Q: What changes are Fi360 making to Stable Value Fi360 Scores and factsheet availability?
A: Fi360 will be making the following changes effective with the March, 31, 2021 Investment Data release:
- Fi360 will provide access to our Stable Value Factsheets to all existing software users, for no additional charge.
- Fi360 will stop calculating Fi360 Fiduciary Scores and percentile ranks for the Stable Value investments coming through our Morningstar CIT and Group Annuity universes.
- Fi360 will purge all historical Fi360 Fiduciary Scores and percentile ranks for the Stable Value investments coming through our Morningstar CIT or Group Annuity universes.
- Fi360 will adjust all automated watch list triggers so that any Stable Value investment does not fail due to the missing Scores and percentile ranks.
Q: Why are the Fi360 Scores going away for Stable Value funds?
A: Feedback from Stable Value Industry Association members and leading advisors, combined with our own due diligence, made us conclude that Fi360 Scores are less applicable to Stable Value funds because some unique due diligence criteria for Stable Value funds, such as crediting rates, wrap providers, fund structure and flexibility, are not included in Fi360’s Score methodology.
Q: Will Fi360 create a new Fi360 Score for Stable Value funds?
A: We don’t have any immediate-term plans to develop a new Stable Value Score, but we may in the future. We’re continuing to evaluate how we can best support advisor due diligence of these, and other, investments.
Q: Why is the Fi360 Score applicable to other funds but not Stable Value?
A: Stable Value funds have unique characteristics relative to equity and other fixed-income funds. When the Fi360 Score was developed, it didn’t contemplate the nuances of Stable Value funds.
Q: Where do I get more information on Stable Value fund due diligence?
A: Fi360 released a white-paper on Stable Value due diligence you can access here. We’re holding a webinar in April (exact date TBA) on stable value due-diligence. We’ve added a page on our website focused on capital preservation fund (Stable Value and Money Market) due diligence.
Q: What software applications does this apply too?
A: The Stable Value Factsheets will be available in both the Fiduciary Focus Toolkit and FiRM. If you access Fi360 software through an enterprise relationship, you may need to check with your home office for availability.
Q: How can I access/download the new factsheets?
A: Depending on the software you use, follow the directions below. These features will evolve as we continue to enhance this area of our software.
- Fiduciary Focus Toolkit – Look for a new left menu item called ‘Stable Value Factsheets’ which will appear beneath ‘Lists’. You will be able to search for funds and download the factsheets.
- FiRM – Within Fund Search, change the ‘Fund Type’ dropdown to ‘Stable Value – FiRM’. Click to view results and you will be able to download the factsheets. You also can access the factsheets within a Plan by adding the unique Ticker Fi360 has assigned to each stable value fund (what you see in Fund Search). If that unique Ticker is entered into a Plan, the Fund Fact Report section will be replaced with the Fi360 Stable Value Factsheet automatically within your report.
Q: What Stable Value funds does Fi360 have coverage on?
A: Please see https://fi360.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/360057848813-Current-Stable-Value-Fund-List.
Q: Does Fi360 offer more due diligence or comparison tools on Stable Value Funds?
A: Yes. Fi360 offers a product, Stable Value Vision, which allows for custom scoring and side-by-side fund evaluations. See https://www.fi360.com/what-we-do/software-technology/fi360-stable-value-vision/ for more details.