PGIM, iJoin Partner on Managed Account Distribution

PGIM, the investment management division of Prudential Financial Inc., announced Monday its managed account offering will soon be available to iJoin-enabled recordkeeping platforms through iJoin’s managed account marketplace.

PGIM’s RetireWell, available as a plan’s qualified default investment alternative, will leverage iJoin’s partnership with the goal of helping participants “fine-tune their income goal by expressing risk tolerance preferences as well as considering health-related priorities,” according to the announcement. RetireWell will, where available, offer users iJoin’s goals-based advice and portfolio allocation technology, as well as a plan adviser’s investment lineup.

The product comes at no cost to plan sponsors and at a “competitive” cost for users as compared to the marketplace, Michael Miller, head of PGIM DC Solutions, says via email.

Managed account offerings have long been on offer in the marketplace, with cost and participant engagement key concerns for plan advisers and sponsors in implementing.

Miller says RetireWell accounts are designed with engagement in mind, whether the offering is opt-in or default.

“There are degrees of personalization incorporated, even if the participant is defaulted into the solution,” he says. “If a participant engages and goes deeper, personalization gets even more granular, allowing users to provide data on outside accounts, information on goals, specify risk tolerance and provide more information on health factors.”

RetireWell’s advice engine breaks out retirement goals into essential “needs” spending and flexible “wants” spending, allowing for spending flexibility through a participant’s lifetime, and uses a “goal completion” metric instead of a probably of success measure.

“All of these features allow for more real-time, holistic advice on asset allocation, savings rates, retirement age, Social Security claiming and spending in retirement,” Miller says. “The Advice Engine, coupled with iJoin’s technology platform, allows for a more customizable and robust participant experience.”

Launched in 2020, iJoin works with managed account, in-plan income and individual retirement account rollover providers.

“We admire the significant investment the PGIM team has made in developing an advisor-led managed account experience that more holistically factors an individual’s unique and changing circumstances,” Steve McCoy, CEO of iJoin, said in a statement. 

The firm works with a long list of recordkeepers, as per its website, though not some of the largest, which often offer a combination of their own proprietary managed accounts and those offered via partnerships with firms such as Edelman Financial Engines and Morningstar.

PGIM DC Solutions, which represents RetireWell personalized investment products, has $1.3 billion in assets under management; PGIM’s DC assets total about $170 billion AUM, according to the firm.