Advisor Group Launches ERS-Powered Retirement Plan Central, a Comprehensive Practice Management Platform for Retirement Advisors

PHOENIX, March 6, 2018

Advisor Group's Retirement Plan Central, supported by ERS's Practice Advantage™, provides retirement advisors with the investment tools, workflow solutions and powerful analytics that represent essential drivers of a sustainable retirement plan business in today's increasingly regulated environment. It features a client relationship management (CRM) solution, advisor management dashboard, investment analytics, fund research and monitoring reports, as well as request for proposal (RFP) and vendor search tools. Additionally, it offers a compliance tool as well as access to a secure online vault that stores important client documents and meeting notes.

"Remaining competitive in today's retirement advisor landscape is becoming increasingly difficult as consumer demand increases, and we see more advisors enter the space," said Jamie Price, president and CEO of Advisor Group. "As Advisor Group continues to build out its suite of practice management resources, we are launching Retirement Plan Central with Envestnet | Retirement Solutions to equip advisors with the tools needed to provide customized, best-in-class retirement advice that is unburdened by back-office strain."

Advisor Group's new retirement practice management platform, supported by ERS's Practice Advantage™, is expected to address a number of critical needs for 401(k) advisors in the independent space, with features such as:

• Client Dashboard and Integrated CRM: A comprehensive dashboard with an easy-to-use interface enables advisors to view their entire book of business in one, consolidated line of sight and manage it accordingly. Powered by an integrated client CRM, the dashboard keeps client records up-to-date, organized and easily accessible.

• Secure Document Vault: The client document vault stores important information such as retirement plan documents, performance reports, tax reports, estate planning documents, personal client information, meeting notes, and more. The vault offers a secure environment, is easily accessible by the advisor and the client and ensures a streamlined process for compliance-auditing and document retention.

• Plan Provider RFP Search Tool: The RFP search tool helps advisors document their retirement plan provider search process from start to finish. This is especially useful for meeting increased record-keeping requirements.

"In recent years, increased regulation and the heightened cost of doing business has driven many of the large wealth management firms away from supporting committed retirement advisors," said Allison Couch Pratt, executive vice president of national sales at Advisor Group. "We're doing just the opposite – we're investing even more time and resources to help advisors remain competitive and grow their businesses in a cost-effective way. With access to Retirement Plan Central, comprehensive sales support, a robust education curriculum and a dedicated team of home office support, we're confident that many of our 401(k) advisors will benefit from having a dedicated partner in their corner."

"Our 'Signature Service' agreement with Advisor Group will provide their advisors with our fully integrated platform and full reporting package," said Babu Sivadasan, group president of Envestnet | Retirement Solutions. "Our innovative technology will help Advisor Group's advisors by providing them with a high level of transparency into their books of business, while also offering the compelling reporting and analytics tools that they need to successfully adapt to rapid regulatory changes."