Hot Off the Presses
Plan Sponsor & Participant Tools
The U.S. Department of Labor has released a new online video to help small employers and accountants understand the various options for providing a retirement program for their employees. “Choosing a Retirement Solution for Your Small Business” introduces employers to the three most popular retirement arrangements.
The Tax Center on myStockOptions.com explains the issues of tax year 2007 relating to equity compensation. A customized version of the Web site’s content can be integrated into companies’ human resources, benefits, and/or compensation portals.
McKay Hochman Co. released updated 403(b) plan documents. The Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) and non-ERISA documents comply with the IRS’s final 403(b) regulations. The company said clients can purchase unlimited use or use the documents on a one-time basis.
Lockton Companies in Atlanta launched retirement plan consulting services for both corporate and not-for-profit organizations.
Schwab has unveiled a Roth 401(k) Calculator on its Web site that allows participants to enter basic information and get back a comparison of retirement income generated by a traditional 401(k) and a Roth 401(k).
Great-West Retirement Services has joined with Ceridian Small Business Services to introduce “a seamless payroll interface 401(k) service that allows employers to reduce the administration of their 401(k) plan.”
The SPARK Institute has released for public review and comment a draft sample information sharing agreement (ISA) for 403(b) plan vendors and employers. The sample ISA provides sample contractual provisions and a list of the data elements and information that SPARK Institute members have collectively agreed upon as minimally necessary for issuers and vendors to exchange.
The Principal Financial Group has teed up a tool that walks nonprofit employers and their financial professionals through the decision-making process. Using model scenarios, it outlines the actions needed for three 403(b) plan structures. The interactive tool helps plan sponsors and financial professionals understand the new regulations with plain-language explanations, identify the structure of their 403(b) plan by reviewing criteria for three model plans, and learn what steps they need to take for their model.
John Hancock Retirement Plan Services has launched Guaranteed Income for Life (GIFL), an optional 401(k) rider featuring a principal guarantee. The product offers participants upside potential, downside protection, and a lifetime income source, the company said.
A Newton, Massachusetts-based advisory firm launched a personalized investment advisory service for lower- and middle-income Americans. I-Pension has no minimum account size, charging a flat rate for 401(k), 403(b), and 457 accounts: $1 a day for accounts of $40,000 or more, and $.50 a day for accounts less than $40,000.
The Hartford and Plan Administrators, Inc. (PAi) have created Solo db Life, a defined benefit retirement plan designed for the four million American business owners with less than 10 employees who need both life insurance and a retirement plan. Solo db Life is split-funded, meaning that part of the employer’s contribution is allocated to traditional investments and the other part is used to purchase life insurance.
The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) launched two online resources. The resource for companies, “Help Your Employees Achieve Their Retirement Dream: Tips for Spotting Early Retirement Scams,” offers tips on how to evaluate the financial professionals involved in early retirement seminars and the seminar materials such as invitations, slides, handouts and scripts. A second resource, “Early Retirement Seminars 101: Smart Tips for Spotting Retirement Scams,” alerts employees to the pitfalls of early retirement schemes.
Principal Financial Group has put out an updated fiduciary handbook to help plan sponsors and their financial professionals feel more confident in their fiduciary duties. “The Fiduciary Handbook—A Guide to Plan Sponsor and Plan Fiduciary Responsibilities” now includes the latest changes to retirement plan rules from the Pension Protection Act (PPA).
Benefits administration firm Mercer has introduced the “Count on your retirement” online retirement savings educational program to employees whose 401(k) plans it administers—and is now making that program available to the general public. By using a simple, numbers-based concept, “Count on your retirement’ focuses on helping individuals realize that retirement planning can be easy.
Adviser Tools
Callan Associates’ Independent Adviser Group (IAG) and Natixis Global Associates’ Managed Portfolio Advisors (MPA) have teamed up and built the Callan UMA program to “meet the needs of an exclusive group of independent investment consultants and financial intermediaries that serve high-net-worth individuals, family offices, endowments, foundations, and retirement plans.”
Wealth Management Systems Inc. (WMSI) says that AllianceBernstein Investments will join WMSI’s Advisor Referral Network to provide financial advisers servicing qualified retirement plans with a viable rollover solution to further asset retention and rollover opportunities.
Thrivent Financial for Lutherans’ Landmark Group is now offering a separate account manager, available through Thrivent’s Managed Account Program, to help investors better manage capital gains taxes.
The Phoenix Companies, Inc., introduced a low-cost, no-load annuity sold through Phoenix’s distribution partners, including wirehouses, regional broker/dealers, and financial institutions. The Phoenix Portfolio Advisor Variable Annuity was developed through a strategic alliance with Jefferson National Life Insurance Company to develop low-cost annuities specifically for the fee-based advisers among Phoenix’s distribution partners. The product will have a flat insurance fee of $20 a month rather than the typical variable annuity insurance fee of 1.35% of asset value.
Pershing, a subsidiary of The Bank of New York Mellon Corporation, launched Lockwood AdvisorFlex Portfolios, a unified managed account program for financial advisers. The program is a component of Pershing Managed Account Solutions, offered through Pershing’s affiliate, Lockwood Advisors.
RolloverSystems Inc. (RSI) is reorganizing its adviser and TPA teams, establishing a team to work exclusively with TPAs and a team to work exclusively with plan sponsors and advisers—a move the firm said will allow it to better address the unique needs of each of its related but distinct audiences.
