Franklin Templeton announced a strategic investment and collaboration with California-based vWise, Inc. to integrate technology, predictive analytics, behavioral finance insights and a personalized investment solution designed to improve retirement outcomes in Defined Contribution (DC) Plans.
Franklin Templeton’s patent-pending proprietary Goals Optimization Engine (GOE), combined with vWise’s Experience Platform, will use real-time participant data to intelligently deliver personalized experiences that drive participants to take actions that better prepare them for their specific retirement journey.
“Our collaboration with vWise will help to operationalize our GOE methodology in the institutional DC market,” said Harshendu Bindal, Managing Director and Head of Digital Strategy and Wealth Management for Franklin Templeton. “vWise will work directly with the plan sponsor and recordkeeper to establish data transfer protocols that pull the necessary participant data to create targeted and personalized communications. This collaboration is part of Franklin Templeton’s commitment to advancing personalization and improving DC participant experiences and outcomes.”
GOE is an open-architecture offering that combines a proprietary algorithm based on award-winning research, detailed capital market expectations, and a set of parameters for each goal provided by the investor. GOE is designed to take these parameters and optimize the asset allocation to maximize the probability of successfully achieving the goal by applying machine learning.
DC participants will have the option to provide additional information, and then choose what portion of their account balance they would like to invest in Franklin Templeton’s model portfolios.
“The workplace is the financial hub for many American workers and our collaboration with vWise will enable us to deliver on our commitment to personalization,” said Mary Beth Glotzbach, Senior Institutional DC Strategist for Franklin Templeton, who was also named to the vWise board. “We can now bring to DC plan participants the same level of personalized recommendations we’ve all come to expect in other aspects of our lives. That’s especially important for participants approaching retirement, who will benefit from a more customized approach to meet their changing needs.”
Using data to create customized communications and solutions for DC participants, providing a broad set of investment tools to construct those solutions, and employing technology to deliver the right message at the right time, work together to enable participants to make decisions that are appropriate for their household retirement situation.
In a statement announcing the partnership, the companies said vWise has a proven track record of increasing deferral and participation rates and driving adoption of in-plan features that help optimize participant outcomes.
vWise technology enables financial service providers to aggregate data and build participant profiles, apply a customized rules engine that selects the best “call to action” and delivers a personal experience, the statement said. The recorded behavior and transaction then builds out a more robust profile. The vWise Experience platform is designed to be effective in institutional, advisor sold and retail financial verticals.
“Our open-platform approach is the key to unlocking more targeted communications and, in turn, more engaged participants,” said David Ferrigno, CEO of vWise. “Aggregating data from multiple sources—our clients, their clients and their partners—allows vWise to deliver personalized communications based on relevant demographic and financial characteristics. Investor ‘calls to action’ can be both simpler to act on and to implement.”
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Veteran financial services industry journalist Brian Anderson joined 401(k) Specialist as Managing Editor in January 2019. He has led editorial content for a variety of well-known properties including Insurance Forums, Life Insurance Selling, National Underwriter Life & Health, and Senior Market Advisor. He has always maintained a focus on providing readers with timely, useful information intended to help them build their business.
