Hot off the Presses
PARTICIPANT AND SPONSOR TOOLS
T. Rowe Price launched FiduciarySource, an online program to help plan sponsors better understand and fulfill their fiduciary obligations, including what fiduciaries can and cannot do; what happens in case of mistakes; hiring and reviewing service providers; investment policy statements and investment committees; and plan operations.
BlackRock Inc. debuted a digital retirement center with content for people of different age groups—20s through 70s. Each “age tab” gives users relevant content and statistics, infographics, interactive tools and charts.
BMO Retirement Services introduced a personalized retirement income calculator. Employees can review their estimated savings as monthly retirement income rather than merely seeing a total retirement dollar figure.
Fidelity has launched Global Solutions to assist companies in managing employee stock plans in multiple countries. All Fidelity’s global stock plan services are consolidated so plan sponsors can find information about managing global stock plan requirements and completing plan administration and reporting, as well as about tax and regulatory support, participant support and multilingual support.
Great-West Financial developed retirement readiness products and services for plan sponsors and participants, with tools including the Retirement Income Control Panel, 3(21) Fiduciary Services and Account Retirement Income Estimate on Physical Statements.
ING U.S. developed the ING State of Savings interactive map, which provides a state-by-state scan and ranking of how Americans say they are saving. To access the interactive map, visit http://INGStateofSavings.com.
ADVISER TOOLS
OppenheimerFunds unveiled CEO Advisor Institute, a program to teach advisers to think like chief executives while continuing to engage as trusted global advisers. The components focus on critical recurring conversations with clients and prospects; building a practice; and achieving a work/life balance.
Security Benefit Corp. launched “Failure Is Not an Option,” a retirement income campaign to address the planning problems of pre- and postretirees by tasking advisers with a plan to generate more predictable and sustainable income in retirement, with less risk. The firm’s executives say the campaign targets new planning strategies.
ING U.S. is offering a new retirement income practice management program, which includes preretiree and retiree seminars, educational materials with action plans, online tools and a structured framework that advisers can follow with their clients. The 20-minute seminars address health care, longevity risk, budgeting, lifetime income and financial risks.
Invesco released an iPad application specifically for advisers who work with defined contribution (DC) plans. The Invesco DC PlanAnalyzer has benchmarking data across more than 40 industries and five plan sizes, as well as analysis with more than 42,000 data points to benchmark specific plan criteria against data from PLANSPONSOR’s annual DC Survey.
A program for volatility management, income generation and perspectives on the market was unveiled by Pioneer Investments to help advisers address challenges in today’s markets. The program, which offers educational materials, investment ideas and solutions for specific investor needs, gives advisers access to white papers, videos and market commentaries.
Focus Financial Partners LLC unveiled an industrywide succession planning solution for independent registered investment advisers (RIAs), which includes access to capital and an annual certification program. RIAs can align with a partner firm with a similar business model, client service philosophy and investment approach.
Charles Schwab’s Compliance Solutions is designed to help companies meet regulatory requirements, manage risk and protect their reputations with proactive trade blocking, which prevents employees from accidentally executing a prohibited trade and notifies them that the trade was blocked according to their company’s rules.
To help people
understand how they invest, Guardian Retirement Solutions launched
Retirement Style Matters. The site is an assessment and engagement tool to
help preretirees work with advisers to develop a holistic retirement
plan. The Web address is http://Retirement
StyleMatters.com/.
Stadion Money Management is offering Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) 3(38) discretionary investment management for target-date funds (TDFs) used as the qualified default investment alternative (QDIA).
The Principal has created a training program and resources, including a training video, to help advisers tap the business-owner market via employee stock ownership plans (ESOPs). The materials can be accessed at http://PrincipalFunds.com/ESOP/.
INVESTMENTS
Russell Investments redesigned its Russell LifePoints Institutional Target-Date Fund (TDF) suite to offer active and passive investment options.
J.P. Morgan launched a target-date fund (TDF) series, JPMorgan SmartRetirement Blend Funds, which keeps the overall asset allocation and glide path design of SmartRetirement TDFs. The funds are designed to give strong risk-adjusted returns over market cycles, with the goal of getting as many participants as possible to a minimum wage-replacement threshold at the point of retirement.
Northern Trust has added solutions for institutional investors seeking socially responsible investing options based on MSCI ESG [environmental, social and governance] Indices and MSCI ESG Research. Clients looking to integrate ESG factors into their portfolios can access 79 indices ranging from global ESG best in class to regional responsible-investing themes.
National Life Group launched SecurePlus VIP [Value and Income Plan], a fixed indexed annuity (FIA), as a guaranteed income choice on a 401(k) platform.
Great-West Financial has rolled out new funds in its Premier Key 401(k) investment program. The company asked registered investment adviser (RIA) Advised Assets Group and Morningstar Associates to create and review the program, which now includes nearly 55 fund partners.
Northern Trust has premiered the Diversified Frontier Markets Index Strategy, which provides endowments and foundations with exposure to the next generation of emerging markets. The strategy is benchmarked to the S&P Extended Frontier 150 Index.
New York Life Investments and Reliance Trust Company introduced a stable value fund. The Reliance Trust New York Life Anchor Account Series I is available through a collective trust aimed at the small-plan defined contribution (DC) market.
Genworth unveiled CapMax on the company’s Secure-Living Index Annuities. Genworth claims the index crediting strategy’s unique methodology can outperform its peers during consecutive years of S&P 500 Index growth.