Investment Product and Service Launches

Art by Jackson Epstein

iJoin Creates Managed Account Program

iJoin has introduced its Managed Account Program (MAP), which it says provides financial advisers an evolved, “manage it for me” investing option for retirement plan participants.

Founded on liability-driven investing principles, iJoin’s goal-based MAP personalizes recommendations based on each person’s age, income, savings and dozens of other known data points to achieve retirement income sufficiency.

At the discretion of the plan adviser and plan sponsor, iJoin‘s MAP may be implemented as the plan’s qualified default investment alternative (QDIA), providing Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) 3(38) fiduciary protection to both the plan and participants. In doing so, the plan sponsor simultaneously obtains safe harbor protection by conducting a re-enrollment event, the firm says.

The product assigns, monitors and updates the investment strategy for each investor based on market performance, accumulated savings, contribution rates and other factors. The approach is designed to accommodate a retirement plan’s existing investment lineup and 3(38) investment manager. The core logic may be applied to investment lineups seeking to achieve a target rate of return or an expected rate of return.

The program applies a liability-driven investment methodology in modeling each person’s retirement funding need, defined as the cost of an annuity that would yield the desired retirement income. iJoin’s calculations use market annuity prices to fund inflation-adjusted, lifetime retirement income. The calculator also incorporates external income sources such as Social Security, outside pensions and other savings.

Ameritas Launches Glide-Path Tool for Employer-Sponsored Plans

Ameritas has launched a new glide path strategy for employer-sponsored retirement plans called RetireExpress.

RetireExpress is said to offer a personalized, yet simplified, investment approach based on age, location, account balance and other individual factors. The integration of this glide path strategy will allow participants the potential to achieve retirement goals and reduce financial insecurity by allocating investments to be more conservative with age.

In addition to RetireExpress, the Ameritas retirement plans division recently launched a new plan sponsor website, an enhanced back-end customer support system and optimized fee management and billing support. Later this year, plan sponsors will have the option to outsource administrative burdens through SimpleAdmin from Ameritas.