|
 Industry
Insight from Fred Barstein
2007 Micro Market
Top Rated Remains Stable
UNLIKE
THE SMALL
market 2007 ratings ($1-$10 million), the micro market (<$1
million) top-rated providers for the 2007 401kExchange
Ratings and Market Share Report only included a few new
vendors. Ascensus (BISYS), MassMutual and Lincoln were the
well known newcomers which also included UNIFI for the fund
services and a few TPAs on the administration and
record-keeping side of the business. First Mercantile
grabbed top honors for fund services; American Funds,
MassMutual, CUNA, Hartford and Standard scored well for both
investments and record-keeping services.
Overall,
ratings dropped 17%. Micro-market sponsors had the lowest
level of satisfaction when rating investment services than
any other market segment. Arguably, these sponsors have the
highest costs, worst service and most limited investment
menu but, in the past, they were unaware of their
deficiencies or did not care. Perhaps smaller plans are now
ripe for lower cost plans which have more flexible
investment options.
|
Fund Services 2007 |
# of |
% Rated |
2006 |
|
Surveys |
4 or 5 |
Ranking |
|
1 |
First Mercantile Trust |
56 |
67.86% |
2 |
|
2 |
American Funds |
675 |
67.70% |
6 |
|
3 |
CUNA Mutual Life |
65 |
67.69% |
1 |
|
4 |
Hartford Life |
504 |
62.70% |
5 |
|
5 |
Standard Insurance Co |
120 |
61.67% |
4 |
|
6 |
John Hancock |
1,628 |
61.61% |
9 |
|
7 |
MassMutual |
182 |
61.54% |
|
|
8 |
BISYS (Ascensus) |
122 |
61.48% |
|
|
9 |
Securian |
121 |
61.16% |
8 |
|
10 |
UNIFI Companies |
87 |
60.92% |
|
|
|
Market Total |
14,934 |
56.56% |
|
|
Plan Administrator/ Record Keeper 2007 |
# of |
% Rated |
2006 |
|
Surveys |
4 or 5 |
Ranking |
|
1 |
American Funds |
214 |
74.30% |
8 |
|
2 |
TPA Associates Inc |
48 |
70.83% |
|
|
3 |
Angell Pension Group |
58 |
68.97% |
4 |
|
4 |
Securian |
105 |
68.57% |
5 |
|
5 |
Lincoln National Life Insurance |
209 |
67.94% |
|
|
6 |
Nicholas Hicks Inc |
55 |
67.27% |
|
|
7 |
CUNA Mutual Life |
61 |
67.21% |
2 |
|
8 |
MassMutual |
103 |
66.02% |
|
|
9 |
Hartford Life |
373 |
65.95% |
10 |
|
10 |
Standard Insurance Co |
114 |
65.79% |
3 |
|
|
Market Total |
14,776 |
61.55% |
|
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