Lincoln Financial Group has added an Advisor Managed Accounts service, which gives a retirement plan’s registered investment advisor (RIA) the ability to create the underlying plan-specific investment portfolios and leverage the proprietary portfolio assignment process from Morningstar Investment Management LLC.
These personalized investment programs, introduced on Jan. 11 and offered through the Lincoln Allianceprogram, enable the RIA to use information about each plan participant—such as age and plan balance—to create the portfolios used by the program.
“The Advisor Managed Accounts service complements and builds on our suite of custom asset allocation products, such as YourPath,” said Ralph Ferraro, Senior Vice President, Retirement Plan Products and Solutions, at Radnor, Pa.-based Lincoln Financial Group. “All participants are different, and financial professionals and plan sponsors are looking for innovative products they can further personalize to help their participants reach their individual retirement goals.”
Currently, more than half of plan sponsors include a managed account option in their plans (according to Cerulli Associates research), and this number is likely to increase, as research shows that these services have the potential to help participants save more for retirement. Morningstar Investment Management found that, even after accounting for age and income, more than 70% of off-track participants (participants with a less than 70% chance of achieving retirement income goal) studied increased their savings rates after using managed accounts.
To implement Advisor Managed Accounts, the RIA leverages their investment expertise to create plan-level portfolios, while Morningstar Investment Management provides the technology platform that then matches each participant with their unique asset allocation, and acts as fiduciary for the participant portfolio assignment process.
Advisor Managed Accounts can be offered as the Qualified Default Investment Alternative (QDIA), with the plan sponsor designating it as the QDIA for all participants, or it can be offered as opt-in only, so each participant can actively choose the service.
“By launching Advisor Managed Accounts, we continue our commitment to building and launching innovative solutions,” said Ferraro. “Like with our new in-plan guaranteed income products, we are focused on helping to meet the evolving needs of our partners and plan sponsors, while helping our participants save for and achieve the retirement they envision.”
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.
