ProductsSeptember 30, 2010

RPAG Adds Tool to Measure Plan Diversification

<span>Retirement Plan Advisory Group (RPAG), a national independent retirement plan practice management, firm has enhanced its proprietary Scorecard System with the addition of Overlap, a holdings-based fiduciary analysis tool to measure plan-level diversification.</span>

Reported by Nicole Bliman

The Web-based tool allows RPAG advisers to identify overlap among mutual fund holdings and other diversification issues among investment options, particularly when funds in different style categories have more similarities than desired. The tool complements returns-based style analysis (RBSA), a major component of RPAG’s Scorecard System.

“Advisers now have the capability to go deeper in their due diligence process by examining actual holdings-level duplication, which can be high, especially with funds in the same fund family,” says Jeff Elvander, Chief Investment Officer of Retirement Plan Advisory Group. “This is certainly an area where plan fiduciaries can now minimize, and better control, holdings-specific risk.”

RPAG is subsidiary of National Financial Partners and has 295 member firms in 45 states, serving 18,000 sponsors with $60 billion in assets under advisement. Practice management areas include investment due diligence, RFPs and fee benchmarkings, fiduciary compliance, employee education, intensive training, national branding, sales and marketing resources, and business consulting.