CitiStreet Enhances Service for Managed Accounts
QUINCY, MA, Septenber 19, 2007 -- CitiStreet is rolling out an enhanced managed account service that offers, among other features, ongoing account monitoring and management, expanded personal evaluation statements and an online site exclusively for participants who enroll in the managed account service, it was announced today.
"Managed accounts are the desired option for millions of retirement plan participants who desire to have a professional investment manager monitor and manage their retirement plan account for them as they themselves have neither the inclination nor the expertise to properly stay on top of and manage their own investments. Those numbers are only growing with the move away from defined benefit plans and as defined contribution plans grow in importance with features such as automatic enrollment," said Ray Martin, president and CEO of CitiStreet Advisors, LLC.
Martin said keys to CitiStreet's enhanced Professional Account Manager are ongoing and periodic monitoring of accounts where, if improvements can be gained, then changes are made and participants are kept informed every step of the way. Additionally, there is the ability to have the account management consider other retirement investment accounts, as well as the ability to integrate other sources of retirement income such as pensions.
Working with Financial Engines, the independent investment expert whose computer models drive the program, CitiStreet has already rolled out the expanded product to some of its large institutional clients and will continue to do so for all advice customers in the coming months. CitiStreet recently held a Webcast to inform customers of the service enhancements.
The enhanced managed account platform also offers plan sponsors some new reporting tools designed to assist them in meeting their fiduciary monitoring responsibilities set forth in the Pension Protection Act.
Related enhancements for all participants include a personal evaluation statement that offers personalized forecasts, evaluation of risk, diversification, contribution rate and company stock, and recommended investment elections. The personal evaluation can be used as a tool to accept and enroll into the managed accounts program.
For those who want to continue to manage their own savings, the Personal Online Advisor provides side-by-side comparisons of current investments as compared to advised recommendations with forecasts of estimated results for both scenarios.
"We are making these enhancements at a time when both the need for assistance in accumulating assets and in distributing them in retirement has grown significantly," said Martin.
As evidence of the need for advisory help, Financial Engines reported in May that of the $10 billion in assets it manages, 85 percent was originally invested in portfolios that were either at an inappropriate risk level or poorly diversified before enrollment in managed accounts.
Martin said sponsors and participants are realizing they now need what CitiStreet calls Direction-for-Life , that is, full retirement services extending from the earliest days of employment into retirement.
About CitiStreet
CitiStreet, one of the largest global benefits delivery firms in the United States, is headquartered in Quincy, Mass. CitiStreet has 3,000 employees at offices in Somerset, N.J., Jacksonville, Fla., Lewiston, Maine, Boston and field offices around the nation. It also has a division, CitiStreet Australia, with offices in Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne. CitiStreet serves more than 11 million participants and administers more than $220 billion in assets in the United States for defined contribution, defined benefit and health and welfare plans of corporate, government, health care, Taft-Hartley and not-for-profit organizations. It also serves more than 1 million participants and administers about $15 billion in assets outside the United States. CitiStreet is a 50/50 joint venture between State Street Corp. (NYSE:STT) and Citigroup (NYSE:C). For more CitiStreet information, visit the Web site at www.citistreetonline.com.
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