Fiduciary Benchmarks Helps Evaluate Participant Retirement Preparedness

Fiduciary Benchmarks and Bdellium, designer of quantitative evaluation systems, have launched the Retirement Readiness Index (RRI) for 20,000 retirement plans.

The firms said the index includes virtually every plan with more than $10 million in assets.

The RRI is designed to help plan advisers and other service providers assist plan sponsors with evaluating how well their employees are preparing for a secure retirement, according to a press release. An RRI value of 112% means a participant is projected to have 12% more than he needs at retirement, while an RRI value of 92% means the participant is falling 8% short of his retirement goal.

The RRI uses the Aon Consulting/Georgia State University study on wage replacement ratios to determine how much money an individual needs for retirement. Advisers or service providers can obtain an RRI for each participant in the plans they serve by providing Fiduciary Benchmarks with a minimal number of existing data points, such as an employee’s date of birth.

The RRI number for any of the 21,000 plans covered is publicly available at www.fiduciarybenchmarks.com/RRI. Each plan’s RRI can be updated by authorized plan personnel in a secure manner by registering on the site.

An analysis of each plan’s RRI, including comparisons to similar companies, is available for a nominal price, the press release said. Each benchmark group consists of companies in the same industry as defined by the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS), and are further refined by number of employees per plan.

Fiduciary Benchmarks offers discounts on RRI reports purchased through advisers and other service providers.

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Fidelity Offers Roth Calculators for Advisers

With the new Roth Conversion laws set to go in place January 1, Fidelity Investments said it offers an online Roth IRA conversion calculator for its independent registered investment adviser clients and broker/dealer clients of National Financial.

With the online calculator, advisers can walk their clients through a series of questions to help determine if converting to a Roth IRA might be appropriate and then assess whether or not to conduct a full or partial conversion, Fidelity said. Based on the information inputted by the adviser, the calculator can help advisers’ clients decide whether they are likely to benefit from a Roth IRA conversion.

The calculator estimates the potential tax and growth impact of converting full or partial amounts to a Roth IRA versus staying in a traditional IRA or other account type, according to Fidelity. It also estimates lump sum, after-tax value at the initial point of distribution, as well as annual after-tax income generated throughout the distribution period.

The conversion calculator is part of a set of Roth resources Fidelity offers for advisers and brokers, the firm said.


Clients of Fidelity Institutional Wealth Services (IWS) interested in learning more about the Roth conversion resources can contact IWS at 1.800.735.3756 or visit fiws.fidelity.com. Clients of National Financial should call 1.800.752.7053.

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