SAN DIEGO, CA — (Marketwired) — 09/11/13 — (), a leading provider of independent financial information and investment research, and (), a global leader in investment performance measurement products and services, today jointly announced the release of the final draft of the white paper, “Universal Advisory Performance Standards,” and the opening of a public comment period for industry input. The free white paper, which highlights the need for an industry consensus performance standard for financial advisors, can be downloaded at .
“After more than a year of meetings with our advisory board, we are ready to release the paper for public comment,” said David Spaulding, Founder and CEO of The Spaulding Group, Inc. “We are grateful for the assistance our board members have provided. UAPS provides -best practices- for both client and prospect reporting of performance and risk.”
“Our belief still remains strong that every financial advisor will want to and should need to disclose the performance of their investment selections on behalf of clients,” said Mike Alfred, the CEO and co-founder of BrightScope. “We are expecting to continue to see a positive response to this initiative now that we-re soliciting feedback from the advisor community. UAPS is a standard that should be achievable by all investors.”
The comment period will last until October 18, 2013. Comments should be e-mailed to . Comments may be sent anonymously. The UAPS Executive Board is currently exploring options for moving forward with the new standards, including transferring responsibility to a third-party.
BrightScope is a financial information company that brings transparency to opaque markets through independent research and analysis. Delivered through web-based software, BrightScope data drives better decision-making for individual investors, corporate plan sponsors, asset managers, broker-dealers, and financial advisors. The BrightScope Rating, developed in partnership with leading independent 401k fiduciaries, reviews more than 200 unique data inputs per plan and calculates a single numerical score which defines plan quality at the company level. In April 2011, the company launched BrightScope Advisor Pages, the first comprehensive and publicly available directory of financial advisors designed to help consumers discover information and conduct due diligence on wealth management professionals. BrightScope also markets a suite of data analytics software products to Fortune 1000 companies, asset managers, broker-dealers, financial advisors, and other market participants. Public ratings for nearly 50,000 retirement plans as well as rating definitions, criteria and methodologies, and information on nearly 600,000 financial advisors and nearly 40,000 advisory firms are available for free at .
With offices in the New York City and Los Angeles metropolitan areas, as well as London, The Spaulding Group, Inc. is the leader in investment performance measurement products and services. TSG provides consulting along with GIPS® and non-GIPS verification services; offers a unique Software Certification service; publishes The Journal of Performance Measurement®, a quarterly publication launched in 1996; and hosts the Performance Measurement Forum. The firm also sponsors the annual Performance Measurement, Attribution and Risk (PMAR) conference and PMAR Europe, which have come to be recognized as the leading performance measurement conferences in the industry. TSG-s Institute of Performance Measurement offers performance measurement training, including a fundamental-s course on performance measurement, a course on performance attribution, and two CIPM exam preparation courses. Visit The Spaulding Group at .
Jessica Kipp
Atomic PR for BrightScope
415-593-1400
Jaime Puerschner
PR for The Spaulding Group
732-873-5700