Fiduciary Benchmarks Launches IRA Best Interest Determination Service

Ahead of the Department of Labor (DOL)’s fiduciary rule implementation, Fiduciary Benchmarks is launching a suite of tools to help advisers comply with the legislation set to take effect June 9. 

First, FBi released an IRA Rollover Service addressing the requirements of the Fiduciary Rule and FINRA 13-45. The firm plans to follow this release with the launch of IRA Benchmarking, level fee vs. commission analysis and additional compliance work flows.

“We prioritized the IRA Rollover service first as that was clearly the biggest need for our client base—and as noted in the DOL Best Interest preamble, the rollover decision will be the most important financial decisions that many consumers make in their lifetime,” explains Craig Rosenthal, senior vice president of Advisor Sales & Service. “With respect to IRA benchmarking, we decided that given the rate of change to pricing and products in response to the fiduciary rule that it would be best to let things settle before moving onto IRA benchmarking, which is now scheduled for a October launch.”

CEO Tom Kmak adds, “We are very excited to bring this service to the marketplace. We have demonstrated the system to over 200 different companies and we have listened carefully to their thoughts and comments while staying true to our vision to always look at more than just fees. In fact, the decision making algorithm considers 16 different issues in a simple one-page format that is completely consistent with FINRA 13-45 and the Fiduciary Rule. The system also handles three different types of transactions for rollovers: recommendations, education or an unsolicited request. This flexibility allows our clients to use the service in every market segment of their institution: high net worth, asset management, and their retail divisions.”

The firm plans to leverage its existing patented method and technology from its DC plan benchmarking suite of services.