Waiting game

这似乎是一个简单的问题来解决。慌乱401 (k)参与者渴望森西ble investment advice to ensure that their retirement savings will grow in today's treacherous market. Plan sponsors would like to provide this service to their employees. So why don't the sponsors just go out and get the best advisory services they can afford and start peppering their workers with helpful information?

不幸的是，提供投资建议，同时剩下负责任的受托人并不是一项简单的练习。计划赞助商担心诉讼，是否应该参加南方的诉讼。计划提供商大多避免提供有关他们收集管理费的投资车辆的建议，担心自己潜在的利益冲突。因此，今天的参与者会收到一个独立建议的Smorgasbord。

The financial services industry is fighting for the Retirement Security Advice Act, a congressional bill sponsored by Representative John Boehner, an Ohio Republican, despite the fact that both Republicans and Democrats are skeptical that it can pass Congress next year. The bill passed the House in November 2001 but faces tough opposition in the Senate. If enacted, it would for the first time allow plan providers to offer advice directly to plan participants, which they are eager to do.

Although the GOP's electoral victory improves the prospects for passage of the advice bill, the continuing controversy over Wall Street research's conflicts of interest, fueled by New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer's investigations, makes such a measure a much tougher sell.

"Bipartisan reluctance to take up the industry's position in the Senate won't be altered by the Republicans' control of the Senate. After Eliot Spitzer the Boehner bill should be moot," says one of its outspoken opponents, Damon Silvers, associate general counsel of the AFL-CIO.

An alternative bill, sponsored by Senators Jeff Bingaman, Democrat of New Mexico, and Susan Collins, Republican of Maine, would not allow providers to offer advice to participants. But it would offer greater protection to plan sponsors who would like their employees to receive more investment advice.

"We need to proceed cautiously on the investment advice issue," says Senator Charles Grassley, the Iowa Republican who will chair the Senate Finance Committee next year. "We need a consensus position, and we don't have that now." Grassley refuses to support either the Boehner or the Bingaman-Collins bill.

Meanwhile, companies are expanding their advice offerings to both employers and employees -- always under the auspices of an independent advisory firm -- as much as current law permits.

"We hear from our participants that they are desperate for advice," says Patricia Wright, the Nashville, Tennesseebased director of benefits for Broadcast Music, a company with a $35 million 401(k).

金融服务业具有强大的激励，提供投资建议。目前，提供商处理ARM长度的401（k）投资组合，因为Erisa防止他们推荐任何资金或服务。但提供建议将使计划提供商能够加强与其管理的账户的4200万401（k）投资者加强其关系的有价值的机会。提供商希望在某些情况下吸引新资产，并指导客户对具有更高费用的产品。

目前，参与者只能从独立的第三方公司获得建议。（本领域最大的参与者：Ayco Co.，金融发动机，IBBotson Associates，Morningstar，Mpower和Scarborough集团。）目前的法规反映了无私缔约方的假设，没有财务股权在接受或拒绝任何特定的作品投资建议，将更好地满足计划参与者的利益。如果计划提供商还担任401（k）的货币经理，则共同安排，如果401（k）储蓄者，在提供者的建议上投资其资金，则提供更多投资管理费。

The Boehner bill would allow plan providers to offer such advice as long as they are authorized by plan sponsors to do so and -- this is key -- provided that they disclose any potential conflicts of interest. The bill's proponents argue that plan providers are best qualified to offer investment advice and that as long as potential conflicts are disclosed, a participant can make informed judgments.

"We haven't found a single advice provider who can offer online counseling, person-to-person help on the phone and education materials," says David Musto, senior vice president of Cigna Corp., which has alliances with Ayco and Financial Engines. Ayco's fee-based financial planners will offer advice to 401(k) plan participants on the phone and in person, while Financial Engines will advise Cigna's participants online. "With the Boehner bill we'd be able to integrate all these channels."

参议院的反对者一直很激烈。尽管条例草案中概述的披露，但“历史表明，如果有漏洞，有些人将使用它们，”北美副总裁的Glenn Melrose，北美人力资源副总裁，即amersham Biosciences，这是一个最近聘请独立的计划赞助商顾问通过其计划提供商。

For the moment, some 401(k) providers are forming new alliances with independent advice firms in an effort to offer more extensive advice to their participants without the blessing of the Boehner bill. In early October, for example, Merrill Lynch & Co., the sixth-largest defined contribution provider, with $68 billion in assets, announced a new advisory service, Merrill Lynch AdviceAccess, which will be offered by an independent firm, Ibbotson Associates, beginning in 2003. Plan participants can receive personalized advice based on their plan's investment options through a Merrill broker, from Merrill's call center or from the firm's Web site. In each venue the advice will be formulated by Ibbotson and will recommend specific weightings among the investment options a plan offers.

类似于其他401（k）提供商的美林的方法依赖于2001年的劳动咨询意见，该行业中已知为Sunamerica裁决，因为它遵循洛杉矶基于保险公司的要求。这是适用于整个行业的裁决，允许比以前允许的更详细的投资建议，只要它来自一个独立派对。此外，裁决让401（k）参与者指导独立顾问接管其退休账户的所有投资决策。最后，裁决允许计划提供商向其管理费用提出建议。

“我们的方法是在Sunamerica Ruling上建模的，”Merrill退休组首席运营官Mark Feuer解释说。仍然，Feuer补充道，Merrill赞同Boehner账单中提出的更改。“我们非常支持任何账单，即进一步提出建议业务并帮助人们实现投资目标，”他说。

在颁布新法律之前，Merrill-Ibbotson安排的更多联盟将塑造。

例如，9月，例如，梅尔罗斯和他的同事在Amersham Bioscience选择了为本公司5300万美元定义缴费计划的954名参与者提供的投资建议和教育。Amersham的员工，基于U.K.的生化公司Amersham，将获得Ayco的建议。

Morningstar的新咨询服务目标计划赞助商代替计划参与者，它刚刚被纽约生命投资管理所采用。MORNARSTAR长期以来，计划参与者的积极咨询业务，称为CLEXFUTURE的在线服务，计划提案国可以通过其计划提供商购买。但是，在与Nylim联盟中，晨星将帮助计划赞助者选择他们的资金，并将监测这​​些选择。

"This relationship is analogous to the SunAmerica template, except that the service is for sponsors, not participants," explains Barry Schub, a senior managing director of NYLIM. Morningstar becomes a co-fiduciary with the plan sponsor and also helps plan managers formulate the intellectual framework for their investment options -- the so-called investment policy statement.

SCHUB说：“对于定义的捐助计划参与者退休井，必须提供合适的资金来选择。之后你可以考虑获得他们所需的工具来帮助他们选择。”

The best tool, many in the retirement industry would add: solid, sensible advice, straight from the plan provider. But in the current climate, that seems a distant prospect.