Products October 10, 2007

The Principal Adds to Fiduciary Compliance Tools

The Principal has added a new resource to its fiduciary package that advisers and third party administrators (TPAs) can use with plan sponsor clients to effectively manage fiduciary responsibilities.
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The new resource, the Annual Fiduciary File, provides a place to record and organize the documents and actions related to the plan to help plan sponsors and investment committees fulfill their fiduciary responsibilities. The Annual Fiduciary File includes a catalog of recommended documents plan sponsors may choose to include in the file in order to meet their fiduciary responsibilities, and a log report listing steps for plan sponsors to consider as they begin to document actions related to their fiduciary obligations, according to a press release.

The Principal fiduciary package includes three parts – Get Educated, Get Focused, and Get Started. The package has been reviewed by nationally known ERISA expert Fred Reish, partner and managing director of the law firm of Reish Luftman Reicher & Cohen, who says plan sponsors who work with financial professionals and use these tools can be confident they have implemented a system to satisfy ERISA’s most important requirements, according to the release.

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The Annual Fiduciary File rounds out the Get Started element of the three-pronged fiduciary package and the other elements include:

  • Get Educated – a reference guide to understanding fiduciary responsibility as defined by the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA), the federal law governing the management of retirement plans, plus information to help plan sponsors understand how much they and plan participants are paying for investment and administrative services.
  • Get Focused – a step-by-step guide to some of the actions plan sponsors may need to take to fulfill fiduciary responsibilities, when they need to be taken, and what support The Principal provides.

More information can be found at www.principal.com.

Deals & People October 10, 2007

Phoenix and Jefferson National to Target Fee-Based Advisers

The Phoenix Companies, Inc., and Jefferson National Life Insurance Company have formed a strategic alliance to target the rapidly growing segment of fee-based advisers in wirehouses, regional broker-dealers, and financial institutions.
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Under the alliance, the companies will leverage Jefferson National’s technology platform, designed expressly to serve the fee-based market, and Phoenix’s product expertise in applying living benefits riders, such as the guaranteed minimum withdrawal benefit, to financial products, according to a press release.

“With Phoenix’s distribution network in wirehouses, regional broker-dealers, and financial institutions, and Jefferson National’s proven track record of innovating the way that annuities are priced and sold, together we are poised to penetrate the rapidly growing number of fee-based advisers who are attracting more customers to these distribution channels,’ said Laurence Greenberg, president and chief executive officer of Jefferson National Life Insurance Company, in the release.

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Greenberg noted that numerous industry sources, including Tiburon, Cerulli, and FRC, say both wirehouses and regional broker-dealers have been actively encouraging the transition to a fee-based model. Assets managed by fee-based and fee-only advisers have steadily increased from roughly $1.5 trillion in 2002 to more than $2.2 trillion in 2006, and the broader fee-based market is forecast to increase to more than $10 trillion by 2010, according to the release.

More about Jefferson National can be found at www.jeffnat.com, and more about the Phoenix Companies can be found at www.phoenixwm.com.

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