05_Brand Name Justification - Redacted.pdf

Revision Date 04/11/2024

Brand Name Justification Pensions & Investments Subscriptions

1. Identification of the agency and contracting activity.

Agency: Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) Contracting Activity: Procurement Department (PD) Program Office: Workplace Solutions Department (WSD)

2. Nature and/or description of the action being approved:

New contract for Pensions & Investments.

This document provides the basis for restricting competition to a brand-name for the acquisition of Pensions & Investments online subscription. This acquisition is over the micro-purchase threshold but does not exceed the Simplified Acquisition Threshold (SAT) therefore, utilizing simplified acquisition procedures pursuant to FAR 13.106-1(b) supports the solicitation for brand-name Crain Communications’ online subscriptions. The Government intends to acquire a subscription to Crain Communications’ Pensions & Investments (P&I) daily newsletters and news stories as well as access to the P&I Research Center via individual log in credentials.

☒ Firm-fixed-price, ☐ Fixed rate, variable quantity (FRVQ), ☐ Time-and-materials/labor hour, ☐ Hybrid

Select one:

☒ Contract ☐ Contract modification

The Government projects award by September 2026.

3. A description of the supplies or services required to meet the agency’s needs, including the estimated value.

The new, recompete contract will include a base year, four (4) one-year option periods, and six (6) months optional extension to provide enterprise-wide access to Pensions & Investments Daily and access to the P&I Research Center through Crain Communications.

PBGC’s Information Center has a continuing need to provide pension, portfolio, and investment management resources to internal stakeholders. These resources support access to pension fund management data, financial and investment news, and information related to pension risk transfer activity.

Revision Date 04/11/2024

Enterprise access to Pensions & Investments Daily and the P&I Research Center shall be provided through Crain Communications. The Pensions & Investments Daily subscription provides access to current and archived issues of the Pensions & Investments publication, which is released biweekly and focuses on money management and pension fund management. The subscription includes timely and in-depth coverage of topics such as ERISA litigation, defined contribution plans, pension funds, private equity, money management, and institutional investing. In addition, the P&I Research Center provides proprietary, non-public data and analytical tools, including asset information on pension funds, money management firms, and institutional investment consulting firms. This includes the Pension Transfer Risk Tracker, a proprietary resource that monitors and analyzes pension risk transfer activity and trends. These proprietary datasets and tools are uniquely developed and maintained by Crain Communications and are not available from any other source, thereby necessitating a sole-source acquisition.

The scope of this requirement is to provide PBGC with enterprise-wide online access to Pensions & Investments Daily and the P&I Research Center through Crain Communications.

This includes access to current and archived publications, proprietary research content, non-public datasets, and analytical tools related to pension fund management, institutional investing, and money management.

Independent Government Estimate of the requirement for the duration presented below is

Period of Performance:

Base Year 09/30/2026 - 09/29/2027 Option Year 1 09/30/2027 - 09/29/2028 Option Year 2 09/30/2028 - 09/29/2029 Option Year 3 09/30/2029 - 09/29/2030 Option Year 4 09/30/2030 - 09/29/2031 RFO FAR 52.217-8, Six Month Extension Option 09/30/2031 – 03/29/2032

4. An identification of the statutory authority permitting other than full and open competition.

RFO FAR 13.101(b) Contracting officers may solicit from a single source based on determination and findings that only one source is reasonably available.

5. A demonstration that the proposed contractor’s unique qualifications or the nature of the acquisition requires use of the authority cited.

Pensions and Investments Daily and Pensions and Investments Research Center, offered through Crain Communications, is the only responsible source for this service that meets all of PBGC's needs. Crain Communications is the only subscription that offers a combination of information related to pension management/retirement, pensions mergers and risk transfers, as well as an expanded scope of pension-related money management and news.

Although there are comparable services that possess some of these offerings (as further