Ebix Consulting Introduces New Platform to Address Recent Department of Labor (DOL) Fiduciary Rules for Retirement Investment Advice

  • Infrastructure
  • 03.11.2016 11:45 am

 Ebix, a leading international supplier of On-Demand software and E-commerce services to the insurance, financial, e-governance and healthcare industries, today announced that its Life and Annuities Consulting Division Ebix Consulting, formerly VERTEX Incorporated, has launched a new platform to address the regulatory challenges arising out of the new Department of Labor (DOL) Fiduciary Rules, that companies must meet by April 2017.

Ebix Consulting today announced the release of its VTXml Product Profile platform that produces ACORD’s new Life & Annuity Transaction 1241: Fee & Expense Disclosure message. The new “Product Profiles for Annuity” (PPfA) transaction, commonly called PPfALite, was created by a community of insurance companies working with ACORD, Ebix Consulting, and DTCC in response to the data requirements being driven by the Department of Labor (DOL) Fiduciary ruling.

Suzanne Brazeal, VP of Operations, Ebix Consulting said, “Because of our deep knowledge and involvement in the insurance industry forums, we are uniquely positioned to help the insurance industry meet the new DOL requirements. We are actively helping carriers implement process and product changes as well as data solutions. Our SaaS platform, VTXml, is an industry-leading solution used by over 50 insurance carriers that holds many of the fixed, indexed, and variable annuity product profiles in the market place. We are working closely with DTCC to deliver that data through their secured network to the various distribution channels.”

Ray Shah, VP Sales, Ebix Consulting added, “While the timeline to meet the DOL Fiduciary guideline draws closer, we are fully geared up to help companies and brokers meet the DOL deadlines in a timely manner. We recognize the importance of this major industry challenge and are committed to doing everything in our means to help the industry get over this hurdle."

“ACORD Standards and solutions play an essential role in facilitating efficient and effective execution across the insurance value chain,” said Sandy Hampel, ACORD’s VP of Implementation. “We expect the DOL ruling and new guidelines to have a positive impact on the annuity landscape while providing increased support and value to our members.”

The PPfALite will be used by Carriers to define any fees and expenses at three levels: Products, Funds and Riders/Service Features. VTXml will facilitate the transport of the new message to the DTCC via the SMART network using AutoRoute and DataTrack. The Distributors will then be able to get the carrier data directly from the DTCC repository.

VTXml is part of the award winning Ebix Consulting Product Suite, which includes VTXDataViewer and VTXCompare.

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