Flexible Plan in tech alliance with New Frontier

FWR Staff

16 March 2007

Flexible to use New Frontier's approach with its newest portfolio strategy. Flexible Plan Investments, a provider of managed accounts to retirement-plan participants and investment risk-management services to individuals, will use New Frontier Advisors ' asset allocation methodology and portfolio optimization processes.

"New Frontier Advisors brings a patented solution to the inherent shortcomings of traditional asset allocation," says Jerry Wagner, founder and president of Flexible Plan Investments. "Its underlying premise is that the world of investing is filled with uncertainty and any attempt to truly diversify must account for this."

REO

New Frontier's portfolio optimization process uses statistical methodologies, designed by company founders Richard Michaud and his son Robert Michaud, to tackle the problems of uncertain risk and return estimates. Their re-sampled efficient optimization , which has been tested by Nobel laureate Harry Markowitz, manages risk and return without using the time-consuming constraints inherent in most traditional approaches.

Flexible Plan will initially use New Frontier's technology with its new Next Generation Asset Allocation strategy. The investment provider will eventually put New Frontier's REO approach to work in most of its strategies.

Bloomfield Hills, Mich.-based Flexible Plan managed about $890 million across approximately 24,000 accounts at the time of its latest ADV filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Boston-based New Frontier is an institutional research and investment advisory firm with a background in quantitative research, consulting and management.

Early in January 2007 Pleasant Hill, Calif.-based third-party mutual-fund wrap platform provider AssetMark Investment Services became the first firm to employ New Frontier's LifeCycle technology for advisors. Advisors working with AssetMark can use its Financial Independence Calculator to explore a range of "what-if" scenarios to determine appropriate risk levels and choice of portfolios for meeting an individual's short- and long-term investment goals. -FWR