Plante Moran Financial Advisors Adopt RiXtrema's IRAFiduciaryOptimizer Tool

Financial Advisors Gearing Up to Address DOL Rule Compliance

RiXtrema, the leading provider of risk management tools and analysis to the financial advisory and broker/dealer community to help ensure that investors get the analysis and advice they need, announced that Plante Moran Financial Advisors, LLC, one of the nation’s top independent registered investment advisors*, has adopted the use of the IRAFiduciaryOptimizer tool as a resource to help its team comply with the DOL Impartial Conduct Standard.

While Plante Moran Financial Advisors has always provided advice that puts the client’s interests first, like many in the industry gearing up for the new fiduciary era, they recognize the value of the IRAFiduciaryOptimizer suite of software solutions and have begun using the suite to provide additional comparison reporting and analytics to ensure compliance.

"In the past few weeks, advisors have been signing up for the IRAFiduciaryOptimizer suite at a remarkable rate — 68 new user firms since June 1. Clearly, there was a lot of confusion holding advisors back, but many now understand that their effective ERISA fiduciary status must be taken very seriously. We congratulate the firms that are proactively embracing the new fiduciary standard."

Daniel Satchkov, CFA, president, RiXtrema

“For some time, we have seen the critical need for a tool advisors could use to help them comply with the DOL Rule that recently took effect on June 9,” said RiXtrema President Daniel Satchkov, CFA. “We prepared for this while many in the industry took a ‘watch and wait’ attitude, expressing doubt the rule would actually be enacted and hope that it would not. But hope is not a strategy and many advisors realized this and reached out to us for access to the IRAFiduciaryOptimizer suite.”

The software suite quantitatively compares existing retirement portfolios to proposed new, compliant portfolios and services proposed by the independent financial advisor or broker/dealer. The comparison highlights a variety of measures such as fees, track record of the investments, risk vs. risk tolerance, and best fiduciary practices. These might include investing in the best share class, as well as additional services provided by the advisor to the client. The IRAFiduciaryOptimizer produces a report summarizing why a rollover is in the best interest of the client based on the abovementioned measures. Reports can be generated by individual advisors, or by a home office compliance team using an administrator portal to manage outcomes for all advisors/representatives with the firm.

“In the past few weeks, advisors have been signing up for the IRAFiduciaryOptimizer suite at a remarkable rate — 68 new user firms since June 1,” said Satchkov. “Clearly, there was a lot of confusion holding advisors back, but many now understand that their effective ERISA fiduciary status must be taken very seriously. We congratulate the firms that are proactively embracing the new fiduciary standard.”

ABOUT RIXTREMA

Founded in 2010, RiXtrema is a portfolio crash-testing company that helps advisors discuss risk with clients. Long used by fund managers, pension plans and funds of funds, RiXtrema has introduced its risk management tools to the financial advisory and broker/dealer community to help ensure that clients get the analysis and advice they need. The RiXtrema research team received the 2015 Peter L. Bernstein Award, one of the most prestigious awards in finance, for its article Risk Estimation and Hedging: A Reverse Stress Testing Approach, published in The Journal of Derivatives in April 2015. RiXtrema solutions include Portfolio Crash Testing; BioniX, the first robo platform for advisors that includes sophisticated risk modeling; IRAFiduciaryOptimizer, the first quantitative DOL Fiduciary Rule Rollover solution, and the related 401(k) Fiduciary Optimizer geared for plan advisors. For more information, visit www.rixtrema.com.

ABOUT PLANTE MORAN FINANCIAL ADVISORS

With more than $11.9 billion* in assets under management, Plante Moran Financial Advisors, LLC is one of the nation’s largest** independent registered investment advisors. Plante Moran Financial Advisors serves as a trusted advisor to high net worth individuals and families, business owners, not-for-profit organizations and corporate retirement plans helping them build, manage, and preserve their wealth. Its integrated services include investment consulting, financial planning, trust, insurance consulting, estate planning, business succession, and tax planning. Plante Moran Financial Advisors is the registered investment advisor of Plante Moran, the nation’s 14th largest certified public accounting and business advisory firm.

* December 31, 2016 ADV Part 2A  **Plante Moran Financial Advisor, LLC was ranked 5th on Forbes' list of top 100 wealth management firms by 10-year growth in November 2016 and was ranked on the list of “Top 100 Independent Financial Advisors of 2016” by Barron’s in August 2016.

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Contact:     
Leslie Swid               
Impact Communications                 
(913) 649-5009      
leslieswid@impactcommunications.org

Source: RiXtrema