SAN DIEGO, CA — (Marketwire) — 09/20/12 — BrightScope (), a leading provider of independent financial information and investment research, today announced its second round list of the top Pittsburgh area-based companies with the highest ranked 401k plans containing more than $100 million in assets. This year BrightScope has extended the list to include the top 25 companies.
BrightScope obtains an increasing amount of its data directly from plan sponsors and record keepers, and augments these primary sources with data from publicly available sources such as the Department of Labor and the Securities and Exchange Commission. By analyzing and interpreting this data, BrightScope provides unprecedented transparency into the 401k industry.
“In the wealth management sphere, being able to demonstrate and measure plan performance and efficiency can be challenging,” said Dan Weeks, founder and COO of BrightScope. “That is why we created the BrightScope Rating, which assigns 401k plans a numerical value to help advisors, investors, companies and their employees validate their plans- high standards and ultimately help plan participants, like those on this Pittsburgh list, retire in dignity.”
Noteworthy findings in the 2012 Top 25 Pittsburgh 401k Plans list include:
Bayer Corporation and Reed Smith LLP hold the two top positions as newcomer LANXESS Corporation takes the No. 3 spot, pushing down Alleghany Technologies Incorporated down to No. 5
9 out of the 10 companies from the previous list made a second appearance on this year-s list, except for previously ranked No. 10, PPG Industries
K&L Gates LLP was the only company from the previous list that moved up in rank and also had a second plan make this year-s list: K&L Gates 401(k) Plan Alpha (formerly K&L Gates 401(k) Retirement Plan) moved up two spots from 9th to 7th, while the company-s other plan, The K&L Gates 401(k) Plan Beta, made its first appearance on this year-s list as No. 4
Drop in rank: 6 of the previous 10 companies dropped at least two spots in this year-s list, most notably — United States Steel Corporation and Affiliated Cos. dropped 10 places from 6th to 16th, Alcoa Inc. fell 11 ranks from No. 8 to No. 19 and CONSOL Energy Inc. slipped 7 spots from 5th to 12th
Notable Newcomers: LANXESS Corporation (No. 3), Ariba, Inc. (No. 6), Mylan Laboratories, Inc. (No. 9), The Bank of New York Mellon Corporation (No. 11 and No. 22), and Eckert Seamans Cherin & Mellott LLC ESCM (No. 13), among others.
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1. Bayer Corporation – – 87.37
2. Reed Smith LLP – – 87.26
3. LANXESS Corporation – – 85.84
4. K&L Gates LLP – – 84.77
5. Allegheny Technologies Incorporated – – 84.42
6. Ariba, Inc. – – 83.15
7. K&L Gates LLP – – 83.10
8. H.J. Heinz Company – – 82.90
9. Mylan Laboratories, Inc. – – 82.89
10. MEDRAD, Inc. – – 81.75
11. The Bank of New York Mellon Corporation – – 81.56
12. CONSOL Energy Inc. – – 80.82
13. Eckert Seamans Cherin & Mellott LLC ESCM – – 79.81
14. ANSYS, Inc. – – 78.87
15. Federated Investors, Inc. – – 78.67
16. United States Steel Corporation and Affiliated Companies – – 78.48
17. Bechtel Marine Propulsion Corporation – – 78.21
18. Allegheny Energy, Inc. – – 77.98
19. Alcoa, Inc. – – 77.67
20. Westinghouse Electric Company, LLC – – 77.00
21. Michael Baker Corporation – – 76.82
22. The Bank of New York Mellon Corporation – – 76.40
23. Ansaldo STS USA – – 74.20
24. Curtiss-Wright Electro-Mechanical Corporation – – 73.53
25. Kennametal Inc. – – 72.06
BrightScope-s 401k plan Rating was developed by BrightScope, Inc. with the help of leading academics and independent 401k fiduciaries. Analyzing more than 200 individual data points, the BrightScope Rating algorithm can calculate a single numerical score for each 401k plan in the country. The data points examined cover broad categories such as total plan cost, company generosity and investment menu quality.
The company has rated more than 46,000 retirement plans, spanning 30 million workers and $2 trillion in assets, and provided information on more than 770,000 financial advisors. Industry adoption of the BrightScope Rating will lead to more cost-effective plans, increased participation rates, higher employee satisfaction and better outcomes for the 60 million employees who depend on their 401k plan for retirement.
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 more than 46,000 retirement plans as well as rating definitions, criteria and methodologies, and information on more than 770,000 financial advisors and nearly 45,000 advisory firms are available for free at .
Jen Harding
Atomic PR for BrightScope
415-593-1400