bob Doll. The suite of funds includes nine equity strategies in three categories.
American Century Investments has added a retirement plan share class to 41 of its funds, including mutual funds and 10 target-date funds (TDFs). The R6 share class has the lowest total expense ratio of any share class the firm offers.
Franklin Templeton Investments has unveiled four funds in its target-date fund (TDF) lineup. The Franklin LifeSmart 2020, 2030, 2040 and 2050 Retirement Target funds’ managers adhere to both top-down and bottom-up tactical disciplines. They identify short-term market dislocations and opportunities and implement small tactical shifts within asset classes.