BNY Mellon’s Pershing Debuts Enhanced Subscribe Annuity Platform

BNY Mellon's Pershing today announced a series of enhancements to its Subscribe annuity platform, which helps advisors streamline how they process, service and maintain annuities. Among the key updates is eSignature capability, which will set a new standard for the industry and change the way advisors purchase annuities.

The enhancements to Subscribe will make it more user-friendly and efficient, helping advisors capture a bigger share of the growing annuity market.

"We are thrilled to be at the forefront of an industry shift toward digitization," said Hans Schemmel, director of retirement, insurance-based and cash management solutions at Pershing. "Our goal is to empower advisors to meet the growing demands of investors while delivering faster, more efficient service. These enhancements, combined with the depth and breadth of our current investment and retirement solutions, demonstrate our commitment to this space and advance our leadership in the industry."

Available through Pershing's NetX360^® platform, Subscribe enables advisors to electronically submit annuity transactions and interface with many of the country's leading insurance companies. It also features an Annuity Analytics Dashboard as well as Pershing's approval and oversight tools—all designed to help firms and advisors increase efficiencies and transparency and achieve improved oversight. Subscribe allows networking of contracts to brokerage accounts, helping advisors and clients get a more complete picture of their portfolios.

The latest improvements to Subscribe include a more intuitive user interface and navigation, as well as eSignature capabilities with select carriers.

Among the key enhancements to the Subscribe platform are:

1. New eSignature capabilities, enabling advisors to:
   1. Submit transactions for eSignature with participating insurance carriers.
   2. Upload eSigned documents to the Subscribe approval workflow automatically and avoid signature paperwork.
   3. Experience potentially speedier contract issuance and faster commission payments.
2. Integrated administrative tools in NetX360, allowing for easier management and activation of carrier offerings.
3. Enhanced customized forms capabilities, allowing firms to generate and populate their suitability documents, along with carrier documents, using reflexive technology.
4. Improved look and feel and a new order-entry platform, consolidating the screens and tasks that were previously spread over multiple screens.

In addition to these enhancements, the Subscribe platform currently supports advisors' fee-based business, including trading, networking, billing, as well as some performance reporting of carriers' fee-based annuities.

Looking ahead, Pershing is working on integrating Subscribe into its managed accounts platform to create a seamless, end-to-end experience for advisors to include fee-based annuities in a managed account. The integrated solution will enable advisors to include fee-based annuities in an investment proposal as well as provide access to performance reporting and statements.

"By further integrating our fee-based annuity capabilities with managed accounts, we will empower our clients and their advisors to support the entire wealth spectrum and provide goals-based advice to their investors," said Rob Cirrotti, managing director, global strategy and product management at Pershing, commenting on the upcoming integration of Subscribe into Pershing's managed accounts platform.

For more information on Pershing's Subscribe platform, please visit the Annuity Solutions page.

About BNY Mellon's Pershing
BNY Mellon's Pershing and its affiliates provide advisors, broker-dealers, family offices, hedge fund and '40 Act fund managers, registered investment advisor firms and wealth managers with a broad suite of global financial business solutions. Many of the world's most sophisticated and successful financial services firms rely on Pershing for clearing and custody, investment and retirement solutions, technology, enterprise data management, trading services, prime brokerage and business consulting. Pershing helps clients improve profitability and drive growth, create capacity and efficiency, attract and retain talent, and manage risk and regulation. With a network of offices worldwide, Pershing provides business-to-business solutions to clients representing approximately 7 million investor accounts globally. Pershing LLC (member FINRA, NYSE, SIPC) is a BNY Mellon company. Additional information is available on pershing.com, or follow us on Twitter @Pershing.

About BNY Mellon
BNY Mellon is a global investments company dedicated to helping its clients manage and service their financial assets throughout the investment lifecycle. Whether providing financial services for institutions, corporations or individual investors, BNY Mellon delivers informed investment management and investment services in 35 countries. As of March 31, 2018, BNY Mellon had $33.5 trillion in assets under custody and/or administration, and $1.9 trillion in assets under management. BNY Mellon can act as a single point of contact for clients looking to create, trade, hold, manage, service, distribute or restructure investments. BNY Mellon is the corporate brand of The Bank of New York Mellon Corporation (NYSE: BK). Additional information is available on www.bnymellon.com. Follow us on Twitter @BNYMellon or visit our newsroom at www.bnymellon.com/newsroom for the latest company news.