Riskalyze Brings Autopilot To Retirement Plans
Sacramento, Calif.-based Riskalyze has announced Autopilot for Retirement Plans, bringing its risk alignment capabilities to the qualified retirement space.
Autopilot for Retirement Plans quantitatively uses the Risk Number, Riskalyze’s measure of risk capacity and tolerance, to pinpoint how much risk investors want versus how much they need in order to reach their retirement goals.
“With $25 trillion in U.S. retirement assets, launching Autopilot for Retirement Plans is without a doubt the biggest thing Riskalyze has done since inventing the Risk Number,” said Mike McDaniel, Riskalyze CIO, in a statement. “Many advisors have used Riskalyze to serve retirement plans one participant at a time, but now we’ve delivered a solution that advisors can use to match hundreds of participants with the right fund elections with just a few clicks.”
The product can be used with 401(k), 457, 403(b) and Simple IRA plans, matching participants with investment allocations tailored to their willingness and need to take additional risk.
Advisors will be able to use the new service to add all participants onto a single dashboard, to create model portfolios from the fund menu and to invite participants using a special link to get matched with the fund elections that best align with their Risk Number and goals.
When advisors create a new plan within Autopilot for Retirement Plans, they can define model portfolios by either building them from the fund menu or copying them from the plan’s fiduciary investment manager. Each plan then has a landing page for participants to launch the “best interest” exercise and to determine their risk number.
American Funds Launches Two Fixed-Income Funds
Los Angeles-based American Funds has introduced two new fixed-income mutual funds.
The American Funds Corporate Bond Fund will invest at least 80% of its assets in investment-grade corporate bonds. The fund will be benchmarked against the Barclays U.S. Corporate Investment Grade Bond Index.
The American Funds Emerging Markets Bond Fund will invest at least 80% of its assets in securities of emerging markets issuers, including sovereign debt and the debt of companies located in or with substantial business within emerging markets. The fund will consider securities denominated in currencies other than the U.S. dollar.
Fidelity Adds Philanthropic Education, Tools
Boston-based Fidelity Charitable created a Charitable Practice Management Program to counsel advisors on how to add charitable planning to their wealth management practices.
The program will use a step-by-step process to help advisors implement philanthropic activity within their planning, and can be tailored to meet the specific needs of firms, advisors and clients.
Fidelity will evaluate advisors’ skills and needs within the discipline, offer workshops and webinars that could potentially offer continuing education credits, apply their knowledge using a variety of guides and tools and then master their philanthropic planning skills through continued engagement with study groups and an advisor council.
Envestnet|Tamarac Roll Out Revamped Client Portal
Chicago-based Envestnet|Tamarac has launched a redesigned client portal in its Advisor View portfolio management and performance reporting application.
The new client portal, implemented in July, is designed to help RIAs create customizable client experiences and to appeal to the next generation of investors.
Advisors can personalize the portal by adding profile photos to client-facing pages and customizing the menu and text colors to match their brand. A resized menu bar makes more space available for data, and a client’s full financial snapshot is now visible on a single-page view.
Wells Fargo Offers Amazon Student Loan Discounts
San Francisco-based Wells Fargo Education Financial Services announced a new interest rate discount for Amazon Prime Student customers who apply for its private student loan products.
Amazon Prime Student customers can take advantage of a 50-basis-point discount, which can be added to a 25-basis-point reduction for enrolling in an automatic monthly repayment plan from Wells Fargo and any other interest rate discount tied to a Wells Fargo promotion.
Wells Fargo has also developed free online resources to help students and families to prepare, plan and finance their college experience.
Wells Fargo Education Financial Services is the largest U.S. private student lender among commercial banks, serving more than 1 million customers nationally.
Capital One Adds Phone Advice, Managed Portfolios
McLean, Va.-based Capital One has launched two client-facing tools to deliver advice and products to investors in real time using both technology and in-the-flesh advisors.
Advisor Connect provides phone-based investing advice to U.S. customers, designed to help investors access financial markets. Clients will not have their own dedicated advisor with this service.
Clients will also be able to use Capital One Advisors Managed Portfolios, a hybrid investment. Digitally powered automated monitoring and rebalancing combines with professional portfolio oversight within portfolios of low-cost, third-party ETFs.
The offerings were designed after a Capital One survey revealed that most investors prefer advice from a financial advisor in times of market volatility.