Fiduciary Benchmarks to Offer Fee Benchmarking to UBS Advisers

This partnership will enable these advisers to use the Fiduciary Benchmarks service to provide fee benchmarking services to their clients.  

According to a news release, advisers in the DC Advisory program at UBS Financial Services Inc. can obtain a benchmarking report for their clients or prospects by simply having the plan sponsor sign a one page form authorizing the benchmarking study. Fiduciary Benchmarks will then work with the plan’s recordkeeper to ensure that the data used for the benchmarking service is up-to-date, accurate and consistent.  

Once the complete benchmarking report is received, BlackRock can help advisers better understand the report and highlight key opportunities to present to plan sponsors.  

The announcement noted that demand for fee benchmarking services has increased significantly since the release of the interim final 408(b)(2) regulation on July 16, 2010, requiring the disclosure of fees and services related to retirement plans and is slated to take effect January 1, 2012.  

“There is a clear progression from transparency to disclosure to reasonableness to value. The 408(b)(2) regulation addresses transparency and disclosure. Our strength is in helping advisers and their plan sponsors get to reasonableness and value” said Craig Rosenthal, Senior Vice President in charge of Advisor Sales and Service at FBI, in the announcement. “Reasonableness cannot be a fee-only discussion. Reasonableness can only be arrived at if you examine the support, services and success measures of your service providers. This is the value add service that FBI in partnership with BlackRock will be delivering to the UBS DC Advisory group.”