Daily Val software search

[AndrewZ]

I'm searching for daily val software, and would greatly appreciate any input/advice from anyone who has experience with the software vendors and NSCC clearing agents.

I'm currently looking at ASC, InvestLink, and Trustmark. I don't know of any others, except Quantech. We do complex nondiscrimination testing, and I know InvestLink & Trustmark are weak in this.

Thanks.

[Guest tamvol]

I am a current Investlink user. We run daily valuation, internet access and full service compliance and administration on the system. I searched systems for over 6 months and don't think I could find anything better than Investlink.

The most important thing about Investlink is that they are constantly upgrading the system and listening to users about the system instead of making changes that internally they believe is needed.

[Guest sbohman]

Please let me start by stating - I am very passionate about the importance that the role software plays to the efficiency in an industry that is generally low-margin. On that note - Investlink!

I have used ASC for 4 years and have have nothing nice to say about the recordkeeping side. It is antiquated "covered up" dos, quirky and not at all user friendly. The compliance is not without its flaws. With ASC you can take nothing for granted that a test is correct - it all has to be double checked and subsequently "tweaked".

I also used Trustmark for 3 years prior to moving to ASC. Trustmark was great for recordkeeping, non existent for compliance.

Our company is now on Investlink and we love it! The recordkeeping side is fully automated, efficient and very user friendly. They are constantly adding new features that make a system I had no complaints about even better. On that note the most recent compliance release is excellent and we are all very pleased. I think of Investlink as our competitive advantage.

And finally - we all know Quantech never worked. Our shop had that system for about 10 mos until we boxed it up and sent it back. I hope this helps!

[Erik Read]

How much do you want to spend? Best I've seen for daily recordkeeping with the NSCC is OmniPlus or OmniPlan - both similar to Trustmark and Quantech in the way they operate - however they are very $$$.

Quantech - has it's pro's and con's - so does Trustmark(now Schwab RT systems - not sure you want the name Schwab on software in your shop).

Complex calculations - I'd look at the ease of being able to "make" the software match numbers that your actuary may come up with. That's one thing I think get's over looked. Most products use different algorithms to calculate benefits, being able to make your software match someone's actual computation is a big plus in my book.

Good luck - let us know what you choose.

[Guest tamvol]

I think that would be correct if you were working with Defined Benefit Plans, not for Defined Contribution plans. The Investlink system is going to calculate all those things for you.

[Guest pensionadmin]

We are currently using Investlink. I'm not in the daily processing area so I can't speak to that in Investlink, but as far as the compliance, we have not been happy. We spent a lot of time earlier this year trying to do 12/31/00 compliance testing but then had to scrap it and import all employee data to our old admin system and then do the ADP/ACP, top heavy, coverage, etc. in that system. The compliance module just wasn't ready to be used. Also, we could not get the eligibility determination to work in Investlink. Other users told us they didn't use Investlink for compliance or eligibility; they did everything on spreadsheets.

Investlink did an update at 9/30 that must have worked wonders according to Sbohman and Tamval's messages! I hope they're right!

One other point with Investlink. It's true that they do respond to user requests but sometimes that means a subsequent request will "override" a change they've made for another user in the past! :confused:

[Guest SteveR]

We too are in the quest for new daily software. Having worked with both TrustMark and InvestLink, we continue to explore the possibility that functional daily software exists without unexceptable trade offs.

TrustMark, while generally reliable for daily recordkeeping, was highly process intensive and tended toward compartmentalizing of activities. Also, the $/user pricing structure caused us to limit users and therefore general access to the information on the system. Never did figure out the compliance module.

I found InvestLink to be much more user friendly and intuitive for daily recordkeeping. The pricing structure allowed the entire office access to the system so we were able to redefine administrative processes and create some efficiencies there. However, InvestLink is still a young program and while the company tends to be co-operative in issue resolution and upgrades, they really need to be. My pet pieve is the loan module and the problems with multi-source loans getting paid back to the original source. Also, my initial foray into the compliance module was not good. Could have been a user issue though.

Currently, we are looking at Relius (Quantech). Is this the panacea? Our sales guy assures us it will do every thing we want and even make the coffee in the morning.

[AndrewZ]

SteveR, thanks for your input regarding InvestLink - it helps confirm my impressions.

As far as Quantech, I've heard from many sources that its daily val system is problematic, and that it's really an enhanced balance-forward system, not a true daily val system. (I think one of the resulting issues is that you cannot easily make retroactive changes, as it rolls forward to a new period and closes the old one.) Additionally, I used Quantech's regular valuation system for a couple years, and I was very unsatisfied it due to some system design issues, and poor customer support. Also, I don't think it handles self-employed calcs or solves for optimal cross-testing results. However, it was pretty good at 401(a)(4) and ADP testing (except when a program update screwed up the ADP testing). Please email me if you would like additional information.

[Guest tamvol]

Andrew,

I made a reply initially to you. I will say, if you are interested in the NSCC clearing, that we have had nothing but good success with the Investlink system. They have created links with multiple custodians and are willing to make one for you if it is not there. The reconciliation of daily trading is very efficient.

We have been working on testing for off calendar year plans and I am very pleased with the compliance module. I have checked the work, and I have not noticed any problems. I agree there were some issues before on their compliance, but they have worked really hard at making it work.

[AndrewZ]

TamVol,

Thanks very much to you, and everyone else, for your input. It's been very helpful.

InvestLink sounds promising - I'll have to check out their new compliance module. Last time I talked to them they knew that we required it, and seemed to be taking it seriously.

I have the impression that the reports available for the TPA to send to its clients are lacking, in functionality and design. Do you have any input on this also?

Thanks.

Andrew

[Guest tamvol]

You are correct in there is not a lot of flexibility on the statments. With that said, they are releasing a new version in SQL. It is currently in Foxpro. The new version, I believe will be ready by the end of this month or end of the year. I cannot remember which. This will allow us to use Crystal to make our statements and reports. This should clear that up.

[Guest John Sample]

Would anyone replying to this thread be a FDP or a past FDP user? With Corbel buying FDP, we are getting ready to jump into Quantech - because our FDP purchase is credited towards Quantech. We have not seriously looked at other systems due to the initial cash outlay, and Quantech will also "convert" our FDP plans onto their system.

The hardware specs that Quantech requires are very powerful, and only one of our current 11 computers meets them. Also you need dedicated servers for the recordkeeping system, voice and internet systems. I also hear that the system has so many versions and that new releases sometimes remove things that worked on prior versions.

Maybe I am just resisting change, but when you are changing recordkeeping systems, how are you converting all of your existing plan data onto the new system? This to me is the main reason why we will go onto Quantech.

This is an interesting thread. Thanks.

[AndrewZ]

John Sample,

See my earlier post about Quantech - esp. if you intend on using it for daily val. It does require expensive hardware (I think you can use one server for both files and data, even though they prefer separate servers). I had problems with updates changing the ADP testing and loan module. Also, Corbel was unresponsive to some other problems we had.

As far as conversion, InvestLink's startup costs include converting all your plans for you, though I don't know if they can transfer it from your current system directly, or if you have to export data to ASCII files first.

I went through conversion from Corbel's Pentabs to Quantech, and even though they had a utility, there was still of lot of manual cleanup work to do.

[Guest SteveR]

Adding on to AndrewZ's comments, in working on plan conversions from TrustMark to InvestLink, we found InvestLink very agreeable to importing the conversion data into InvestLink.

However, the hard part was getting the data out of TrustMark and scrubbing the data before creating the files InvestLink was willing to do their import with. Still, a helping hand can have its value.