Combine TDFs, CITs and fiduciary responsibility and it’s sure to get 401k advisor attention.
Manning & Napier announced Wednesday that it’s formed a new relationship with Fi360 to offer advisors strategies that include fiduciary monitoring.
More specifically, Fi360 has licensed its Fiduciary Score to Manning & Napier for use within two of Manning & Napier’s strategies; a suite of target date collective investment trusts (CITs) and a suite of separately managed accounts that utilize ETFs.
While eyebrows were initially raised over a possible shift in service offerings from Pittsburgh-based Fi360, John Faustino, the firm’s chief product and strategy officer, stressed that it’s not acting as a sub-advisor.
“We’re simply licensing our data and Manning & Napier [makes] all investment decisions. Our Fiduciary Score will be used within their open-architecture strategy creation and rebalancing processes for certain CITs and SMAs.”
Adding that the Fiduciary Score in no way replaces or eliminates the need for fiduciary oversight on the part of advisors and plan sponsors, it nonetheless effectively provides a minimum fiduciary review process, according to Faustino.
He also emphasized that since Fi360 is “product-agnostic,” it’s looking to possibly initiate more of these types of arrangements in the future.
“Since fiduciary has hit the mainstream, many market participants have expressed concern about advisors’ ability to apply a fiduciary standard of care to all clients based on the time required to appropriately review and rebalance portfolios,” Faustino said. “Including the Fi360 Score as a parameter within Manning & Napier’s strategies essentially ‘builds-in’ fiduciary to those investments. This is a great example of how technology and workflow enhancements drive efficiencies in fiduciary account management.”
The products include:
Suite of Target Date Collective Investment Trusts (CITs):
Manning & Napier Fi360 ETF Target Collective Investment Trusts (available in five-year increments)
Separately Managed Account suite:
- Manning & Napier Fi360 ETF – Conservative Growth
- Manning & Napier Fi360 ETF – Moderate Growth
- Manning & Napier Fi360 ETF – Long-Term Growth
- Manning & Napier Fi360 ETF – Equity Focused Growth
- Manning & Napier Fi360 ETF – Maximum Growth
- Manning & Napier’s ETF portfolios seek to combine active asset allocation with the low-cost benefits of ETFs.
“In recent years, the rapid expansion of the ETF universe has given investors an ever-growing list of investment options to consider,” Chris Petrosino, managing director of Manning & Napier’s Quantitative Strategies Group, said in a statement. “This new relationship will further enhance our evaluation capabilities at a time of increasing complexity in the ETF landscape.”
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.
