Product & Service Launches – 3/7/24

Orion, DPL Collaborate to Provide Commission-Free Annuities to Advisers

DPL Financial Partners LLC and Orion Advisor Solutions announced a partnership to get fee-based financial advisers on the Orion Advisor Technology Platform access to DPL’s commission-free annuity marketplace, product discovery tools and team of licensed insurance consultants.

“We’re excited to provide thousands of advisors with access to insurance products through Orion’s expanded partnership with DPL,” said Brian McLaughlin, president of Orion Advisor Technology LLC, in a statement. “We recognize DPL is the leader when it comes to making fiduciary-friendly annuities accessible to RIAs and, with this partnership, advisors using Orion technology can broaden their offering to deliver greater client value and grow their firms with scalable, modern solutions.”

Data feeds from DPL into the Orion Advisor Technology platform enable management of annuity assets alongside other investments in a client’s portfolio. In addition to a line-up of commission-free annuities and life, disability and long-term care products, Orion advisers can have direct access to DPL’s proprietary tools for discovering and comparing annuities by type, benefits and costs.

Morgan Stanley Creates Private Markets Transaction Desk

Morgan Stanley announced the launch of a concierge service that allows eligible shareholders and investors to buy and sell eligible private company shares in the secondary market.

The Private Markets Transaction Desk will assist clients seeking liquidity in a “highly fragmented and opaque secondary market,” according to Morgan Stanley. Clients who use the desk can benefit from direct support for one-off sales of private company shares, and clients focused on investing in private companies can gain access to investments not widely accessible.

The Private Market Transaction Desk is currently live and facilitating trades on behalf of clients. To lead the desk, Morgan Stanley tapped industry veteran Jeff Urban, who previously led several significant private and public markets distribution and syndication businesses.

Just Futures Launches ‘Values-Driven’ 401(k) and 403(b) Plans

Public benefit investment firm Just Futures Advisors LLC announced the launch of 401(k) and 403(b) employer-based plans, designed to enable workers to save while “staying true to their social justice values.”

Just Futures is a people-of-color-led firm founded by activists and experienced nonprofit workers.

Recognizing the need for access to retirement investment options that align with people’s social values, Just Futures’ plans are designed to help minimize investment in sectors counteractive to social equity and long-term risk management. 

The Just Futures platform not only screens for companies complicit in climate change, but also for companies involved in issues like the prison industrial complex, immigrant detention, weapons manufacturing, racial inequality and more.

Just Futures partnered with digital recordkeeper Vestwell on the announcement, with the firm managing plan administration and recordkeeping needs, including reporting, Employee Retirement Income Security Act compliance, and plan review and maintenance.

T. Row Price Launches Social Security Optimizer

T. Rowe Price announced the launch of Social Security Optimizer, a tool designed to help individual investors and plan participants maximize Social Security benefits based on their expected lifespan.

The optimizer offers tailored insights and estimates when a participant should begin claiming Social Security and how much they should expect to receive, according to the announcement.

The tool can also model life expectancy to see what claiming strategies will yield the most amount of money over time, based on the inputted life expectancy. After individuals are asked a short series of questions, the tool will estimate the optimal age to begin collecting Social Security, the optimal age for their partner to begin collecting Social Security and the amount of benefit the individual (and their partner) will receive, given their assumed life expectancy.

The product stems from the firm’s 2023 acquisition of Retiree Inc.

IRI Releases Updated Retirement Saving and Income Handbook

The Insured Retirement Institute published an updated version of its Retirement Saving and Income Handbook, featuring new content and illustrations showing the value of annuities and an updated glossary of common annuity and industry terms.

The handbook was originally published last year and is meant to serve as a basic guide to annuity and non-annuity solutions for accumulating and preserving wealth, as well as generating retirement income from investable assets.

The guide provides basic descriptions of annuity and non-annuity products commonly available to investors directly or through financial professionals.

Financial professionals can use the handbook as a resource for “understanding and contrasting annuity and non-annuity solutions, training those new to the industry and satisfying the requirement under the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s Regulation Best Interest to evaluate annuities alongside reasonably available alternatives when making product recommendations,” according to IRI’s announcement.