PLANADVISER - May/June 2020 - 15

wealth businesses to support them
at an enterprise level and thus also
strengthen their DCIO relationships,
he explains.
Help With Competitive
Positioning and Service
Differentiation
Among what may be considered
traditional offerings, such as market
insights, research and evaluation
tools, DCIOs can help advisers
differentiate their services and work
with clients in this unusual current
environment.
" As the pandemic situation has
helped to highlight, life moves
quickly, and client goals and needs
can change just as rapidly, " says
Doshier. To help, he says, T. Rowe
Price is equipping its adviser partners
with guidance on topics such
as how to effectively connect with
prospects and clients virtually and
is supplying content that aims to
engage sponsors and participants.
In Vanguard's work with plan
advisers, it " encourages advisers to
differentiate their value proposition
by focusing on controllable outcomes
and taking a holistic approach,
rather than anchoring to portfolio
and manager outperformance, " says
James Martielli, head of DC advisory
services at the company, in
Valley Forge, Pennsylvania. He says
Vanguard can consult with advisers
on related issues including grounding
their practice in applicable fiduciary
duties and best practices, as well as
educating clients, creating a comprehensive
investment policy statement
(IPS) for a client, and ensuring that
the client gets the appropriate plan
design elements.
As for Capital Group, " We are
RETIREMENT
INCOME SOLUTIONS
A
development bound to affect
the defined contribution investment only (DCIO)
industry in the coming years-due to the massive amounts of Baby Boomers retiring
and the passage of the Setting Every Community Up for Retirement Enhancement
(SECURE) Act-is retirement income solutions, says Chris Brown of Sway Research LLC.
" While we've been talking about retirement income for 20 years, there really is a push
now to figure out how to build income into products or deliver them as standalone
in-plan offerings, " he says. " The SECURE Act has created opportunities for insurance
wrap products to help participants hedge or minimize longevity and downside risk.
This will be a clear way for DCIO providers to differentiate themselves. "
Partnering with insurers Equitable and Brighthouse Financial, BlackRock recently
introduced LifePath Paycheck, a solution to provide simplified access to guaranteed
income through a 401(k). LifePath Paycheck is a target-date strategy that includes an
allocation to annuity contracts that do not limit the daily liquidity of the target-date
strategy. Once the account holder reaches retirement, he will have the option to use
a portion of his account balance to purchase fixed individual retirement annuities
that will provide guaranteed lifetime income.
Anne Ackerley, head of BlackRock's retirement group, in New York City, says the
product brings
together
insurance companies,
recordkeepers and technology
companies. " The experience is available through both a digital and a web-based
application. It helps people understand how much they will get in income through
the target-date strategy-a strategy people are already familiar with. "
Another example of such an offering was American Funds incorporating income into
its TDFs, notes Mike DeFeo, managing director and head of DCIO at Voya in Boston.
" More providers, including Voya, will be coming out with their own versions of that,
including standalone retirement income offerings, " he says. " Firms such as Voya that
have robust fixed income platforms are trying to figure out how to use that strength to
provide unique investment opportunities in the market. "
Sponsors are increasingly interested in offering retirement income solutions, says
Jordan Burgess, head of specialist field sales overseeing DCIO at Fidelity Institutional
Asset Management in Boston. He notes that Fidelity's annual Plan Sponsor Attitudes
Survey has found sponsors fear that 50% of their participants will be unable to cover
essential expenses in retirement.
always developing tools to deliver
leverage and scale into an adviser's
business, " says Craig Duglin, senior
product manager at the company, in Los Angeles. Businessbuilding
strategies, prospecting tactics, client and prospect
conversation frameworks, and a value-proposition-statement
template are among its resources for advisers.
The firm's target-date fund evaluation tool, ProView, has
been particularly effective as a differentiator, Duglin says.
Moving forward, Voya is also exploring how to offer retirement plan participants
" access to private equity and other alternative levers and mechanisms that create
wealth, " DeFeo says. -Lee Barney
pects. This tool enables them to compare and contrast
the target-date universe in a framework inspired by DOL
[Department of Labor] fiduciary tips [and] using Morningstar
data to tease out important differences to more effectively
align the right series for their diverse client base. "
-Judy Ward
" Advisers have needed a more efficient way to conduct and
document target-date due diligence for clients and prosAn
expanded version of this article appears on planadviser.com.
planadviser.com May-June 2020 | 15
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