Press Release
Alliance Benefit Group to Offer Morningstar ClearFuture Online Investment Advice
CHICAGO, IL, May 29, 2002 -- Morningstar Associates, LLC, a registered investment adviser and wholly owned subsidiary of Morningstar, Inc., today announced that Alliance Benefit Group has selected Morningstar Associates as its online retirement planning and advice provider. Alliance Benefit Group will make Morningstar® ClearFuture(SM) available to its client base of more than 700 plan sponsors and their 60,000 participants. Morningstar ClearFuture, an investment education, research, guidance, and online advice service, is currently available to about 19,000 corporate retirement plans throughout the United States -- more than any other advice provider.
Alliance Benefit Group will offer Morningstar ClearFuture retirement planning services to interested new and existing plan sponsors as an added feature through its retirement plan participant Web site and employee benefits portal at http://www.myabg.com . Participants in the retirement plans offered through Alliance Benefit Group will have access to specific investment recommendations provided by Morningstar Associates.
"We selected Morningstar as our online advice provider because of its reputation as the leader in independent investment analysis, as well as its commitment to providing the best online investment advice service in the industry, " said Brad Arends, chief executive officer of Alliance Benefit Group. "Market volatility and recent events, such as Enron and the ensuing 401k reforms, have made it more important than ever to provide a tool to assist participants in making the right investment choices in a completely independent fashion. Morningstar ClearFuture complements our own independent investment consulting services provided to our clients."
John Rekenthaler, president of online advice for Morningstar Associates, added, "Alliance Benefit Group has consistently put the needs of participants first and has focused on participant education and advice. Once again, they have proved their commitment by giving plan sponsors the opportunity to provide their retirement plan participants a sophisticated retirement planning tool."
Morningstar ClearFuture is an online investment education, research, guidance and advice service for all levels of investors. ClearFuture employs a goals-based methodology designed to allow participants to examine the relationships among long- and short-term risk, asset mix and retirement income. Based on detailed information input by the participant and on the investment options available in the participant's plan, ClearFuture can be used to provide either generalized asset allocation strategies or security- specific recommendations. ClearFuture offers personalized goal planning (taking into account the user's outside assets), retirement income analysis based on enhanced Monte Carlo simulation, and an innovative "bear market simulator" to test risk tolerance. ClearFuture is currently being made available to participants in defined contribution plans, such as 401k, 457(b) and thrift plans, and to investors with Individual Retirement Accounts (IRAs).
About Morningstar Associates, LLC
The Morningstar® ClearFuture(SM) retirement advice program is provided by Morningstar Associates, LLC, a registered investment adviser and a wholly owned subsidiary of Chicago-based Morningstar Inc., a global investment research firm. ClearFuture(SM) is the online advice solution for many leading investment firms, including T. Rowe Price, MassMutual, INVESCO, MFS Investment Management, Federated Investors, and Invesmart. The financial data and methodology used in ClearFuture are proprietary to Morningstar Inc., and/or Morningstar Associates, LLC.
About Alliance Benefit Group
Alliance Benefit Group is a compensation and benefits administration and consulting firm with 12 locations throughout the United States. Each location operates independently in order to provide the best local service to its entire customer base. Such a formula has proved to be successful as demonstrated by the AAA rating received from 401k Exchange. This rating recognizes Alliance Benefit Group as one of the top retirement plan providers in the industry.
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