Separate Account Fund Universe Update
What is going to change?
As you may be aware, Center for Fiduciary Management (CFFM) has received and imported investment data feeds from a number of Separate Account Providers directly for many years. This was originally done based on a lack of data available to the industry on Separate Account products through Morningstar’s databases.
Over the last few years, Morningstar has made significant progress in establishing data feeds with many Separate Account Providers. In order to offer a more uniform investment database, we will perform a mass conversion to utilize Morningstar provided Separate Account investments. For Plans in your FirmPlus / FiRM CMX account, we will substitute direct Separate Account Provider investments with the Morningstar version of the fund (where we have a confirmed match). This will impact any of your clients that have direct Separate Account Provider investments entered in their fund lineup.
Over the last few years, Morningstar has made significant progress in establishing data feeds with many Separate Account Providers. In order to offer a more uniform investment database, we will perform a mass conversion to utilize Morningstar provided Separate Account investments. For Plans in your FirmPlus / FiRM CMX account, we will substitute direct Separate Account Provider investments with the Morningstar version of the fund (where we have a confirmed match). This will impact any of your clients that have direct Separate Account Provider investments entered in their fund lineup.
How does this benefit me?
The switch to the usage of Morningstar supplied Separate Account investment data provides a handful of benefits. Investment data will arrive sooner in the quarter and more investment data-points will be available for some Separate Account Providers. Additionally searching for investments in FirmPlus / FiRM CMX will be more streamlined as we are consolidating our “Separate Accounts” and “Annuities” universes into one “Separate Accounts” fund universe.
Will this impact Plan data I have already entered?
All saved investment assets will be retained for all funds. Additionally, if you are using our Provider Product filters, those are being updated to utilize the Morningstar versions of investments as well but will retain the provider direct versions of any funds we do not have a confirmed match for. You may also see for some investments a fund name change along with a Fund Ticker / ID change.
When will this conversion take place?
This conversion is scheduled to run just before the 9/30 data launch on 10/14/17 and will be completed without any action being taken by you.
What if I have questions?
Please let us know if you have any questions or concerns about this process, the impact on your Plan data, or anything else related to the FirmPlus / FiRM CMX toolsets. Our Support Team can be contacted by emailing Fi360Support@broadridge.com or by calling 844-394-9960.