"Bdellium has been an invaluable partner to Fiduciary Benchmarks and the development of our Retirement Readiness service. First, they continue to come up with innovative ideas using quantitative methods to solve complex problems. In addition, they work tirelessly to make sure those solutions are brought to the market as quickly as possible, with 100% quality assurance. Frankly, we could not have built this service without their help and their unique skill set."
Fiduciary Benchmarks (FBi) is the premier provider of benchmarking services that help plan sponsors meet their fiduciary obligation to determine if plan fees are reasonable. These services are offered primarily through partnerships with more than 400 advisors, consultants, record keepers and other plan service providers.
In 2009, after two years of internal development, Bdellium approached FBi with a proposal to partner in bringing to market a new quantitative rating system for defined contribution plans that would enhance and extend the Company’s existing benchmarking services. After further discussion the two companies jointly developed a strategic plan that is focused on helping retirement plan sponsors and their advisors understand what they can prudently do, within practical constraints, to help participants achieve a financially secure retirement.
Within 6 weeks of the companies deciding to work together FBi was able to launch the FBi Retirement Readiness Index using publicly available data and an innovative methodology to measure how well the average participant in more than 20,000 401(k) plans is preparing for a secure retirement. This free, public service was the first stage in a process to engage, encourage and empower plan sponsors and participants in addressing the serious challenge of helping workers achieve a secure and comfortable retirement.
The Retirement Readiness Index received industry and national media attention and provided FBi with multiple opportunities to engage in constructive discussions with potential partners and clients about this important topic. This dialogue in turn helped Bdellium and FBi to develop a powerful new analytical framework for understanding and managing retirement security risk that now supports a suite of new products and services.
This framework provides a simple, transparent and practical way for individuals to better understand and manage their retirement security risks and enables fiduciaries to optimize the design of defined contribution plans subject to budgetary and other policy constraints.
As a result of partnering with Bdellium FBi was able to:
- Launch a suite of valuable new services in a fraction of the normal time to market.
- Significantly reduce the time and cost of developing sophisticated new analytical software.
- Generate additional revenue from existing client and distributor relationships.
- Reduce commercial risk by diversifying its product and customer base.
- Enhance its reputation due to the timeliness, creativity and quality of the new services.