NewRiver Aims to Make Fund Data Accessible to Retirement Plans
News summary by MFWire's editors
NewRiver is compiling fund prospectus data for a new data package targeted at retirement plan service providers. FundPOINT Retirement Focus Data will give providers access to mutual fund share class eligibility restrictions, sales loads and expenses, market timing rules, redemption fees and waivers, and revenue sharing opportunities. The data will be used by the providers to select funds.
Company Press Release
NEWRIVER DELIVERS FUNDPOINT RETIREMENT FOCUS DATA: ENABLES RETIREMENT SERVICE PROVIDERS TO IMPROVE TRANSACTION QUALITY
2008 SPARK National Conference, Washington, DC, June 9, 2008 – NewRiver, Inc. - creators of the leading central repository of mutual fund documents and data for financial services firms - today announced the availability of FundPOINT® Retirement Focus Data, a new prospectus-sourced data package for retirement plan service providers. FundPOINT Data, the only solution to source mutual fund data from Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filings on EDGAR, now offers “Retirement Focus” data elements that transform the vital yet unwieldy content of prospectuses into actionable information to drive critical retirement plan servicing processes. Mutual fund share class eligibility restrictions, sales loads and expenses, market timing rules, redemption fees and waivers, and revenue sharing opportunities are just some of the important elements captured on a daily basis for the entire universe of open-end mutual funds. NewRiver’s new retirement data product will enable record keepers, trust banks, administrators, consultants, Registered Investment Advisors (RIAs) and broker-dealers to offer superior fund selection, investment monitoring, plan disclosures, and transaction processing. The announcement was made at the annual conference of the Society of Professional Asset-Managers and Record Keepers (SPARK) in Washington, DC.
Mutual funds are the foundation of today’s retirement investing landscape, comprising 55% of all defined contribution plan assets. A closely scrutinized segment of the financial services industry, retirement plan service providers can expect to be held to a high standard for transparency with respect to plan costs. For those intermediaries wanting to improve the quality of their disclosures and reporting, NewRiver’s Retirement Focus Data product offers the assurance of fund expense data, sales loads and waivers, redemption fees and service provider fees that are sourced from, and traceable to, the most current fund filings in EDGAR. “Government Accounting Office reports estimate that investment management fees comprise 85% to 99% of all plan costs depending on plan size,” said Len Driscoll, VP of Product Marketing at NewRiver. “Stale or inaccurate data can contaminate efforts to select and monitor appropriate investment alternatives – further driving up plan costs.”
Revenue sharing opportunities represent another key piece of the information puzzle that NewRiver solves via extraction of finder’s fees, 12b-1 amounts and dealer concessions for each share class of each fund – a degree of granularity necessary to capture the unique pricing of today’s retirement specific share classes. And NewRiver’s share class eligibility rules provide instant insight on approved usage of these shares for various types of employer–sponsored and individual retirement plans.
Further enhancing the value-add available to retirement plan service providers is the component of NewRiver’s Retirement Focus product providing fund management experience and tenure, comparative indexes, prospectus-based fund performance, service providers, and fund announcements regarding mergers, closings and liquidations.
“Retirement plan providers are in need of tools to help make fund selection and fee disclosure less burdensome,” said Russ Planitzer, President and CEO of NewRiver. “NewRiver has been delivering updated fund data directly from SEC EDGAR filings for more than six years, including funds geared specifically to retirement plans. With the rapid growth of the retirement market, 401(k) providers are under increasing pressure to meet their fiduciary responsibilities by offering better fund selection and monitoring. Our FundPOINT Retirement Focus Data package will enable them to deliver the level of service the market demands.”
About FundPOINT Data:
FundPOINT® Data is the only data solution to source mutual fund data from SEC filings on EDGAR, offering close to 350 individual data elements, including sales loads and Net Asset Value (NAV) waivers; share class maximums and investment minimums; 22c-2 frequent trading (e.g., market timing) rules, fees, and waivers; family and account linking rules; fund fees and expenses; Rights of Accumulation (ROA)options; Letter of Intent (LOI) options; and fund management and governance. FundPOINT Data is the only data-feed solution that accurately reflects the most recent SEC filings, making our data Compliance GradeSM.
About NewRiver, Inc.
NewRiver develops innovative technology solutions that help financial leaders simplify investor disclosure - providing transparency and cost savings to the delivery of fund data and investor communications. Since 1995, the company has helped some of the world's leading financial organizations move from paper to electronic disclosure via an easy to use, cost-effective, managed service offering. NewRiver pioneered the first electronic prospectus, and is the only company to guarantee its data to be "compliance grade" which allows customers to reduce risk, lower compliance costs and increase revenues. Through a patent-pending, automated process NewRiver efficiently monitors 6.5 million data points from over 23,500 fund CUSIPs. Further, the company's unique "paperless" approach improves the investor experience while offering a real alternative to the environmental impact of paper-only delivery. Relied on daily by over 100 leading financial services firms, and millions of investors, NewRiver is a trusted and growing solution provider facilitating the transition from paper-based mutual fund information, to electronic. To learn more, please visit our website www.newriver.com or call 978-247-7200.
If you would rather not receive future email messages from Newriver, let us know by clicking here.
Newriver, 200 Brickstone Square, Andover, MA 01810-1429 United States