Answers in Advice for Advisors
As a financial advisor, you deal with every day business issues that accompany overseeing a practice. In this section you can learn how your advisor colleagues have solved similar issues and gain insights you can apply to your practice.
Retirement plans are a complicated issue. You should probably talk to a professional specializing in this. There are a few options for doing this: if your interest in this is in building a practice, your best bet is to join, at least in the beginning,
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Retirement plans are a complicated issue. You should probably talk to a professional specializing in this. There are a few options for doing this: if your interest in this is in building a practice, your best bet is to join, at least in the beginning, a practice that is already doing this and learn. There are so many record keepers out there, so to try and give you a list of good & bad ones is practically impossible.
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This is a continuing problem with reporting systems. Having used Advent Axys for a number of years, it was always a struggle to have internal reporting match that from the custodian. While the internal reporting is accurate, it is difficult to prove out
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This is a continuing problem with reporting systems. Having used Advent Axys for a number of years, it was always a struggle to have internal reporting match that from the custodian. While the internal reporting is accurate, it is difficult to prove out the numbers in an audit when the custodial data is usually settlement date. There are specialized firms that do this type of work.
Having set up a new firm, we selected Morningstar Office because of their custodial integration. Our custodian, Charles Schwab posts trade date and with Office, we receive a custodial feed. This works great in terms of consistency in reporting; our system matches exactly that of the custodian. With that being said, if the custodian posts settlement date, now your internal data posts as settlement date so you have an equally troubling issue with performance now being calculated on settlement date.
I do not know if there is a one size fits all answer on how to solve your problem. I would hope that whatever system you are using could provide you some guidance on how to overcome this obstacle.
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Alfred some very good suggestions from some very knowledgeable people above. We run RFPs often for providers so we have vetted quite a few. Important aspects of a good recordkeeping partner. They have the updated technology as Mike mentions a must. FLAT
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Alfred some very good suggestions from some very knowledgeable people above. We run RFPs often for providers so we have vetted quite a few. Important aspects of a good recordkeeping partner. They have the updated technology as Mike mentions a must. FLAT DOLLAR FEE PER PARTICIPANT NO ASSET BASED compensation. They have to have experience so they can be a true partner help with Plan Design and be prepared for the inevitable "situation" that will arise with all plans. Have to be Open Arch no affiliation with any MF, Insurace companies, Money Managers. Back office should also have the experiecnce not just the Senior mang. Flexible able to think outside the box. We work with great providers Alliance Benefits in Chicago and Benefit Consulting Group in NJ are two terrific partners. As for growing your Retirement Practice may I encourage you to attend our event in June at Lowe's Motor Speedway in Charlotte NC. It has some great professional who will have a lot of great advice and ideas to share. http://events.miracenter.com/
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We developed our proprietary RFP that has over 30 pages. We have responses by 28 of largest bundled record keepers. We incorporated technology questions six years ago. About half the record keepers are losing money. That is the reason that we continue
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We developed our proprietary RFP that has over 30 pages. We have responses by 28 of largest bundled record keepers. We incorporated technology questions six years ago. About half the record keepers are losing money. That is the reason that we continue to see compression e.g Hartford exit
Many proudly point to how much money they spend on technology, but if you dig deeply, you'll find most of that is for platform maintenance. Too much old technolgy has to be disguised by many of these record keepers by installing as many of their funds on the platform, and in the lineups, as possible. Think of it as mutual fund companies, posing as record keepers. Most have limited open architecture, although they tout their offerings like it is unlimited. Very few have pure open architecture because their platforms are so inefficient. The best have open architecture, revenue and expense disclosure, provide robust fiduciary support an actually make money. If you don't want to have your clients experience an involuntary conversion, do your homework. In one of our recent RFP's, the cost spread from highest to lowest expense was 400%.
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Hi Alfred,
Record keepers do come in a wide variety with varying attributes; and while some may be more expensive, they also may bring more to the table. For me, it's a 'bottom-up' approach based on client needs. Once a short-list is developed, I would
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Hi Alfred,
Record keepers do come in a wide variety with varying attributes; and while some may be more expensive, they also may bring more to the table. For me, it's a 'bottom-up' approach based on client needs. Once a short-list is developed, I would recommend not making the fatal mistake of trying to mold a record keeper to your needs, which from what I hear, seldom works. Better you find which set of attributes best works for you. My own personal preference is an open architecture platform with all revenue shariing credited back to the plan and all excess revenue sharing credited back to participants' accounts; but, as I said, there are other factors to consider. Start with what you want... and work from there to see where you can have the best fit.
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