Six months is all you’ve got.
With the impending date of the DOL Fiduciary Rule less than six months away, industry heavyweights SEI Advisor Network and Redtail Technology are looking to help with advisor anxiety over what it means and how it will work.
The two firms announced a partnership to deliver a product they say can help financial advisors plan, execute, and comply with the rule in areas such as moving from commission to fee-based.
It provides financial advisors “with systematized workflows that help assess business readiness and demonstrate compliance with the DOL rule through a variety of scenarios …This comprehensive package can ultimately save advisors time, maximizing efficiency and productivity as they prepare for the DOL deadline in April 2017.”
“Everyone is talking about the DOL rule in our industry, but we still have advisors asking what it truly means, what they should be doing, and how they can get help,” John Anderson, Managing Director and Head of Practice Management Solutions for the SEI Advisor Network, said in a statement. “There has always been value in holistically using a CRM for both advisors and clients, but there’s a compliance reason for advisors to do so now, and there is no better time to prepare for the upcoming implementation of the DOL rule.”
SEI Advisor Network and Redtail’s DOL Action Plan process begins with a planning meeting, which advisors should complete by the end of 2016. Following this plan, advisors will be able to:
- Define their DOL Fiduciary Rule strategies
- Audit and segment each household into the appropriate scenario – whether it is transitioning from a current product/solution to a level-fee, holding an account in a product/solution using a BIC exemption, or orphaning an account
- Execute their plans by April 1, 2017 using the tactical workflows
- Manage and demonstrate compliance with their broker dealers
The Toolkit has four total workflows with accompanying resources to help drive execution that will track the advisors’ progress, but it will also create an auditable business, documenting client interactions in their CRMs.
“If the SEC knew how much publicity the DOL was going to get for creating its new rule first, there would have been a no-holds-barred race to the finish line to implement fiduciary mandates – it’s all anyone is talking about,” added Brian McLaughlin, CEO of Redtail Technology.