If anything demands a risk evaluation, annuities are it (at least the variable type). Sub-account options, the percent currently “in the money” and pricing and solvency concerns post-2008 all combine to potentially weigh on an investor’s portfolio.
Riskalyze is once again here to help. The company that allows 401(k) advisors to align each client’s investment with a risk number has added new annuity and insurance capabilities for its Risk Alignment Platform.
According to the Auburn, California-based upstart, the new Annuities + Insurance add-on will allow advisors to incorporate 2,125 annuity and insurance products into a client’s full financial picture with a single click, a functionality that has been requested by advisors, back offices and insurance providers who already use Riskalyze.
The newly-added component aims to ease the difficulty in properly measuring an annuity or life insurance product in the context of the rest of a client’s financial portfolio, which it says is a common problem among advisors.
Previously, financial advisors would have to consider annuity and insurance holdings separately from other holdings, or manually find the right annuity subaccounts from a menu of 130,000 choices and painstakingly hand-enter them into the portfolio.
“At Riskalyze, we believe in empowering great advisors to drive alignment between clients and their portfolios. That’s the foundation upon which complete financial care is built,” Aaron Klein, CEO at Riskalyze, said in a statement. “These new capabilities give fiduciary advisors a way to objectively approach the risks and rewards of annuity products, and ensure they only present clients with choices that fit their risk preferences and needs. Annuities can be a core component of a fiduciary portfolio, but only by viewing them in the proper risk context can an advisor demonstrate when an annuity is in a client’s best interests.”
The add-on will be a free upgrade for existing Riskalyze customers. Over time, Riskalyze will continue to add new companies and products into the feature, and there are already six more index annuity products queued for addition.
“We’ve had over 130,000 VA subaccounts available in Riskalyze for a long time, but this new upgrade makes adding the right product and correct subaccounts as easy as a Google search,” Mike McDaniel, Chief Investment Officer at Riskalyze, added. “For advisors who want to quantify their fiduciary compliance under DOL rules and still provide access to annuity benefits, this is a big step forward.”
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.
