Nationwide is teaming up with Morningstar Retirement to help advisors meet retirement plan participant needs by offering a new managed account service that merges custom retirement strategies with direct advisor involvement.
Consequently, financial advisors who work with institutional and governmental retirement plan clients can now leverage Morningstar Retirement’s advisor managed accounts service through Nationwide. This will enable them to deliver professional advice and savings strategies for plan participants in an easy, accessible way, according to the firm’s announcement.
To that end, recent Nationwide Retirement Institute research shows that 4 in 10 participants struggle with understanding how much they’ll need to save to reach their retirement goals. With advisor managed accounts, participants will receive personalized retirement strategies, packaged with the expertise and consultation from their plan’s advisor to create and implement customized portfolios.
“Managed Accounts are designed to help participants feel confident that they have the right strategies in place when it comes to saving and investing for retirement,” said Craig Hawley, senior vice president of Retirement Solutions Sales at Nationwide. “Through this collaboration with Morningstar Retirement, we’re able to offer a service that combines the best of both worlds: personalized advice and professional management from a trusted advisor and our award-winning service.”
In addition to offering advisors greater autonomy over clients’ financial strategies, this service is also interactive and cost-effective, the announcement further emphasizes. Advisors can collaborate with plan sponsors, demonstrating the value they offer in helping participants reach their retirement objectives, as well as monitor clients’ strategies online.
While workers who enroll will pay account management fees, plans will not incur any additional cost for offering the service to participants as part of their overall benefits package, the announcement further notes.
“We are excited to collaborate with Nationwide to advance our commitment to improving the retirement planning process for investors,” said Brock Johnson, president of Global Retirement at Morningstar Investment Management LLC. “This service empowers advisors to help plan participants reach their retirement goals and deliver personalized and efficient retirement planning advice.”
Advisor managed accounts is the newest managed account alternative offered by Nationwide. The firm has been offering its ProAccount managed accounts service since 2006.
