Product & Service Launches – 1/11/24

UAW Members at GM, Stellantis to Gain Access to Hueler Lifetime Income Solutions

While the United Auto Workers at General Motors and Stellantis will not see the return of their company pensions as a result of their recent contract negotiations, they will soon have access to Hueler Income Solutions—an online platform that offers retirement income annuity products.  

According to Kelli Hueler, founder and CEO of Hueler Companies, GM asked her company to engage in the bargaining discussions with the union to show that the company would provide a pension-like option to workers. The program was key to reaching a consensus among the parties relative to lifetime income coverage, according to Hueler. 

Both GM and Stellantis had already made Hueler’s program available for their salaried positions. According to Hueler, the program will now be rolled out to union-covered employees in the coming weeks.

“It’s really gratifying … to get to this place where your program can be acceptable to all parties in a situation where there’s a need for a resolution,” Hueler says. “We always give plan sponsors the opportunity to see how participants can really be in their own driver’s seat about their income and they can model options to think about what their household needs are.

Franklin Templeton, Valkyrie, WisdomTree Launch Bitcoin ETFs

Franklin Templeton launched its first digital assets-backed exchange-traded fund, the Franklin Bitcoin ETF, under the ticker EZBC. The fund is a spot bitcoin ETF available for U.S. investors and seeks to reflect the performance of the price of bitcoin, less the expense of fund operations. It is offered on the Cboe BZX Exchange Inc. and priced at 29 basis points.

In addition, Valkyrie Investments Inc., a specialized digital asset investment management company, is launched the Valkyrie Bitcoin Fund, sponsored by Valkyrie’s subsidiary, Valkyrie Digital Assets LLC. The Valkyrie Bitcoin Fund gives investors “sophisticated but simplified access to the digital commodity without the hassle that comes with accessing bitcoin via other methods,” according to a company statement.

WisdomTree Inc., an ETF and exchange-traded product sponsor and asset manager, also announced the launch of its bitcoin ETF, the WisdomTree Bitcoin Fund. The WisdomTree Bitcoin Fund’s investment objective is to gain exposure to the price of bitcoin, less expenses and liabilities of the fund’s operations.

The wave of new bitcoin offering comes after the Securities and Exchange Commission on Wednesday approved applications for a “number of spot bitcoin exchange-traded product shares.” SEC Chairman Gary Gensler, in his statement about the approval of spot bitcoin ETPs, said, “Commission staff is separately completing the review of registration statements for 10 spot bitcoin ETPs simultaneously, which will help create a level playing field for issuers and promote fairness and competition, benefiting investors and the broader market.”

FinFit Launches SafetyNet Platform to Facilitate Emergency, Retirement Savings

Financial wellness service FinFit announced the launch of SafetyNet, a platform designed to provide emergency savings, emergency credit and debt consolidation loans for employees.

Employees using FinFit can request a loan to pay off any sort of debt, as FinFit works with payroll firms. After making that request, FinFit’s new program will offer the employee the opportunity to sign up for an emergency savings account so that when they are done repaying the loan, FinFit will continue their payroll deduction—for example, $100 per pay period—and allocate the funds to an emergency savings account.

Michael Woodhead, the firm’s chief commercial officer, says once that emergency savings account reaches a predetermined threshold, FinFit will roll over the emergency funds into a Roth individual retirement account to allow the user to save for retirement in an after-tax account. Alternatively, Woodhead says as a user is paying back a loan, the user could allocate a percentage of that repayment to go into an emergency account.

“With a payroll integration, we have basically a way of securing debt that other lenders do not have,” Woodhead says. “For the most vulnerable employees in our population, who have the fewest options to affordable credit, we believe [the lack of access is] fundamentally unfair; it’s a disservice to [American] workers.”

Prism Benefits Officially Launches 

Ryan McDermott and Joshua O’Gara launched Prism Benefits Inc. on January 3. Prism is a public benefits corporation based in Needham, Massachusetts.

The platform deviates from the traditional method of allowing employees to select from non-customized, company-wide benefits offerings. Instead, employees sit down one-on-one with a Prism team member and select the specific benefits’ options that best serve the needs of them and their families. In addition, Prism will bring compliance support and benefits administration solutions to HR and finance professionals.

“Through the vision of Prism, we are developing ways to adapt to the needs of employees and the workforce today,” O’Gara said in a statement. “We bring a nimbleness and a flexibility that larger companies can’t offer. We’re doing this work to promote financial education at a high level, but we’re also here to offer detail-oriented support that employees may need along the way.” 

O’Gara has been working in the financial services industry since 2006 and is currently president and chairman of the board of directors of the National Association of Insurance and Financial Advisors. McDermott has been working in the industry since 2004 and serves on NAIFA’s board.

ALM’s Judy Diamond Associates Introduces Small Group Markets Database to Insurance Industry

Judy Diamond Associates, a unit of ALM Global, LLC, announced its new small group markets database for employee benefits brokers and insurance carriers.

“This new tool has been a long time coming,” said Eric Ryles, vice president of customer solutions at Judy Diamond Associates, in a statement. “Over my twenty years in the employee benefits prospecting industry, ‘how do I find small groups’ is probably the question I’ve been asked most often. I’m glad to finally have an answer!”

Subscribers of the online platform can access information on active businesses, including contact info for plan decisionmakers, address, telephone number and estimated revenue. Customers can refine their results by filtering for geography, company stability score, employee longevity and estimated years in business.

“The 2-99 employee segment has been difficult to parse for independent brokers, carriers, and others in the industry because they do not file ERISA paperwork,” according to a company statement. “Judy Diamond’s Small Group Markets database uncovers this lucrative hidden market and delivers much needed lead generation support to anyone trying to prospect in the small group market.”