Nationwide to Offer Fiduciary Service to 457(b)s

Morningstar Associates LLC, part of the Morningstar Investment Management division, will help plan sponsors fulfill their investment fiduciary responsibility by creating and monitoring the plan-level investment menu for participating plans.  

As part of the service, plan sponsors will benefit from Morningstar Associates’ expertise through:  

•  Selection, monitoring and due diligence of all investment options;
•  Investment menu monitoring reports, including quarterly individual fund reports, quarterly plan performance reports and an annual summary report; and
•  Morningstar Associates’ acknowledgement of fiduciary support of the investment menu.

Nationwide will make the investment fiduciary service available to existing plan sponsor customers, and the services will also be included with a new 457(b) defined contribution (DC) plan offering Nationwide will introduce in the coming months.

“As part of our ongoing commitment to plan sponsors and their participants, we’re thrilled to provide these services to 457(b) retirement plans,” Eric Stevenson, senior vice president of Nationwide Retirement Solutions. “We also believe that by focusing this offering to smaller plans in the public-sector market, these plan sponsors will have access to capabilities and a level of support that is normally only available to much larger plans.”