Enhancements to Financial Planning Looking for opportunities to expand your practice? Recent enhancements to our Financial Planning program offer a new convenient solution for you and your clients.
Financial Planners provide a written financial plan to a client for a fee. Previously, the plan was updated and re-signed annually, with the plan fee being paid annually. However, as outlined in Field Notice 2022-27, new enhancements allow financial planning clients to elect to pay for services on a monthly payment plan, via credit card or ACH, through AdvicePay. (Note that monthly payments are not available for financial consulting services.)
Not only does this new option provide more flexibility for clients, it also streamlines the annual planning updates and diversifies your revenue stream.
Learn more about the new enhancements to Financial Planning, including updated requirements/process, AdvicePay process and cost, and operational details.
Review Field Notice 2022-27, for a detailed explanation of the enhancements and changes to the process and requirements.
Click here for a recorded introduction to the recent enhancements in the Financial Planning process including the business opportunity and operational updates.
Click here for the updated Financial Planning Client Agreement.
Please note that the ADV Part 2A has been updated.
Coming Soon: Updated Financial Planning & Consulting Process brochure
Questions? Questions regarding the annual update process or AdvicePay may be directed to Business Development. Operational questions may be directed to the Suitability Review Team. Call 800-344-7437 and follow the prompts to reach the desired party.
Envestnet PMC’s Q3 222 Commentary for Flagship Portfolios is available on the ESI Illuminations site. Click on the Platform tab. You’ll find it under the Envestnet PMC dropdown under Strategist Materials.
Please join Ata Azarshahi and ESI’s Sr. Leadership Team for our Quarterly Field Update series. In this session, we’ll be reviewing the activities, results, and market impact of Q3, while providing insight into what lies ahead through Q4 and beyond.
As always, we want to take this opportunity to hear from you and answer any questions you may have for ESI’s Leadership Team. Please help us plan the meeting by submitting your questions to ESIBusinessDevelopment@nationallife.com. The deadline for submissions will be Thursday, November 3rd.
Operations Reporting Updates: RMD’s and Annual Retirement Account Fees
Historically, ESI Operations has leveraged the automated Wealthscape reporting delivery system to send reports on RMD’s and Annual Retirement Account Fees during Q4. Currently, we are unable to utilize this tool to push these reports automatically via email. National Financial Services has been researching the issue for a few weeks and we do not have a current ETA on a resolution.
Luckily, these reports can be ran on an ad-hoc basis via Wealthscape (Reports & Alerts -> Reports). You can search by Report name and click on the drop-down arrow to view the data. The reports are titled “RMD”, and “Retirement Account Annual Fees with Core Cash Balance”.
The “RMD” Report displays all of your client’s with an RMD requirement for a given account. The “Estimated RMD Amount Remaining” Column can be utilized to determine the population of accounts that haven’t yet satisfied their RMD. Some clients may had a Periodic Plan set up for their RMD, and these amounts that haven’t yet been distributed will show in the “Estimated Remaining Periodic Pymt Amnt” column.
The “Retirement Account Annual Fees with Core Cash Balance” report was created by ESI to assist you in identifying client accounts that are subject to the $40.00 annual IRA fee, and currently have insufficient cash to cover. These accounts may require your action to avoid ESI Home Office placing a trade in January, and charging the rep of record $25.00 per trade for the service.
These reports can be customized and filtered in any manner that will assist you in tackling these Operational items. Once you modify a report with your preferences, you can “save as” and it will be saved in your reports for future use. If you have any questions on the reports and the underlying Operational initiatives, please contact our service desk at 1-800-344-7437.
Alternative Mutual Fund Lists Updated for Q3 2022
Approved and Prohibited Alternative Mutual Funds The purchase of Alternative Mutual Funds that include inverse and leveraged strategies is not permitted. To assist with what funds may be purchased, there is an Alternative Mutual Fund Available List and a Watch List which is updated quarterly and may be found on the Agent Portal à Products à Investments à Mutual Funds.
The Approved List is a list of approved alternative mutual funds that may be purchased (once training has been completed).
The Watch List is the list of alternative mutual funds that the Firm is watching to determine if they may become prohibited in the future due to failing consecutive screens, (two consecutive quarters). If you recommend purchases on the list, please be aware that they may no longer be approved to purchase in the future.
The Restricted List is the list of prohibited alternative mutual funds.
BROKERAGE: If an attempt to purchase is ma de in a brokerage account, the purchase will be blocked.
DIRECT: If purchased in a direct, mutual fund, you will be contacted by Compliance after to work with your client to have any new investments directed to a non-alternative mutual fund or to one of the approved alternative mutual funds.
REMOVED FROM APPROVED LIST:If a fund is removed from the Available list (brokerage or direct), Compliance will contact you to let you know that the fund is no longer available for purchase and to work with your client to have any new investments directed to a non-alternative mutual fund or to one of the approved alternative mutual funds.
All three lists can be found on the NL Agent Portal under Products – Investments – Mutual Funds.
Training Prior to purchasing approved alternative mutual funds, you must first complete required training in FIRE Solutions. The training may be accessed through FIRE Solutions: https://blaze.firesolutions.com/portal/login. The cost is $12.50. Once you have completed the course, please email your completion certificate to ESITrading@NationalLife.com and this training will be added to your profile.
