On Monday, BNY Mellon’s Pershing today announced the launch of a new solution to help firms and plan advisors “achieve greater consistency and efficiency in how they service retirement plans.”
Called the Retirement Plan Oversight Tool, it “underscores Pershing’s continued focus on bolstering its retirement plan offerings,” according to the New Jersey-based company.
The tool, which is implemented as part of Pershing’s existing Retirement Plan Network, is an integrated compliance and oversight tool that allows home offices to create up to four sets of best practices and protocols for their plan advisors to follow when servicing retirement business.
“The future of the DOL Rule may be in limbo, but firms had been looking to improve oversight of ERISA plans well before the DOL tried to expand the definition of fiduciary,” Robert Cirrotti, managing director and head of retirement and investment solutions at BNY Mellon’s Pershing, said in a statement. “Our oversight tool creates greater transparency for firms to manage where and when they act in a fiduciary capacity, leading to improved business controls and governance practices.”
Once a firm establishes a set of requirements, plan advisors utilize the tool to guide how they service their individual retirement plan business and document their adherence to their firm’s requirements.
A dashboard can then be viewed in real-time by both plan advisors and home office employees for what Pershing says is seamless management of retirement plan business.
“We built this tool based on comprehensive feedback from our clients, retirement plan advisors and the industry at large,” Cirrotti added. “The goal was to develop a solution that helps create consistency in how retirement plans are serviced and enhances the compliance experience for both plan advisors and executives.”
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.
