Fred Barstein

Is the ‘Four Corner’ Practice a Myth … or the Future?

By Fred Barstein | 10/22/2014

Most retirement plan advisory practices offer multiple services to their corporate or individual clients — either because of their roots or to leverage low-hanging opportunities. While some firms have focused on geographic expansion of a single service, like SageView, other regional firms like... READ MORE

Is DOL ‘Out of Control’?

By Fred Barstein | 10/22/2014

While Jerome Schlichter was surprised by the lack of activity by the DOL when he began his 401(k)-related lawsuits almost 10 years ago, it seems that the agency is now making up for lost time. According to Drinker Biddle & Reath’s Bruce Ashton, speaking at a recent industry conference, the DOL... READ MORE

The New York Times Takes 401(k) Industry to Task on Edison Case

By Fred Barstein | 10/21/2014

Floyd Norris, The New York Times’ chief financial correspondent, asks the obvious question why a plan sponsor would willingly (or neglectfully) choose a more expensive version of a fund — as was the case in the Tibble v. Edison case that is now before the U.S. Supreme Court. Though the technical... READ MORE

Fidelity Makes Robo-advisor Available to Advisors

By Fred Barstein | 10/20/2014

Are robo-advisors a threat or potential partners for plan advisors looking to serve the mass affluent and Millennials? With the recent partnership between Fidelity’s IWS division, which provides custodial services to RIAs, and Betterment, a four-year-old robo-advisor with 50,000 clients, the answer... READ MORE

Managers Who Invest in Their Own Funds Outperform

By Fred Barstein | 10/17/2014

The move to passively invested funds is both steady and monumental, as evidenced by Vanguard garnering 98% of all net inflow into U.S. equity funds in 2013. Nonetheless, it doesn’t look like a significant percentage of plan advisors are going all passive. In fact, firms like BlackRock, a leader in... READ MORE

Industry Consolidation Stays Hot as Verisight and Newport Join Forces

By Fred Barstein | 10/16/2014

Record keeper consolidation, which went into hyper-drive with the combination of Putnam, Great West and JP Morgan, continues with the Oct. 15 acquisition of the Newport Group by the holding company that owns Verisight. The holding company will be renamed Newport Group Holdings. The two firms will... READ MORE

Amateur Hour Over for DCIO Providers

By Fred Barstein | 10/15/2014

As with all segments of the DC provider market, it’s getting tougher to be a successful DCIO firm. As one executive stated succinctly in Hearts & Wallets’ new “The State of DCIO Distribution: 2015” report, “amateur hour is over.” Though DCIO assets are expected to increase by 11% to an... READ MORE

Median Record Keeping Fees Drop 12.5% in One Year

By Fred Barstein | 10/14/2014

The ninth annual study by investment consultant NEPC shows a steady decline in record keeper fees among larger plans, heralding further industry consolidation. Overall fees as a percentage of assets dropped 1 BP, to 52 BPs. But the weighted average is now 49 BPs, down from 52 BPs in 2013. Meanwhile... READ MORE

The New York Times Extolls Dutch Pension System

By Fred Barstein | 10/13/2014

As the debate rages over whether the U.S. retirement system is broken or just needs some repair to keep up with changing times and demographics, The New York Times compared it with the Dutch pension system, highlighting the problems with American defined-benefit plans. Not even tackling issues with... READ MORE

Segmenting the Plan Advisor Market

By Fred Barstein | 10/11/2014

Gross Predicts Famine in First Economic Outlook at Janus

By Fred Barstein | 10/10/2014

According to F. Scott Fitzgerald, there are no second acts in American lives — but don’t tell that to Bill Clinton or, now, Bill Gross. Publishing his first economic outlook since his stunning departure from PIMCO, as well as a video with new Janus boss Dick Weil, Gross predicts that there is a... READ MORE

Advisory Shops Show Dramatic Growth in 2013

By Fred Barstein | 10/9/2014

Last year, financial advisory firms performed well overall, but larger firms and top solo firms outshined the rest, InvestmentNews’ “2014 Financial Performance of Advisory Firms” study reveals. It seems that it’s best to be either a top solo firm or a high-performing super ensemble practice. The... READ MORE

Can We Fix Participant Education?

By Fred Barstein | 10/8/2014

There are lots of theories on why financial education within DC plans doesn’t work well. But that doesn’t stop the industry from spending billions of dollars on it, with tens of thousands of advisors conducting education meetings. Is it stubbornness? A fiduciary hedge? Or is it just part of the... READ MORE

EBSA Focused on Disclosure as 408(b)(2) Turns 2

By Fred Barstein | 10/7/2014

Now that 408(b)(2) provider disclosure is two years old, what have we learned? According to a recent speech by Kristen Zarenko, Senior Law Specialist at the DOL’s Employee Benefits Security Administration, not as much as the DOL had hoped. In fact, some larger plans can't even produce the required... READ MORE

Why Succession Planning May Be a Mirage

By Fred Barstein | 10/6/2014

It's common for professionals to not take their own professional advice. So when it comes to preparing for retirement, especially succession planning, it's not surprising that as few as 1% of financial advisors have a succession plan. Michael Kitces dives into what may be causing the problem and... READ MORE

Moody’s: Public Pension Underfunding Nearly $2 Trillion

By Fred Barstein | 9/30/2014

Though markets averaged a 7.45% return from 2004-2012, unfunded liability of public pension funds tripled — to just under $2 trillion — over that same period, according to a recent Moody’s report. Along with trying to recover from the recent recession, public entities are simply not... READ MORE

Is the Time Right for 3(16) Solutions?

By Fred Barstein | 9/30/2014

Most of the discussion these days is about outsourcing investment fiduciary duties under ERISA section 3(38), which transfers full discretion or limited discretion to the co-fiduciary under section 3(21). But more and more advisors are looking at transferring administrative fiduciary responsibility... READ MORE

Cloud-Based Benefits Broker Growing Quickly

By Fred Barstein | 9/29/2014

What do most small businesses (and even bigger ones) want from their benefits and retirement plans? The answer is nothing — no cost, work or liability. A new online benefits company, Zenefits, is delivering nothing and collecting the hefty fee that a health care broker would otherwise... READ MORE

RCAP Hires LPL Veteran Bill Dwyer

By Fred Barstein | 9/26/2014

Adding to an already deep bench, RCAP has hired LPL veteran Bill Dwyer to head up distribution of its non-traded REITs and other products to independent BDs, RIAs, banks and other channels like wire houses. RCAP’s parent’s roots are on the product manufacturing side, which led them to... READ MORE

SEC Unlikely to Move on Fiduciary and Fee Initiative

By Fred Barstein | 9/24/2014

Realizing that the opposition has outgunned their lobbying efforts, advocates for an SEC fiduciary rule admit that they are losing the battle “badly” on trying to get the SEC to act on a proposed uniform rule. Similarly, they say they regard the possibility that the SEC will find ways to... READ MORE

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