hot off the presses
Plan Sponsor and Participant Tools
Ascensus partnered with Mesirow Financial’s Investment Strategies Group to offer investment fiduciary protection to plan sponsors.
Diversified Investment Advisors has a new in-plan option for guaranteed retirement income, SecurePath for Life, that allows participants to be active in the stock and bond markets and maintain control over their retirement money.
myNQDC.com is a new Web site that provides educational content and tools for anyone participating in, or working with, nonqualified deferred compensation plans.
The U.S. Department of Labor (DoL) and the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) launched a Web site to help small businesses select a retirement plan suitable for their employees.
Putnam Investments introduced a module on its plan participant Web site that is intended to offer transparent and comprehensive disclosure of plan fees and expenses.
Newkirk announced the availability of enhanced QDIA Notice Services, with options to include the Qualified Account Contribution Arrangement (QACA), Eligible Account Contribution Arrangement (EACA), or ACA notices in the same communications bundle.
The Hartford created a new participant education program called “Your Retirement. Plan for Life,” which is designed to fit different learning styles and includes a personalized salary deferral illustration tool to help participants understand the value of saving over the long term.
Plan Fiduciary Services, Inc., is sponsoring the Affiliated Employers Retirement Savings Plan, a multiple-employer plan the company says will lower plan administration costs.
Ascensus and Pacific Life teamed up to offer a 401(k) program to address the needs of small-business plan sponsors that provides fee transparency, investment flexibility, and a simplified implementation process.
CPI Qualified Plan Consultants, Inc., released its Investment Fiduciary Protection Program (IFPP) that will be managed by Sunlin Consulting Investment Advisory Services.
Chartis launched Fiduciary Liability Insurance Edge to address the fiduciary liability exposures facing companies, plans, executives, and employees.
TPA Retirement Alliance launched SmartPlan Enterprise, an online participant education and communication system, intended to increase plan participation, fulfill fiduciary duty, and reduce the need for print communications and onsite meetings.
New York Life Retirement Plan Services has introduced a participant program called MyLifeNow that includes a participant enrollment package and Web site, to be launched in the fourth quarter of 2010.
Newkirk installed several enhancements to its participant investment information Web application, including benchmark information, fees, and expenses for plan investment alternatives.
SunTrust Banks, Inc., has introduced an online Retirement Toolbox for businesses who choose SunTrust as their 401(k) plan provider, offering interactive educational resources tailored for each stage of retirement planning.
Vanguard introduced a Web-based service, Vanguard Annuity Access, that enables individuals to compare income annuities from leading insurance companies
The SPARK Institute released final information sharing standards and data records for lifetime income solutions to be used in retirement plans, in a paper called “Data Layouts for Retirement Income Solutions (Version 1.0).”
PlanTools released fee-disclosure support for 408(b)(2), saying it provides flexibility to address all the disclosure variables that are unique to each plan.
Primax Payment Systems partnered with Northeast Retirement Services and Union Center National Bank of Union, New Jersey to provide solutions for the administration and recordkeeping of loans under retirement plan programs.
Principal Financial Group created the “Savings-to-Employment Income Ratio” to help investors estimate the health of their retirement savings; a white paper was written to complement the tool.
The SPARK Institute has published the final version of its Best Practices for ERISA-covered 403(b) plans that must file a full Form 5500.
Adviser Tools
TD Ameritrade Institutional introduced several services to help independent registered investment advisers (RIAs) and third-party administrators (TPAs) grow their retirement plan business, with programs such as a TPA referral network that matches RIAs with qualified independent TPAs and recordkeepers.
Principal Financial Group published a white paper called, “New Fee Disclosure Rule for Retirement Plan Service Providers: What Financial Professionals Need to Know,” along with a customizable “Commitment of Services” document and checklist to help financial professionals understand the fee-disclosure rule and how it may affect them and their clients.
Mutual of Omaha teamed up with Charles Epstein, the creator of “The 401k Coach” program, to produce a year-long curriculum to provide advisers intensive training and business support.
