Cetera Financial Group has launched the DOL DynamIQs platform to help its advisors adjust to new regulations.
DOL DynamIQs, released Tuesday, is a multi-disciplinary effort designed to allow advisors to gauge how ready they are to comply with the fiduciary rule, which was unveiled earlier this month after a prolonged comment period.
“Given that the rule is so transformative, our response really warrants a focused effort,” says Adam Antoniades, president of the Cetera Financial Group. “It’s our intent to help advisors make the change.”
DOL DynamIQs will include digital applications, consultants, written materials and video to help advisors digest the new regulations.
The iQuantify tool, a component of the platform, is a digital solution that will help Cetera’s advisors identify which clients and accounts will be impacted by the DOL rule.
After the impacted accounts are identified, advisors can use the tool to create an action plan to incorporate the fiduciary standard into their client dealings, according to the Los Angeles-based independent financial advisor network.
“Advisors need to understand and quantify which aspects of their businesses are being impacted,” Antoniades says. “They also need to prepare for transitioning, they need to be aware of what changes they must implement to get ready for the rule’s enforcement.”
Thus far, Cetera has excluded a tool incorporating the DOL rule’s Best Interest Contract Exemption, or BICE, from iQuantify and DOL DynamIQs. The exemption would allow advisors to continue drawing reveue from commissions, sales loads, 12b-1 fees and other revenue-sharing arrangements if agreed to by the client after information about the product and compensation is disclosed.
“We’re still evaluating if the BICE is something we’re going to adopt,” Antoniades says. “There are certain types of business that would be impossible to accommodate without a Best Interest Contract. I think we’ll be much clearer around what the right solutions are around our differenet types of products within three or four weeks, once we’re done digesting all the aspects of the rule.”
Along with the digital tools, Cetera is launching a dedicated consulting service that will help advisors transition to DOL-compliant policies and practices.