Westminster Consulting, an investment advisory and consulting firm based in Rochester, New York, has launched a new website. The revamped site will serve two purposes: to showcase the firm’s expertise in the fiduciary consulting space and act as a portal for clients to access, upload, and view plan documents and other plan-related materials. Westminster uses eFiduciary.net, an online fiduciary governance tool for consultants and their fiduciary clients that enables document housing, collaboration and consultant management.
In addition to the eFiduciary.net link, the Westminster website provides information about the firm’s specialty services, in-house publications and interaction with investment-related events. The new website is at westminster-consulting.com.
Vanguard reports fund expense reductions; Fidelity launches expanded private equity platform; Nationwide makes Stadion’s StoryLine small business 401(k) solution available on its platform.
Vanguard has lowered expenses for 73 share classes offered
by a variety of Vanguard mutual funds, including its two largest bond funds and
two largest stock funds, complementing changes made to about 200 fund share classes
during 2015.
Vanguard is particularly enthusiastic about cuts to the four
largest funds it offers, which it bills as four of the largest funds in the world. According to Vanguard, these changes are playing out as
follows:
The Vanguard Total Bond Market Index Fund
expense ratio for Investor Shares was reduced by four basis points, to 0.16%;
for Admiral Shares, by one basis point, to 0.06%; for ETF Shares, by one basis
point, to 0.06%; for Institutional Shares, by one basis point, to 0.05%; and for
Institutional Plus Shares, by one basis point, to 0.04%.
The Vanguard Total Bond Index II Fund
expense ratio for Investor Shares was reduced by one basis point, to 0.09%; for
Institutional Shares, the expense ratio was reduced by three basis points, to
0.02%.
The Vanguard Total Stock Market Index Fund
expense ratio for Investor Shares was dropped by one basis point, to 0.16%.
The Vanguard 500 Index Fund expense
ratio for Investor Shares was also reduced one basis point, to 0.16%.
Vanguard CEO Bill McNabb notes that clients now pay an
average asset weighted expense ratio (the average shareholders actually pay) of
0.13%, which is five basis points below the firm’s average nominal expense ratio of
0.18%.
According to Vanguard, other expense changes are being made
to 17 Admiral Shares and 14 ETF Shares, which all expect expense ratio
reductions. Overall, the expense ratio reductions span five fund share classes
(Investor, Admiral, ETF, Institutional and Institutional Plus) across five
fund categories: Domestic stock index, domestic bond index, balanced index,
managed payout and tax-managed.
More specific information on the expense changes is at www.Vanguard.com.
Fidelity Reveals
Expanded Private Equity Platform
The Fidelity
Institutional, the division of Fidelity Investments providing clearing, custody
and investment management products to registered investment advisers and
brokers, is expanding its alternative investments platform to provide access to
a wider range of private equity funds.
Fidelity’s alternative investments platform, launched in
October 2013, provides research, education and third-party due diligence, as
well as access to a wide range of alternative investment products. According to
the firm, this expansion of the platform provides financial advisers and family
office professionals with increased access to private equity funds through a
new strategic relationship with iCapital Network and expanded relationships
with CAIS and Goldman Sachs Asset Management (GSAM).
“Delivering increased access to private equity has been a
priority since we launched our alternative investments platform more than two
years ago,” explains Mark Haggerty, head of product for Fidelity Institutional.
“Advisers have been looking for an effective way to leverage this type of
investment strategy. By working with some of the major providers in the private
equity space, we believe our offering gives advisers who are interested in
private equity the tools to efficiently evaluate and incorporate these
investments into their clients’ portfolios.”
Within the new approach, iCapital Network provides a curated
selection of single-manager, multi-manager, and vintage year private equity
investments at $100,000 minimums, supported by a complement of research and
diligence tools, and operational integration with Fidelity’s platform to
facilitate access and execution. At the same time, CAIS’ product platform will
continue to provide access to a diversified and growing menu of hedge funds and
private equity funds at lower investment minimums, including Mercer’s
proprietary Private Equity Fund of Funds.
GSAM will provide access to
portfolios of external private equity managers utilizing its rigorous process
of selecting managers, constructing portfolios and managing risk. Additionally,
the firm will offer external hedge fund manager solutions and alternative
investment thought leadership for clients. Through Fidelity’s
Alternative Investments Network, clients can access registered private equity products
for accredited investors.
Nationwide has made Stadion’s StoryLine small-business
401(k) solution available on its retirement planning platform.
According to the firms, the StoryLine product has been
designed specifically to address the needs of 401(k) participants in adviser-sold,
small-market plans. The solution presents a new level of customization for
small-plan participants, they argue, which Stadion “sees as a discernible improvement
over one-size-fits-all target-date strategies.”
“What makes StoryLine so appealing is its singular focus on
small-plan participants,” says Joe Frustaglio, vice president of retirement
plan sales for Nationwide, “who often lack the same personalized planning
opportunities provided to participants in larger plans.”
StoryLine’s approach recognizes every plan sponsor and
employee as unique, he adds. “The StoryLine process first seeks insight into
the overall plan makeup with the intent of tailoring default options for each
individual company. Then, with Stadion’s participant-centric Web interface,
employees will be encouraged to further define their individual investment
paths based on personal risk profiles, expectations and goals.”
The firms also expect StoryLine to allow—at the employee’s
discretion—the inclusion of outside and spousal assets to facilitate more
comprehensive retirement planning. The end goal of this is to have each
participant on a path personalized to their own circumstances and needs.
For Nationwide’s financial advisers, the "halo" benefit of
StoryLine are the tools available to help deepen their relationships with
sponsors and participants as they engage them at the plan level with tailored
solutions. In turn, sponsors are then able to offer their employees access to
individual personalized planning that goes beyond typical age- and risk-based
investment strategies.