As Babu Sivadasan ticks off the capabilities of Envestnet Retirement Solutions, we wonder if it might have been easier to ask the ERS group president what the platform doesn’t do.
“Envestnet Retirement Solutions exists to serve defined contribution plan advisors,” Sivadasan says matter-of-factly. “Everything we do is aimed at empowering them. We want to help make them better fiduciaries and therefore help with better outcomes for their plan sponsors and participants.”
Describing the platform as a “behind-the-scenes engine that improves productivity and business growth,” he notes that one side includes all the business development and management the 401(k) advisor needs, and adds the technology and scale can make any retirement plan advisor in the bank, broker-dealer or RIA channels more efficient.
“We can also take on the fiduciary role if that is something the advisor does not want to do. If an advisor calls themselves a fiduciary but might not be doing all that entails, we can step in and handle that for them.”
He points specifically to its data aggregation capabilities, explaining that a 401(k) advisor can come in in the morning and pull up not only all the plan data, but also individual participant data as well.
“This is huge, especially if the advisor is working with multiple record-keepers. It helps them immensely.”
The ERS platform also includes automated steps for the pre-sale process like writing the proposal and everything needed to deliver the RFP.
“It has the capabilities needed to retain the plan and to see what else is out there from a competitive standpoint. It allows for the ongoing monitoring, quarterly reporting, etc. Lastly, it offers improved capabilities around outcomes, which is something every plan sponsor should want. It allows the plan sponsors to see how their plan participants are doing.”
The other side of the platforms is the investment portion.
“We allow for the advisor to build customized, target-date portfolios which can then also be imbedded in other low-cost offerings,” he says.
By creating target-date portfolios, the advisor can be more holistic and retain more control. The platform is completely open-architecture and includes known firms like Russell Investments, CLS Investment and a host of others.
“It also offers convenience surrounding multiple-managed accounts,” Sivadasan concludes. “The advisors can house them all under one umbrella and not have all these hanging pieces out there. The information is at their fingertips at a low cost. This is groundbreaking technology.”
Envestnet Retirement Solutions most recently launched the ERS Fund Strategist Network over the summer, which is describes as a roster of institutional-grade and boutique strategic and dynamic fund strategists (including Russell and CLS noted above). The platform provides retirement plan advisors with “access to quality unitized fund strategist portfolios, which are monitored by ERS. After the strategist assessment is completed, fund strategists in the network submit their models of mutual funds and/or exchange-traded funds (ETFs) to ERS, which facilitates trading and unitization for these portfolios through its model management system. In addition, ERS serves as the 3(38) investment manager on behalf of 401(k) plan sponsors for the fund strategist portfolios available through the platform.”
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.
