Managed Accounts

The retirement plan marketplace has revealed greater participant and plan sponsor demand for personalized management of qualified plan assets. Service providers have responded by expanding their managed account offerings, including the widespread development of "advisor managed accounts" or "AMAs," which allow a plan advisor to play a primary role in all aspects of the managed account service (and receive compensation for those services).

Managed account services implicate fiduciary responsibilities from multiple perspectives for multiple parties. Compliance with these responsibilities requires a combination of knowledge, negotiation, prudence at the time of selection, and ongoing prudent and diligent monitoring. All managed accounts are not created equally, but one needs insight to distinguish among the options and to perform the necessary ongoing due diligence.

Fiduciary Law Center's attorneys have extensive experience with all facets of managed accounts, beginning with more than a decade of drafting, reviewing, and negotiating governing documents and any related disclosures. We have also built and launched AMA services within an RIA on more than a dozen recordkeeping platforms, helped advisors to develop a framework for fulfilling related fiduciary responsibilities and memorializing their process, and developed strategies for rollout and implementation.

FLC’s team of attorneys have worked with the following aspects of managed account programs:

FLC has supported plan advisors and fiduciaries with respect to key fiduciary steps triggered by the offering of managed accounts, including: