Getting past the proverbial gatekeeper to whomever makes the defined contribution decision takes doing—whether it’s the HR head, CFO or someone else. A new product aims to make it easier, and was developed from the merger of two high-profile companies in the retirement plan space.
Qualified plan and risk analytics-provider RiXtrema announced the acquisition of Larkspur Data, which provides “targeted data and market intelligence to financial advisors in the 401k/qualified plan industry.
“Combining strengths of RiXtrema’s financial plan analytics and plan holdings data with the most extensive datasets from Larkspur Data will help advisors create an unbeatable value proposition to plan sponsors,” Daniel Satchkov, president and founder of RiXtrema, said in a statement. “Acquiring Larkspur was a no-brainer decision for us.”
Not only will advisors be able to show significant plan savings using 401kFiduciaryOptimizer algorithms, Satchkov added, but Larkspur’s data will enable them to produce complete financial and legal diagnostics for any plan, including those not audited.
A new product, called Larkspur Executive, will be released in late-January and came about as a result of the acquisition.
Larkspur Executive is “the deepest dataset of plan executive contact information, social network profiles and any other publicly available data. It will contain data on over one million executives at hundreds of thousands of plans.”
“Advisors have long told us that one of their biggest obstacles is getting connected with the right people to make their pitch,” Yon Perullo, newly named as CEO of the combined company, explained. “Larkspur Executive answers that call by not only providing advisors with data and reports to create effective proposals to plan sponsors, but also providing the means to connect with the decision makers.”
RiXtrema’s flagship product, the 401kFiduciaryOptimizer is a prospecting tool for plan advisors that quantifies the savings for the plan using sophisticated analytics
The company claims the algorithms behind RiXtrema’s 401kFiduciaryOptimizer could help save over $17 billion per year for qualified plans across the United States. It also contains data on plan holdings enabling thorough diagnostics for more than 85,000 audited plans.
“Larkspur are true pioneers in the 401k space and we’ve been using their data for a while,” Perullo said, when asked about the reason for the deal. “The acquisition significantly increases our scope and footprint with retirement plan information. Our analytics really only dealt with audited plans, but we went very deep. Larkspur was always more about the overall performance of the plans, as well as the metrics and that kind of data, and they were always very broad in the view they provided. So now we can go both broad and deep and provide a very holistic view of the plans.”
Larkspur Data Resources features multiple datasets used in determining the health of a qualified plan. Larkspur Planisphere contains data on over 500,000 plans, virtually all 401(k) and 403(b) plans in the country.
With more than 20 years serving financial markets, John Sullivan is the former editor-in-chief of Investment Advisor magazine and retirement editor of ThinkAdvisor.com. Sullivan is also the former editor of Boomer Market Advisor and Bank Advisor magazines, and has a background in the insurance and investment industries in addition to his journalism roots.
