Time to add more letters to the business card.
Chicago-based research behemoth Morningstar has teamed with the American Retirement Association to develop a program that “sets a new standard in fiduciary education and best practices,” called the IRA Fiduciary Adviser education program.
“Regulations come, go and change all of the time,” Brian Graff, CEO of the American Retirement Association, said in a statement. “While there has been an enormous focus on complying with the Labor Department’s new fiduciary regulation, the SEC and FINRA have both already signaled their intent to introduce additional fiduciary regulations.”
The professional advisor of the future, Graff adds, must build his or her practice on proven fiduciary advisor best practices that “look beyond today’s requirements and that’s what our IRA Fiduciary Adviser program will provide.”
The ARA’s IRA Fiduciary Adviser education modules will be integrated with Morningstar Advisor Workstation, “providing not only an immediate access point to fiduciary adviser education but a connection between education and the tools required for the practical application of fiduciary advisor best practices,” according to the organizations.
The IRA Fiduciary Adviser education program provides “sophisticated tracking and reporting mechanisms to support broker-dealer and registered investment advisor compliance requirements.”
Developed in conjunction with “a number of the nation’s leading fiduciary experts,” the program is “balanced with a practical, utilitarian application of that knowledge.
It brings together a half-century of expertise educating and working with retirement plan professionals and regulatory agencies with a platform that encompasses the latest thinking in professional education delivery.”
“Advisors who work with retirement accounts, particularly IRAs, will need to conform with a higher, and for some dramatically, higher standard of care, but that’s only the beginning,” Graff explained. “More than education, this program sets a new standard for fiduciary practices that goes beyond the mere letter of the law, elevating advisory practices to an entirely new level of excellence.”