Cambridge Investment Research is delving deeper into the retirement plan space.
The Fairfield, Iowa-based broker-dealer announced a new initiative to offer retirement plan advisors fee-based solutions as a fiduciary and the ability to deliver financial education to participants. The online platform is part of the firm’s Cambridge Retirement Center.
According to Cambridge, the Retirement Center’s disclosure and data aggregation tool delivers a customized disclosure process while also forming a data foundation with periodic data feeds from 50 different record-keepers to give advisors a snapshot of plan assets to help analyze plan trends. A custom search feature enables advisors to identify the best fit for client needs based on the services and features desired.
“Working closely with our advisors, we’ve designed Cambridge’s Retirement Center to enable our advisors to better prepare clients for their life journey,” Colleen Bell, First Vice President, Retirement and Wealth Strategies, said in a statement. “Working with preeminent experts in advisor retirement plan platforms, the Retirement Center is designed to enhance the advisor’s retirement engagement to efficiently and effectively deliver essential retirement plan tools and expertise.”
“We’ve also developed key integrations with premium service vendors,” Bell added. “These partners were chosen to power investment analytics and fee benchmarking tools for our advisors after careful analysis of various technology vendors.”
She noted that the investment analytics tool allows for tracking fund lineups and creating custom client reports, while the fee benchmarking tool compares fees relative to the plan services provided and assists advisors in conversations with clients regarding the true value of their services.
As a streamlined, digital resource, Cambridge’s Retirement Center includes:
- Disclosure and data aggregation tools,
- Access to a dashboard of client retirement plans,
- Automated daily transfer of data between participating vendors and customizable subsystems,
- Retirement plan and individual participant data mining,
- Over 50 participating industry record keepers with a custom search feature,
- Investment analytics,
- Fund monitor reports,
- Fee benchmarking tools,
- Targeted education messaging,
- Knowledge bank of retirement plan resources and best practices,
- Support for fiduciary services for plan sponsors as well as education for participants and clients on the realities of financial wellness, as well as a
- Dedicated Retirement Center team providing support throughout the engagement, from the request for proposal through formal contract completion.