Product & Service Launches

TIAA Revamps Plan Sponsor Administration Platform

TIAA has launched changes to refresh and simplify its plan sponsor retirement administration website and mobile app, according to a spokesperson.

The website and app, PlanFocus, have new features, including access to TIAA’s SmartPlan, which gives details on participant behavior and plan outcomes and includes the ability to see employee salary bands, career stage and gender.

Other enhancements include:

• Participant services: a new section dedicated to participant services, with the ability to quickly approve, edit or extend transaction requests;

• Streamlined navigation: a redesigned homepage for users to see items that need immediate attention;

• Consultant connections: plan consultants can access the administrator’s account to oversee plans; and

• Data security: in addition to security via touch ID, face ID and fingerprint authentication for Android devices, TIAA’s enterprise financial crime prevention team monitors mobile activity for potential fraud.  

The new site and mobile app are live now.

Ubiquity, Bench Accounting Form Strategic Partnership

Ubiquity Retirement + Savings and bookkeeping service provider Bench Accounting Inc. announced a strategic partnership to offer clients their combined defined contribution retirement plan offerings and bookkeeping services.

The partnership is geared toward small businesses to leverage Ubiquity’s retirement plan services and Bench Accouting’s financial management. Ubiquity, started in 1999, was one of the first digital 401(k) providers and has worked with more than 16,000 business clients. Bench, founded in 2012, has worked with thousands of small businesses on their bookkeeping, including financial insights and guidance.

“Bench’s accounting expertise complements Ubiquity’s retirement offerings,” said

Todd Daum, Bench’s chief revenue officer, in a statement. “This collaboration empowers owners to make informed decisions about their company’s finances while also prioritizing their employees’ long-term financial well-being.”

SEI Launches Direct Index and Factor Investment Strategies

SEI Investments Co. announced additional investment strategies to its separately managed account and unified MA solutions offered through its managed account solutions program.

The new strategies include the launch of fixed-income-based direct indexing investment strategies that add to SEI’s existing lineup of individual bond strategies. It also includes dividend-focused equity options delivered through SEI’s SMA capabilities in direct indexing and factor investing.

The additions have been made with the goal of giving more customized choice to advisers for their “client recommendations, empowered by SEI’s conviction,” said Jim Smigiel, chief investment officer and head of SEI’s investment management unit, in a statement. “SMAs and UMAs provide flexibility and tax-optimization, and as adoption increases, we continue to deliver optionality.”

The new strategies are intended to help advisers with mass-affluent, high-net-worth and ultra-high-net-worth investors. Additions include:

• Systematic U.S. aggregate bond core strategy: provides exposure to the U.S. aggregate fixed-income market, while seeking to provide an overall risk-factor exposure similar to that of the benchmark index;
• Systematic municipal bond core strategy: provides exposure to the intermediate municipal bond market, while seeking to provide an overall risk-factor exposure similar to that of the benchmark index;
• Systematic U.S. dividend yield core strategy: seeks to provide a return similar to that of a dividend yield-focused index and consists of U.S. stocks included within the index that are screened for consistent records of high dividend payments and the ability to sustain them in the future; and
• S. dividend yield (multi-factor SMA) strategy: uses a quantitative-based, active investment process—delivered through an enhanced dividend yield factor—that seeks to deliver income without sacrificing long-term capital appreciation through the purchase of high dividend-paying U.S. large-capitalization stocks.

The moves were made after client input and guidance, according to SEI’s announcement.

Franklin Templeton Adds Equity SMA Models on Orion’s Platforms

Franklin Templeton is offering its equity separately managed account models to advisers on platforms at Orion Advisor Solutions, the firms announced in a joint press release.

The arrangement will provide access to Franklin Templeton’s diversified SMA product suite to advisers who use those investment models in managing their investors’ accounts on the Orion Communities and Orion Portfolio Solutions platforms.

The relationships puts Franklin’s SMA models onto Orion’s platforms, which reach more than 6 million technology accounts and thousands of independent advisory firms, according to the company. Orion is a turnkey asset management program platform with open architecture infrastructure for investment offerings and management.

“This launch [with Franklin Templeton] underscores our commitment to expanding our reach within the advisor community by making our SMA models available on the platforms with which advisors are actively engaging,” said Sam Marciano, head of SMA distribution at Franklin Templeton, in a statement.

Franklin Templeton has more than $137 billion in SMA assets under management.