SunGard in new venture with rollover-tech provider

FWR Staff

21 February 2007

Authentication, add-ons for rollover providers' phone centers and websites. Two of SunGard 's units and rollover-service provider Wealth Management Systems Inc. have reached a marketing agreement to give WMSI and SunGard ProNvest users a broader array of professional advice and guidance services.

"Our agreements with SunGard's ProNvest and Signix will help drive new capabilities to the retirement sector," says Jude Metcalfe, CEO of Jacksonville, Fla.-based WMSI. "We can now jointly provide automated and bundled wealth management and transition services to and their plan participants."

Integration

Wayne, Pa.-based SunGard acquired ProNvest in 2006. The Chattanooga, Tenn.-based unit provides managed-account services, education, investment allocation advice and IRA rollover assistance to 401 and 403 participants. SunGard's Alpharetta, Ga-based Signix -- another 2006 acquisition -- is a digital-signature technology that allows online and call-center customers to be authenticated, and issued digital signing credentials.

The agreement will result in the integration of SunGard's advice, rollover-processing, and digital-signature applications into WMSI's rollover technology. Additional features include paperless document processing and connectivity from SunGard's record-keeping systems to individual retirement account product providers in WMSI's Rollover Solutions Network -- an electronic interface between employer-sponsored retirement plans and retail brokerage accounts.

"Plan participants on SunGard's recordkeeping systems can select professionally managed IRA services through a paperless rollover process using Signix," says Jay Jumper, president of SunGard's ProNvest and Signix business units. "In many cases, this is the same managed-account services they were provided within their company retirement plan."

The new rollover services will be available to SunGard's ProNvest and WMSI customers and can be provided online or through call centers. -FWR