T. Rowe Price introduced a value-add series called “Pitch Points” to help advisers better communicate key retirement plan issues with current or prospective clients, with topics including fiduciary concerns, participant communications, plan design issues, and investment lineups.
RIA in a Box is offering errors and omissions (E&O) insurance for a discounted price, with premiums starting at $1,250.
The Retirement Plan Advisory Group enhanced its proprietary Scorecard System with the addition of Overlap, a holdings-based fiduciary analysis tool to measure plan-level diversification issues, such as overlap among mutual fund holdings.
Transamerica Life Insurance Company published two white papers, “Wall Street Reform and the Financial Services Industry” and “Wall Street Reform and the American Public,” which discuss the Dodd-Frank Act.
Morningstar Office Report Studio is a feature within Morningstar Office that allows advisers to create custom performance reports, either as a personalized report for an individual client or as a report template for use across their entire practice.
A Fidelity program, “Expand Your Practice,” is intended to help registered investment advisers (RIAs) analyze their readiness to grow through mergers, acquisitions, or hiring new people.
TD Ameritrade introduced the Unified Managed Account Exchange (UMAX), which will provide independent registered investment advisers (RIAs) with more flexibility and allow them to expand investment options for clients.
A 25-piece kit from Bank of America Merrill Lynch, the Plan Relationship Excellence Program (PREP), is designed to help financial advisers deliver flexible retirement and benefit plan services to corporate clients and is separated into three categories: plan support, fiduciary fundamentals, and employee communications.
Prudential Investments has launched IPS Scorecard, a tool that helps financial advisers and their plan sponsor clients assess whether their fund lineups meet the criteria in their investment policy statements (IPS).
The Insured Retirement Institute (IRI) has published a new version of its retirement-planning resource for financial advisers, the “Annuity Fact Book.”
EMA Softech introduced Web-based mutual fund analysis software, AlphaFunds, which provides advisers with advanced risk analysis and performance measurement capabilities to evaluate mutual funds.
Tamarac Inc., a provider of integrated portfolio management software and services, has created Advisor View, a performance reporting application.
Folio Institutional collected 150 model investment portfolios from 35 financial professionals in its new “Model Manager Exchange,” where advisers can post or use the portfolios if they subscribe to Folio’s services.
Investment Benchmarking
Dow Jones Indexes has launched the Dow Jones Emerging Markets Consumer Titans 30 Index, measuring the performance of 30 leading consumer goods and service companies in emerging markets.
Standard & Poor’s has launched the S&P Municipal Yield Index which aims to provide an investment strategy used in the municipal market that allocates a different percentage to bonds rated below investment grade and non-rated bonds than to bonds rated investment grade.
MSCI Inc. has launched a family of environmental, social, and governance related indices, known as the ESG Indices, designed to highlight companies with good ESG ratings.
Investments
Windham Capital Management introduced the “Windham Tactical Portfolio,” an active asset allocation strategy that uses proprietary risk measures to control exposures throughout market cycles.
Putnam Investments launched a suite of multi-cap equity funds designed to provide investors with exposure to the U.S. stocks within the value, core/blend, and growth style areas.
The Vanguard Group added seven equity index funds and exchange-traded funds (ETFs) based on Russell domestic stock benchmarks.
PIMCO has launched the PIMCO High Yield Spectrum Fund, an actively managed portfolio that aims to take advantage of the full global opportunity set of high-yield securities.
Transamerica Retirement Services’ investment lineup now includes three Target Maturity Series managed by the Vanguard Group, American Century Investments, or T. Rowe Price and two new Strategic Allocation Series managed by the Vanguard Group, or Manning & Napier Advisors, Inc.
J.P. Morgan launched the JP Morgan Research Equity Long/Short Fund that seeks to provide individual investors with exposure to equity-like returns while striving to reduce downside risk and limit volatility.
Vanguard introduced eight index mutual funds and nine ETFs based on S&P domestic stock benchmarks.
Hand Benefits & Trust Company has selected Blue Prairie Group LLC (BPG) and Target Date Solutions (TDS) as managers of the SMART Fund target-date collective investment trusts.