In its simplest terms, the Department of Labor’s fiduciary rule is really all about “the Mom Test,” says Rob Foregger.

The co-founder of NextCapital, a Chicago-based software provider of open-architecture, managed account platforms for 401(k) plans and individual wealth management advisors, acknowledges the complexity of DOL’s rule, and the fact that it will fundamentally change how the institutional and retail advisory industries operate going forward.

Read: 8 fiduciary rule FAQs for plan advisors

But that is not a bad thing, says Foregger, for investors or for industry.

“Ultimately, the rule is asking of advisors—is this the service you would provide your own mother,” says Foregger. “That’s the question that is shaking up the entire industry.”

The answer to that question can be found in technology, thinks Foregger, who was in “fin tech” long before the term was rooted in investment lexicon. Prior to teaming with NextCapital in 2013, he had a hand in building technology solutions for the financial advisory space for most of the past two decades.

While his background might certify him as a technologist, Foregger says NextCapital’s approach is less about being a disruptor, and more about being an enabler for advisors and 401(k) plan providers in the post DOL-rule world.

Read: On eve of fiduciary rule, Financial Engines sees opportunity

“The rule is going to fundamentally shift industry’s focus from product manufacturing to advice manufacturing,” said Foregger. “This is what the next 10 years in our industry is going to be all about.”

For advisors on both the institutional and retail level, the future should not be feared, he says. The hundreds of thousands of hours invested in engineering NextCapital’s platform were never intended to replace the potential intrinsic value in the human component of investment advice.

Rather, NextCapital’s technology was conceived to make fiduciary advisors “bionic,” says Foregger.

To get advisors there, NextCapital is wagering that managed accounts will be the vehicle to transition industry into the post DOL-rule realm.

The firm is of course not alone in that thinking. According to Cerulli, managed accounts held $188 billion in 401(k) assets at the end of 2015, with Financial Engines dominating 60 percent of the space.

That of course is merely a fraction of the assets in target-date funds, which is nearing $800 billion. Critics of managed accounts have included the Government Accountability Office, which in 2014 published a report questioning the cost and value proposition of many managed account offerings.

And they’ve included analysts such as Cerulli, which recently published a paper suggesting the core participant data used by managed accounts is not comprehensive enough to offer a truly tailored, holistic investment strategy for individuals.

Foregger does not necessarily disagree with either criticism, and says NextCapital’s platform represents the next evolution in managed accounts, in both the extent of specialized advice it offers and its cost to investors.

“Truly holistic advice has to involve more than just asset allocation,” says Foregger. “Much of what the DOL intended with its rule was to move the responsibility of managing individuals’ retirement outcomes back to investment professionals, as used to be the case with defined benefit plans.”

Like other managed account offerings, NextCapital’s platform uses core participant and investor data to create a target income in retirement—current age, salary, 401(k) balance, and projected retirement age.

But it goes further from there, including a Social Security calculator and the ability to onboard data from assets outside of qualified retirement plans, like taxable brokerage accounts, a spouse’s assets, savings and investments in bank accounts, or a child’s 529 plan. “It can even factor the value of your baseball card collection,” says Foregger.

That level of comprehensiveness is necessary to claim a truly holistic planning approach and is unique from any other managed account platform in the market, claims Foregger.

To compete going forward—and to stay in compliance with the DOL rule—all advice will have to be reasonably priced. Foregger says NextCapital’s platform is “competitive” with the cost of TDFs.

“We’re not about being derogatory to TDFs,” said Foregger. “The reason why they have been the dominant qualified default investment in 401(k) plans is because of their cost advantage—that’s why we developed a managed account solution to be highly competitive on price.”

The DOL rule’s impact is expected to be most consequential on the IRA rollover market. When the rule takes hold in April of 2017, any advisor recommending a rollover that results in an increase in fees will be subject to the Best Interest Contract Exemption. That will create a new onus on advisors to document why the rollover recommendation is serving an investor’s best interests.

Most ERISA experts and industry analysts have suggested that could be cataclysmic to the IRA market. Foregger is one of the few to go on record saying those predictions have been blown out of proportion.

“There are many reasons why a rollover will be in a participant’s best interest,” he said. “Investments in a plan lineup may be expensive. Participants may not be getting access to advice in-plan. Many won’t be getting holistic planning advice, and many plans are not set up accommodate a tailored distribution strategy.

“The rollover is not dead,” he added. “But pushing product through an IRA is.”

What’s more, by using NextCapital’s platform, advisors will have a way to document the delivery of comprehensive planning and service that will be necessary to recommending a rollover, says Foregger.

“The bottom line is that if you are selling a product for a living, that’s going to be a tough model going forward. But if you are selling good advice, that is going to be very consistent with the DOL rule,” he added.

Instant Insights /

How advisors can pass the Mom Test under DOL fiduciary rule

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