Art by Jackson Epstein

Prudential Retirement Launches Digital Managed Advice Platform

Prudential Retirement, a business unit of Prudential Financial Inc., has unveiled Advice and Income Engines at Prudential, a next-generation digital managed advice platform powered by NextCapital.

Advice and Income Engines provides defined contribution (DC) plan participants with access to retirement planning and personalized portfolio management, designed to help them generate a source of income for retirement. The service is expected to go live in the first quarter of this year, with several key features that will follow its launch.

“More than 100 million Americans rely on a defined contribution plan as the foundation for a secure retirement,” says Harry Dalessio, head of institutional retirement plan services at Prudential Retirement. “Incorporating a managed advice solution that supports understanding of income needs in retirement is especially critical during times of market volatility. Additionally, many Americans are unsure about investing and retirement decisions and prefer the convenience of getting professional financial advice through their trusted employer-sponsored defined contribution plan.”

“We are excited Prudential has selected NextCapital’s managed advice platform to help power personalized advice and retirement planning to its 3.2 million retirement savers through their workplace retirement plans,” says Rob Foregger, executive vice president and co-founder of NextCapital. “Prudential is in a unique position to help shape the future of the $8 trillion defined contribution market, which is increasingly focused on meeting consumer demand for more customization through large-scale technological innovation.”

Northern Trust Enters Alliance with IHS Market

Northern Trust has entered into an alliance with IHS Markit, provider of the thinkFolio multi-asset class investment management platform.   

The certified integration between thinkFolio and Northern Trust’s middle office outsourcing platform will provide opportunities for both firms to offer mutual institutional clients innovative solutions and services leveraging one another’s strengths across the investment value chain.

“The theme of front-to-back solutions continues to be prominent, as institutional investors are asking their middle and back office counterparties for increased control, transparency and workflow efficiency across the post-trade segments of the securities transaction lifecycle,” says Brett Schechterman, managing director and global head of thinkFolio at IHS Markit. “We are advocates for Northern Trust’s Whole Office open architecture and interoperable ethos and look forward to matching thinkFolio’s cross-asset class strength, flexibility and managed service with the strength of Northern Trust’s middle office solutions to deliver further operational alpha for our clients.”

Broadridge Financial Solutions and Third Economy Create ESG Advisory Service

Broadridge Financial Solutions Inc. and Third Economy have launched an environmental, social and governance (ESG) advisory service. This new service, leveraging proprietary data, will help corporate issuers and asset managers improve sustainability strategies while effectively positioning their ESG programs with stakeholders.

“Companies are making corporate responsibility initiatives part of their business strategy as more retail and institutional investors raise ESG concerns and seek the long-term performance advantages and benefits of ESG-focused businesses,” says Dorothy Flynn, president of corporate issuer solutions at Broadridge. “Investors and other stakeholders are increasingly looking at ESG disclosures as a fundamental expectation, driving the need for additional connectivity between companies, investors and other stakeholders.”

This new ESG advisory service combines Broadridge’s data, technology and communications expertise and Third Economy’s proprietary methodology for systematically evaluating companies’ sustainable investment efforts, enabling clients to move from strategy through execution to communication.

The service benchmarks ESG efforts to peers and industry best practices to identify areas for improvement. It also aligns ESG capabilities with emerging frameworks and standards, such as the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB), Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) and the Task Force on Climate-Related Financial Disclosures (TCFD). Other services include creating policy and program developments, metrics for measuring performance, and ESG and sustainability reports; calculating carbon footprints; and helping asset managers align corporate ESG strategies with product development.

Broadridge further assists issuers and asset managers in transforming their investor communications by optimizing print while accelerating digital and paperless adoption.  

Northern Trust Grabs Equity Stake in EDS

Northern Trust has reached an agreement to take an equity stake in Equity Data Science Inc. (EDS), a cloud-based analytics platform that provides decision support tools to asset managers for idea generation, portfolio construction and risk management. 

The deal integrates EDS’s decision support tools with Northern Trust’s core technology platforms to provide solutions to institutional investors across the globe. The investment is an extension of Northern Trust Whole Office.

“Northern Trust continues to focus on helping clients maximize the value of their data in order to optimize performance,” says Pete Cherecwich, president of corporate and institutional services at Northern Trust. “Institutional investors need to drive efficiency and transparency and embed data-driven feedback into their investment decisionmaking. By partnering with EDS, we provide our clients with access to enhanced technology that helps them make the right, repeatable and measurable decisions in the quest to achieve alpha.”
 
The EDS decision-support and analytics platform is designed to support the processes of active, institutional investment managers. Capabilities include research management; idea generation screening; portfolio construction and optimization; risk management; and order generation.

“We look forward to the opportunity to work with Northern Trust to bring greater productivity and performance to the front office,” says Greg McCall, president and co-founder at EDS. “As asset managers seek to maximize alpha, it is crucial that they are able to streamline processes, reduce errors and make faster and more informed decisions.”