MassMutual Boosts Fiduciary Support for Sponsors

Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Co. (MassMutual) is expanding its fiduciary support services for retirement plan investment selection and monitoring.

Tina Wilson, senior vice president for investment solutions innovation, says the service expansion features new “voice of the customer feedback” from employers and financial advisers and is designed to deliver “more options, more choices and more customization.”

In addition, the MassMutual Fiduciary Assure program, provided in partnership with Envestnet Retirement Solutions LLC, now offers two levels of fiduciary oversight for retirement plan investments. ERS is a majority-owned subsidiary of Envestnet, Inc., a registered investment adviser. Envestnet, Inc. is not affiliated with MassMutual or any of its subsidiaries.

According to the firms, Fiduciary Assure provides sponsors with “different levels of support, greater flexibility and more investment choices than typically available through fiduciary investment support services.” Wilson observes both the new 3(38) service and the existing 3(21) service offers sponsors a wide range of investment options to choose from.

Both the 3(38) and 3(21) services are available at no additional cost to retirement plans with less than $5 million in recordkeeping assets, according to Wilson. Larger plans pay a fee of two basis points for either service, she says. Under the 3(38) service, sponsors can allocate certain fiduciary investment responsibilities to ERS. ERS or the plan sponsor develops the investment lineup from a pre-approved list of investment options. ERS monitors the investment performance and directs MassMutual to adjust the investment lineup as needed in order to meet core asset class requirements.

With the 3(21) service, sponsors share their fiduciary investment responsibility with ERS. Sponsors retain the ultimate decision-making authority provided their investment lineup includes at least one investment option in each of four core asset classes (cash equivalent, domestic bond, domestic equity and foreign equity) from a pre-selected list provided by ERS. Or, sponsors can opt for a pre-selected investment lineup. Sponsors are responsible for making ongoing investment line-up changes in order to maintain the core asset class requirements.

As part of the enhancements, Fiduciary Assure further provides sponsors and advisers digital access to critical reporting information, Wilson concludes. Separate websites enable sponsors and advisers to monitor fiduciary compliance by providing “fingertip access” to reporting that is specific to each retirement plan. Sponsors’ fiduciary investment reports are housed within an online data vault.

More information is available at www.massmutualatwork.com/fiduciary-assure.