Hot Off the Presses
PLAN SPONSOR & PARTICIPANT TOOLS
BB&T Retirement Services has launched a redesigned Web site for defined contribution participants. The Web site, called PlanTrac, now has updated features, including simplified account transaction requests, improved financial calculators and planning tools, and additional participant education materials, the company said.
Folio Institutional and Alliance Benefit Group Carolinas have teamed up to offer Folio(k), a turnkey 401(k) solution—including custody, trading, recordkeeping, and administration.
Charles Schwab is making additional resources and tools available to investors, independent investment adviser clients, and 401(k) plan participants designed to help navigate Roth IRA conversion decisions.
The Illinois-based retirement plan consulting firm Focus Retirement Plan Partners has introduced a Fiduciary Fitness Review for plan sponsors. The tool “helps protect plan fiduciaries and executives from financial loss due to Department of Labor (DoL) or Internal Revenue Services (IRS) penalties, Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) and employee civil litigation, and legal fees associated with these activities.”
Smart401k has released a proprietary retirement planning tool called Retirement Outlook that provides clients with a way to track progress toward their retirement goals and determine how changes in retirement investing could affect their retirement outcome.
MetLife Resources, a division of MetLife, has made available IRS Form 5500 filing services to its 403(b) clients.
RLP Capital, Inc., has launched The Green 401k, which offers more than 130 socially responsible mutual funds, as well as more than 8,000 traditional mutual funds.
Arnerich Massena, Inc., a Portland, Oregon-based independent investment advisory firm, has published a paper examining participant behavior in retirement plans. The paper, “Ain’t Misbehavin’!” is the first in a series of pieces exploring how plan sponsors can make use of behavioral economic theory in retirement plans.
Through a partnership with Inspira, a provider of private-labeled IRA solutions, Wealth Management Systems, Inc., (WMSI) will expand its product offering to include private-labeled IRA Solutions. WMSI clients will be able to create proprietary IRA products that can be marketed to participants directly through WMSI’s Rollover Solutions Network (RSN).
A white paper, “Minimizing Risk and Maximizing Outcomes,” by TIAA-CREF highlights steps 403(b) plan sponsors can take to uphold their fiduciary obligations and help plan participants maximize their retirement savings.
Mercer launched an online retirement planning education campaign for participants in 401(k) plans it administers. “Retirement Road Trip” is an interactive campaign that takes the user on a five-minute retirement “road trip” tailored to his or her age group.
IRA solutions provider Inspira will provide automatic and voluntary rollover services for RiversEdge Advanced Retirement Solutions and its clients and also will provide RiversEdge with SEP and SIMPLE retirement program offerings. RiversEdge clients now will be able to offer their participants an IRA solution through their own private-label Web portal, call center, and marketing outreach program.
A new product from Securian Financial Group is designed to help workers plan their retirement years. Securian’s Retirement GPS guide eases retirement planning by breaking it into three stages, the company said.
Participants in Transamerica Retirement Services’ client plans now have read-only access to their account information via an iPhone or iPod touch.
Benefit Plan Solutions announced its newest service offering, DC Solutions, a technical consulting, problem solving, and plan design service available on either an ad hoc basis or by subscription.
McCready and Keene (MCAK) announced it is offering an open-architecture arrangement to allow plans to select from more than 800 exchange-traded funds (ETFs) when developing an investment menu.
ADVISER TOOLS
The Principal Financial Group announced an enhanced platform of tools, services, and pricing for financial professionals. The Principal said financial professionals can choose the services they want to deliver and the services they want The Principal to take the lead on, such as the choice of a bundled service model or working with a local third-party administrator (TPA).
BrightScope has linked up with Acceleration Retirement to offer prospecting and acquisition tools for retirement plan advisers. Advisers will have access to BrightScope’s data and analytics, benchmarking tools, and custom reporting, and Acceleration Retirement will provide marketing, lead generation, and practice management tools.
Retirement Plan Advisory Group (RPAG) has announced that its proprietary Scorecard System will now track, monitor, and rank more than 300 ETFs.
Fee-based retirement advisers can now work with Paychex Retirement Services, which previously only worked with commission-based advisers. Paychex said it provides fee-based advisers with direct payments that consolidate their compensation from all of their clients that use the Paychex service.
A new service called 401(k) Rekon aggregates and lists resources offered to financial advisers by 401(k) plan providers. The Web site (www.401kRekon.com) essentially serves as a portal for advisers to research 401(k) bundled providers, defined contribution investment-only (DCIO) providers, and TPAs.
Morningstar, Inc., has launched the Morningstar Document Library, an online repository of documents covering investment products. The Library includes documents from open-end, closed-end, money market, and exchange-traded funds, as well as unit investment trusts, variable annuity subaccounts, and stocks.
Morningstar, Inc., has launched a complete upgrade of Morningstar Advisor Workstation, its research and investment planning software platform used by financial advisers. Morningstar said the new version includes all of the elements of the original, but incorporates the latest Web technology with interface and usability improvements.
The Principal Financial Group released RetireView, a product designed to help plan advisers help participants in their client plans to choose their optimum asset allocation.
SecurianRetirement said its redesigned site for financial advisers offers “goal-based” navigation to help advisers get the information they need faster.
Fidelity Investments released a bundled 401(k) platform distributed through registered investment advisers (RIAs). Fidelity said the Fidelity Advisor 401(k) platform for RIAs bundles the various components of a 401(k) program, including recordkeeping, investments, participant education, and fiduciary support materials, in one product.
Fidelity Investments announced a small-business retirement plan program for clients of RIAs. Fidelity said the program includes a TPA referral network, a self-employed 401(k), a SEP IRA, and a SIMPLE IRA.
The Principal Financial Group said its new Participant Education Planning Tool gives financial professionals access to a library of education plans and materials and the flexibility to build participant education programs that align with their service models.
Markov Processes International (MPI) is now offering Stylus Web, evolved from MPI’s more high-touch Stylus Pro Suite for institutional investors. The tool enables financial advisers to provide plan-level reports for the 401(k), defined contribution (DC), and defined benefit (DB) markets.
INVESTMENTS
Mutual of Omaha rolled out the Lifetime Guaranteed Income Account (LGIA) to its plan sponsors and their plan participants nationwide as part of Mutual of Omaha’s retirement platform. The new investment is designed to translate employee retirement savings into known guaranteed income for life.
Northern Trust launched an investment fund platform that will consist of a series of collective funds subadvised by investment managers retained and overseen by Northern Trust.
American United Life Insurance Company (AUL) has launched the AUL Stable Value Account for select AUL participants. With the AUL Stable Value Account, guaranteed interest is backed by AUL’s general account assets and subject to the claims-paying ability of AUL.
MassMutual’s Retirement Services Division added to its MassMutual Smart Architecture Investment Program with four new target-date funds: 2015, 2025, 2035, and 2045.