Products October 19, 2007

TRI-AD Introduces 401(k) Full Fee Disclosure Guarantee

TRI-AD has introduced a written Full Fee Disclosure Guarantee as an integral part of its defined contribution plan daily valuation recordkeeping service.
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TRI-AD has provided full fee disclosure since the early 1990s, but will now formalize that arrangement in the form of a contract certifying that all revenue collected is fully disclosed to the plan sponsor and financial adviser, according to a press release.

The Escondido, California-based firm says that all revenue sharing TRI-AD collects is fully disclosed and rebated to offset administration and recordkeeping expenses, and that TRI-AD does not receive any additional compensation either for having multiple plans with a single custodian or for using specific investment options within a given plan.

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The firm says that as a result, plan fiduciaries know that all fees have been disclosed and that participants’ interests are always being served – and because understanding and managing plan fees and expenses is a key fiduciary responsibility, TRI-AD’s full fee disclosure guarantee helps their clients mitigate the personal liability associated with having a fiduciary obligation to the plan.

TRI-AD was founded in 1974 as a defined benefit plan administration firm, and over the years has grown service offerings to cover a complete range of benefit administration services. According to the firm, TRI-AD is currently the largest privately-owned benefits administration firm in Southern California, with over 1,000 clients nationwide.

For more information, visit www.tri-ad.com.

Deals & People October 19, 2007

Citi Selected by Harding, Loevner Management for SMA Business

Citi Markets&Banking has been selected by Harding, Loevner Management, L.P. to be the service provider for the investment adviser's retail separately managed accounts (SMA) business.
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According to a Citi news release, the foundation of Citi’s SMA capabilities is its Asset Manager Solutions for Separately Managed Accounts, a tightly integrated end-to-end operations platform.

“Particularly important in our decision to select Citi is its ability to deliver a single front-end trading application capable of supporting step-out trading to our choice of broker or electronic destinations, thereby helping us seek best execution of our trading orders. Also, Citi’s scalable trading application will allow Harding Loevner to accept invitations into sponsor channels that we previously had to decline due to trading efficiency or execution considerations,” said David Loevner, President, Harding, Loevner Management, in the release.

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Asset Manager Solutions provides:

  • Automated account opening and maintenance,
  • Document imaging and archival, auto fax and workflow management,
  • Portfolio manufacturing, modeling, maintenance, automated restriction and tax management,
  • Automated trade blocking and execution – including sponsor connectivity, step outs, trade-aways and direct market access,
  • Trade confirmation, allocations and settlement,
  • Automated reconciliation,
  • Trade order generation services for account opening, account maintenance, and model changes,
  • Electronic trade routing and best execution monitoring,
  • Performance reporting, attribution, composite maintenance and portfolio analytics,
  • Electronic support for voluntary corporate actions,
  • Client communications and fulfillment, and
  • Embedded compliance reporting and audit control.

More information can be found at www.hardingloevner.com and www.citigroup.com.

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