Folio teams with record-keeping firm KTRADE ahead of DOL fiduciary rule

Folio Institutional, a robo-adviser for financial advisers, has partnered with KTRADE, a record-keeping firm that focuses on RIAs, to offer plan sponsors and advisers a way to manage conflicts of interest and defined contribution plan costs. The partnership comes only a week or so before the Department of Labor's fiduciary rule, which would require advisers to act in their clients' best interests for retirement accounts, is expected to be published. “Today, advisers and plan sponsors are facing critical issues that will impact their ability to act on behalf of plan participants, manage costs and grow their business,” Greg Vigrass, president of Folio Institutional, said in a statement. “Fiduciary duty, conflict management scrutiny and the growing number of retirees are just some of the pressures causing them to review their DC plan's administrative costs and investment products.” Starting immediately, advisers who use Folio will have access to fiduciary liability management services and can build portfolios with individual securities as opposed to mutual funds, exchange-traded funds or other bundled investment products. Advisers will be able to use Folio's Model Manager Exchange, which provides advisers with hundreds of third-party portfolio models, Folio(k), which creates plans with target-date funds and Unitization, which creates mixed portfolios and eliminates net asset value requirements. KTRADE works with the retirement industry and does not have restrictions on investment alternatives, which means advisers choose the products they want to offer their clients.