Firms are stepping up to help advisors meet the new Department of Labor fiduciary regulations that go into effect in April.

RiXtrema, a company based in New York City that provides risk management tools and analysis to the financial advisory and broker-dealer community, has launched IRAFiduciaryOptimizer to help financial advisors document clients' best interests and ensure compliant rollovers.

The software converts existing retirement portfolios into proposed new, compliant portfolios comprised of securities approved by the independent financial advisor or broker-dealer. The comparison highlights a variety of measures such as fees, track record of the investments, risk vs. risk tolerance, and best fiduciary practices.

"When the DOL ruling takes effect in April 2017, all advisors who manage clients' retirement assets will have to be prepared to document that the portfolios they recommend are constructed in the clients' best interests," says RiXtrema President Daniel Satchkov. "All advisors, including RIAs working with clients to roll over plan assets into individual retirement accounts, will be required to meet the 'best interest' rules and document the results. We developed the IRAFiduciaryOptimizer to address this need."

The IRAFiduciaryOptimizer contrasts a 401(k) portfolio with a compliant rollover solution, proving client's best interest as required under the DOL Rule, and also converts plan portfolios from non-compliant to compliant using a company's own selected list of compliant investments, and documenting best interest, says RiXtrema.

AssetMark Inc. headquartered in Concord, Calif., a provider of investment and consulting solutions for financial advisors, also launched an assessment tool to assist advisors in determining their preparedness to comply with the DOL fiduciary rule.

Through a series of strategic questions that evaluate advisors’ compensation and compliance plans, the tool provides an assessment on their preparedness level. The tool is a component of AssetMark’s DOL Readiness Campaign.

The tool includes questions that assess advisors’ understanding of the DOL rule and its exemptions, gauge the extent to which they will need to change their compensation structure, and determine whether they have begun the process of developing a compliance plan.

“Our assessment tool and readiness campaign were created not only to help advisors comply with the rule, but to give them the tools and insights to thrive in the post-DOL rule world,” says Natalie Wolfsen, chief commercialization officer at AssetMark.

Fiduciary Focus Toolkit software has been launched by fi360, a provider of fiduciary-related education, designations, training and tools, fi360 announced Friday.

The  toolkit will enable financial professionals to automate advisor workflow and have oversight of fiduciary best practices. It also allows the home office to guide advisors as they adopt and create investment policy statements, investment watch-list criteria, client monitoring reports and other essential fiduciary-related activities, fi360 says.

Fiduciary Focus Toolkit helps accelerate compliance with the DOL rule by ensuring the monitoring and documentation of client accounts aligns with fiduciary best practices. Because these practices are built into the software, advisors can scale their businesses upon a fiduciary framework they can fully control and monitor, fi360 adds.