What does Nationwide Investment Advisors do?
Nationwide Investment Advisors, LLC (NIA) is a retirement-plan-focused investment adviser that provides discretionary and nondiscretionary advisory services to both plan participants and sponsors.
Nationwide Investment's offerings include annuities, life insurance, mutual funds, and retirement plans. Its advisory services are mainly tied to retirement plan accounts rather than a full-service wealth management account.
NIA was formed in May 2006 and is wholly owned by Nationwide Life Insurance Company, making it an indirect subsidiary within the Nationwide group. Its advisory services are delivered through portfolio management, asset allocation models, and managed account programs.
Key services:
- ProAccount: A discretionary managed account service for retirement plan participants. Participants complete a risk-tolerance questionnaire, and NIA will research, select, monitor and adjust a portfolio that matches the participant’s risk profile.
- My Investment Planner (MIP): A nondiscretionary advice service for retirement plan participants. It suggests a model portfolio, but the participant is responsible for implementing the allocation.
- Smart Alliance: A nondiscretionary service for non-ERISA governmental plan sponsors, focused on investment lineup recommendations. Creative Planning acts as the independent financial expert.
- Advice Program: A discretionary service for defined benefit plans and certain trustee-directed retirement plans using Nationwide Trust Company’s retirement program.
Investment philosophy:
NIA’s investment philosophy is primarily risk-profile-based and asset-allocation-driven rather than stock-picking or individualized financial planning. For ProAccount and MIP, it designs and maintains the model portfolios based on participant information, risk tolerance, time horizon, economic assumptions, and risk estimates. The portfolios may be reallocated or rebalanced over time.
What are the pros and cons of Nationwide Investment Advisors?
Here is a breakdown of some of the pros and cons of Nationwide Investment Advisors.
Pros of Nationwide Investment Advisors:
- Retirement-plan specialization: NIA focuses on retirement plan participants and plan sponsors, making the service more targeted for workplace retirement plan advice.
- No stated minimum account size: NIA discloses no minimum asset value or account size for its advisory programs.
- Independent portfolio oversight: NIA uses outside independent financial experts to design or evaluate the advisory portfolios and investment lineups. Wilshire develops and maintains portfolios for ProAccount and MIP, while Creative Planning evaluates investment options for Smart Alliance.
Cons of Nationwide Investment Advisors:
- Limited scope: ProAccount advice applies only to eligible retirement plan assets, not outside investments or full household planning.
- Less control once enrolled: ProAccount requires participants to allocate their entire available eligible balance to the service, and participants cannot make their own allocation changes to ProAccount-managed assets while enrolled.
- Additional fees may apply: advisory fees are in addition to the underlying fund, trustee, custody, administrative, asset, service, or transaction fees.
Nationwide Investment Advisors fees: How much does Nationwide Investment Advisors cost?
NIA’s fees depend on the specific service and plan arrangement. ProAccount fees are generally charged as a percentage of managed assets and are negotiable at the plan level.
Service | Fee |
|---|---|
ProAccount in the Nationwide retirement program | Up to 1.00% annually |
ProAccount in governmental and institutional plans | Up to 0.65% annually |
Smart Alliance | Up to 0.02% of plan assets annually |
Advice program | Up to 0.50% annually |
What is Nationwide Investment Advisors’ minimum account size?
NIA does not disclose a minimum asset value or account size for any advisory program.
Who should choose Nationwide Investment Advisors?
Nationwide Investment Advisors works well for:
- Participants who want managed retirement account help: ProAccount can be useful for users who prefer a managed allocation and periodic rebalancing instead of choosing funds themselves.
- Participants who want guidance but still control implementation: MIP may suit users who want a suggested portfolio but prefer to place trades or allocation changes themselves.
- Governmental plan sponsors: Smart Alliance is designed for non-ERISA governmental retirement or deferred compensation plan sponsors reviewing plan investment lineups.
- Trustee-directed or defined benefit plan sponsors: The Advice Program is designed for certain plans that want discretionary portfolio implementation through the program.
Who might not benefit as much:
- Investors seeking full financial planning: NIA does not provide broad household planning, tax planning, estate planning, or outside-account management through these services.
- Cost-sensitive participants: ProAccount can add up to 1.00% or 0.65% annually, depending on the plan type, on top of other plan and fund expenses.
- Hands-on investors: ProAccount limits participant control over assets managed through the service.
Nationwide Investment Advisors: Is it secure?
Nationwide Investment Advisors has several basic safeguards; it is a registered investment advisor.
NIA does not use a fully independent custody model. Nationwide Trust Company (NTC) and Nationwide Life Insurance Company (NLIC), both related parties under common control with NIA, may act as custodians for the Advice Program, ProAccount, and MIP. Because of this related-party custody arrangement, NIA is considered to have custody of certain Advice program assets. For ProAccount, assets may also be held by an unaffiliated third-party custodian.
The firm also provides user-facing safety guidance, including using long and strong passwords, using a unique password for each account, keeping devices clean, automating software updates, enabling a firewall, and limiting administrator accounts.
Nationwide Investment Advisors: Customer service
NIA’s service model offers support as a mix of specialist assistance, scheduled calls, online account login, and access to financial professionals.
For existing accounts, the firm directs users to log in or contact service support, while prospective or general investing users are directed toward Nationwide’s team of specialists or a financial professional.
The service appears more structured around retirement plan access, online tools, specialists, and periodic account communications than ongoing personalized wealth management support.
Nationwide Investment Advisors: Mobile app
Nationwide offers an official Nationwide mobile app.
The app is primarily designed for Nationwide account access and insurance-related account management, including bills, ID cards, policy changes, autopay, and claim filing and tracking.
Is Nationwide Investment Advisors worth it?
Nationwide Investment Advisors may be worth considering for retirement plan participants and plan sponsors.
Nationwide’s investing offerings also include annuities, life insurance, mutual funds, and retirement plans, but NIA’s advisory services are mainly focused on retirement-plan-based investment advice rather than full-service wealth management.
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