UBS Wealth Management Americas has launched its DC Advisory service, a new fee-based program allowing UBS financial advisers who focus on retirement plans to provide advisory and investment fiduciary services to defined contribution plans. DC Advisory focuses on three primary needs of defined contribution plan sponsors: investment consulting, employee education consulting, and program provider search consulting.
Consulting Group, the managed money unit of Smith Barney, has launched a new unified managed account program, Select UMA. Select UMA offers strategic and tactical asset allocation models for both taxable and tax-exempt investors across a spectrum of asset classes, investment styles, and risk levels.
Investment Benchmarking
Morningstar has launched a new institutional research platform focused on alternative investments. Morningstar Direct Alternative Investment Edition, a global, multicurrency institutional research platform, provides in-depth performance analysis of approximately 8,700 hedge funds, funds of hedge funds, and Commodity Trading Advisor products.
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has launched a Web page allowing investors to more easily compare fund cost, risk, and past performance information provided by mutual fund companies. The Mutual Fund Reader grew out of the SEC’s new rules allowing mutual funds to provide information to the SEC and investors using interactive data.
MSCI Barra has launched the MSCI Global Minimum Volatility Indices, a global benchmark offering for managed volatility investment strategies.
Standard & Poor’s has launched three benchmark and investable indexes designed to provide investors with access to Africa’s developing equity markets, as well as to be a complete measurement tool for the performance of these markets: The S&P Pan Africa Index, S&P Africa Frontier Index, and S&P Africa 40 Index.
Mutual Funds
AIM Investments is now Invesco Aim. The name change was part of a broader brand strategy used by parent firm Invesco to emphasize the combination of Invesco’s global resources and Aim’s tradition of delivering quality investment products.
Vanguard has filed a registration statement with the Securities and Exchange Commission for the firm’s first passively managed global index fund. The Vanguard Global Stock Index Fund will offer three share classes—investor shares, institutional shares, and ETF shares—that are expected to be available in the second quarter of 2008. The new fund will seek to track the performance of the FTSE All-World Index.
Investors Capital Advisory Services (ICAS) added a new mutual-fund wrap program designed for advisers looking to provide clients with a low-cost/no-platform-fee alternative. Through FundSelect, advisers can create a portfolio of FundVest mutual funds. FundVest-listed mutual funds allow advisers to buy, sell, or exchange over 2,500 load and no-load mutual funds managed by more than 160 fund companies without regular transaction fees.
PIMCO launched PIMCO RealRetirement Funds. The five PIMCO RealRetirement Funds are differentiated by target retirement dates for 2010, 2020, 2030, 2040, and 2050, and each fund of funds contains allocations of various PIMCO Funds that include or have exposure to domestic and international securities as well as real assets such as TIPS, real estate, and commodities.
The Vanguard Group has unveiled the Vanguard Managed Payout Funds, mutual fund offerings for retiring and retired investors. The three funds offer distinct, dual objectives for investors with varying income needs and principal growth goals, according to the firm. Vanguard also has made available two new tools the help educate investors on which fund is right for them.
FundQuest, a provider of turnkey managed account solutions, launched nine mutual funds as part of its new ActivePassive Funds family. The funds combine active and passive investment strategies within a single portfolio.
Russell Investments has launched a series of new multimanager funds—Russell LifePoints Funds, Target Distribution Strategies—designed specifically for the “decumulation’ phase. The series seeks to provide a steady, but not guaranteed, annual distribution. There are six funds in the series, three of which offer Class A shares and three that offer Class S shares.
TIAA-CREF Asset Management launched the TIAA-CREF U.S. Real Estate Fund I, L.P. The fund is a closed-end fund that will invest in a diversified portfolio of primarily high-quality core real estate assets in the office, retail, industrial, and multifamily sectors. The offering of the fund’s limited partnership interests has been registered with the SEC and state securities administrators.
Fidelity Investments launched its first mutual fund that will engage in “short” sales as well as “long” investments. Fidelity 130/30 Large Cap Fund will be managed by Keith Quinton, a seven-year Fidelity veteran and the manager of Fidelity Disciplined Equity Fund, Fidelity Tax Managed Stock Fund, and Fidelity Advisor Tax Managed Stock Fund.
Eight UBS E-TRACS Exchange Traded Notes (ETNs) have begun trading on NYSE Arca. These ETNs track the performance of the UBS Bloomberg Constant Maturity Commodity Index (CMCI).
ETFs
Asset manager Van Eck Global launched an exchange-traded fund (ETF) in hopes of profiting from the growth of solar power. Market Vectors-Solar Energy ETF (KWT), listed on the American Stock Exchange, seeks to replicate as closely as possible, before fees and expenses, the price and yield performance of the Ardour Solar Energy Index.
Invesco PowerShares launched trading in what it called the industry’s first three actively managed equity ETFs and PowerShares’ first actively managed fixed-income ETF; it also listed the PowerShares NASDAQ NextQ Portfolio (PNXQ) based on the NASDAQ Q-50 Index, and the PowerShares FTSE NASDAQ Small Cap Portfolio (PQSC) based on the FTSE NASDAQ Small Cap Index.
*Illustration by Nathan Doyle