BeManaged Expands to Minneapolis/St. Paul Market

We are proud and excited to announce that we have expanded into the Minneapolis/St. Paul market, serving the great state of Minnesota. We look forward to serving the area with our unique, 1-on-1 401k participant advice solutions. The expansion was made final by the Vikings securing a stadium for the next 2+ decades. (joking) If…

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(Podcast) 401(k) Participant Advice Best Practices on Talk 401(k) with Don Davidson

I was fortunate enough to be interviewed by Don Davidson of Manarin Investment Counsel for his Talk 401(k) podcast. While Don does an excellent job with this, I cannot say the same for myself. Therefore, if you are willing to overlook my stammerings (I was surprisingly nervous), the information might be helpful to you. Some of the topics included in the conversation include:

What is the difference between advice and guidance?
What is the liability for employers to provide advice to their participants?
The PPA Level Fee requirement
Why advice needs to be ongoing
Advice v. managed accounts
Technology and its impact on participant engagement

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401(k) Investing, Diversification and Asset Allocation – In Plain English

The BeManaged Ingredients and Recipe Investment Analogy

Over the past number of years I have come to really enjoy cooking. It unknowingly led me to an analogy for investing that is simple to understand and better yet, visual. The analogy, consisting of ingredients and the underlying recipe, has helped hundreds of investors better understand what they can ‘control’ within their 401(k). Furthermore it helps investors understand confusing terms such as “diversification” and “asset allocation” and how they impact the ‘behavior’ of their portfolio.

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A Conversation on 401(k) Advice vs. Guidance – PPA Fiduciary Adviser v. The DoL 96-1 Opinion

When marketing our services to companies sponsoring 401(k) plans, we will often face confusion as to what is truly being offered to participants, guidance or advice. The reason being that the word advice has been used liberally by brokers, advisors, and service providers. Unfortunately, that will sometimes lead to companies assuming their participants are receiving the advice they need, rather than knowing what is actually taking place in those education meetings and any 1on1 interactions that follow. The guidance versus advice being so unclear, that the following is a mock conversation designed to educate plan sponsors and advisors as to what is and isn’t, should and shouldn’t, be taking place with participants so to protect the plan sponsor from fiduciary liability:

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What Was Actium is Now BeManaged (Finally)

Last year, we began the transition of moving from the name Actium to that of our flagship service, BeManaged. For many of you, you may have never noticed that our email was from @myactium.com, while we communicate ourselves as BeManaged. It just didn’t make a lot of sense why our participant clients knew us as BeManaged while companies and advisors knew us as Actium.

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BeManaged Cited in Congressional Testimony Regarding 401(k) Advice

Our friend Matthew Hutcheson, Independent Fiduciary, recently conducted testimony with the Congressional Ways and Means Committee. The goal of the testimony was to discuss the need for fiduciary best practices to continue to be reinforced with 401(k) plan sponsors as well as avoiding the potential conflicts of interest inherent to the broker dealer model.

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