Now there’s a robo for rollovers.
Boston-based John Hancock Retirement Plan Services announced on Tuesday a partnership with Chicago-based NextCapital to offer automated investment advice to its 401(k) and IRA rollover business.
The partnership is NextCapital’s first venture into the IRA space. In the past, institutions and individual investors have used NextCapital’s platform to serve brokerage and defined contribution plan accounts with digital advice, including portfolio tracking, planning, savings advice and portfolio management.
“We wanted one holistic, seamless platform across all of these channels,” says NextCapital co-founder Rob Foregger. “Historically, if you were in a plan and decided to roll over into an IRA, the advice would start to change. A client would be looked at as a plan participant, or as an IRA rollover, but we’re breaking down those walls so it’s just the client, with one user experience.”
John Hancock, which serves more than 57,000 plans encompassing over 2.7 million participants and $144 billion in assets in its 401(k) business, becomes the first company to serve defined contribution plans, brokerage accounts and IRA rollovers on the same NextCapital platform, enabling investors and advisors to roll over old 401(k)s compliantly and in a few minutes.
The process is also paperless, thanks to e-signature functionality.
“The digitally enabled advice platform is key in terms of implementing changes for the Department of Labor’s fiduciary rule,” says Foregger. “Even if the formal rule is repealed, to be able to holistically understand a client regardless of account registration type is where the regulatory bodies would like us, anyway.”
The digital advice platform will enable investors to access John Hancock’s investment methodology and products and to receive advice and support from advisory personnel via telephone.
Previously, John Hancock Retirement Plan Services offered mutual fund-based rollovers. The new digital platform represents an expansion of advisor and investor options, says CEO Peter Gordon.
“We’re focusing on those who tend to be left out of receiving advice primarily because of their income or their savings levels,” says Gordon.