Online Provider Signs On Two More Private Label Partners

401kWire.com -- February 29, 2008 -- ePlan Services is tying down additional distribution for its micro-market recordkeeping product. Mark Gutrich, president and CEO of the Denver-based firm, revealed two new private label products targeted to Investment Advisors International and the Institute for Wealth Management.

Atlanta-based IAI, the RIA piece of Aegon-subsidiary World Financial Group, boasts more than 500 series 65 reps authorized to do fee-based work in 33 states, and Randy Powell wanted them to have a 401(k) product to distribute, specifically a product with strong investment management.

"We wanted to bring to the American public the concept of professional money management," Powell, vice president and chief of marketing at IAI, told The 401kWire. "We wanted somebody actively managing those investments and we wanted it on a default basis."

True to that vision, ePlan serves RIA for the IAI401(k)Plan.com product, which includes the recordkeeper's traditional lineup, plus SMAs from CLS, FlexPlan, the Institute for Wealth Management and Manning & Napier.

Pointing to ePlan's "transparent fee basis" work, "with full, open disclosures." Powell confided that he sees the provider as "a good fit" and hopes to use the product to move up-market. IAI has already signed nearly half a dozen plans with the new product.

"They can do startups all the way up. We can certainly handle very, very large plans," Powell said. "This definitely puts us into a larger market than a traditional, annuity-based 401(k) plan."

For his part, Institute for Wealth Management president Matt Medeiros also cited ePlan's transparency and pricing as part of the draw, calling the new IWM401(k).com product a "fee-only, low-fee opportunity for 401(k) plans."

"Most participants' retirement dollars will come from whatever they accumulate in their 401(k) plans, so we wanted to make it as low-cost and efficient as possible," Medeiros told The 401kWire. "We are very, very committed to the space."

Medeiros confirmed that IWM401(k).com includes an asset allocation option, a fund screening tool that automatically compares investments with the investment policy statement, and a quarterly monitoring tool for comparing mutual funds with their own prospectuses. (IWM partners with Lipper for both tools.)

With the new product, Medeiros aims to reach plans with $3 million to $30 million in assets

IWM is an RIA manager-of-managers that hires and monitors asset allocation managers and distributes through administrators and B-Ds. The Denver-based firm manages $143 million in assets.