Financial advisors would use more annuities if they had more options from providers, according to a study by the Global Atlantic Financial Group. The study, of 400 financial advisors offering portfolio investment and retirement advice, found that 56 percent believe annuities are an important part of a financial retirement plan, but 90 percent are frustrated with the “one-size-fits-all,” single-product approach by annuity providers. Nearly all the advisors surveyed (96.4 percent) said they would increase their use of annuities if they had access to a multi-product platform. “In this volatile investing environment and with a new era of regulation as a backdrop, advisors need to show clients that they have a full set of solutions at their disposal to meet income planning and retirement savings needs,” said Paula Nelson, president of Retirement at Global Atlantic Financial Group.
E*Trade’s TCA Adds Morningstar and Other Money Managers
Trust Company of America, the independent advisor custodian bought by E*Trade in April, is adding four new managers to its Money Manager X-Change. E*Trade said Tuesday that Morningstar Investment Management, Clearbridge, Manning & Napier and Earth Equity Advisors will now provide advisors access to additional portfolios and strategies. “Our goal is to help [advisors] spend less time on the administrative tasks of money management, and more time on what matters most—their clients,” TCA President Joshua Pace said in a statement about the new managers. E*Trade’s marketplace has helped the company build its own TAMP, which added more than $200 million in new assets in the first quarter.
MyVest “Modularizes” Its Portfolio Tool
Advisors interested in just the model management and rebalancing features of MyVest’s Strategic Portfolio System, but not the entire platform of tools, can now use a scaled-down version of the platform called Portfolio Management Suite, MyVest announced. The new tool integrates with a firm’s own account opening, onboarding and investor portals, the company said, and allows users to aggregate and organize trade orders across “an unlimited number of portfolios.” “We’ve seen increased demand from medium to large firms for a focused portfolio management suite that integrates with their own digital user experience,” said Anton Honikman, the company’s CEO. “We have responded to that demand by modularizing our offering and adding to our API.”
