Deals & People February 22, 2013

Vanguard Announces Investment Manager Changes

Five members of Vanguard’s investment management teams will be transferred as part of an effort to broaden their experience and provide them with new responsibilities.
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Joseph Brennan, who served as the firm’s Asia Pacific chief investment officer (CIO) in Australia since 2009, will return to the U.S. to lead the equity index group. He will oversee the investment professionals responsible for more than 80 U.S. and international equity index funds and exchange-traded funds (ETFs), representing nearly $1 trillion in indexed assets. Prior to his Australian post, the 12-year Vanguard veteran managed the portfolio review department.

Gregory Davis, head of the bond index group since 2007, will assume the Asia Pacific CIO role, as head of the Vanguard Australia team, which manages equity and fixed-income portfolios for Australian and Asian investors and has nearly $64 billion in assets under management.

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Josh Barrickman, a 14-year Vanguard staff member with more than ten years of experience in bond indexing portfolio management and trading, has assumed leadership of the bond index group. He previously managed bond index funds with aggregate assets of $90 billion and led Vanguard’s bond ETF management process since the 2007 inception of fixed-income ETF shares. Barrickman has been named a manager or co-manager on 13 funds, including the flagship $115 billion Vanguard Total Bond Market Index Fund.

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John Ameriks will oversee the active equity group within the equity investment group. Previously a member of Vanguard’s investment counseling & research group (IC&R), he assumed leadership of the division in 2008 and has been closely involved in the structure and implementation of several active and index investment products and strategies. The active equity group manages $13 billion in quantitative equity fund assets, serving as investment adviser to Vanguard Strategic Equity Fund and Vanguard Strategic Small-Cap Equity, as well as managing portions of 10 other Vanguard stock funds.

Catherine Gordon, a veteran investment professional who created IC&R in 2001, will reassume leadership of this group, as well as help to lead Vanguard’s initiatives on advice methodology and focus on institutional investment thought leadership. Since she joined Vanguard in 1994, Gordon spent several years with the portfolio review department and directed Vanguard institutional advisory services.

Separately, Vanguard announced new portfolio management assignments involving 15 equity funds, 11 fixed income funds, two balanced funds and the Vanguard Target Retirement Fund series. The changes are effective with the February 22 filing of prospectus amendments that detail the leadership and portfolio manager assignments. The funds’ investment philosophies, objectives, strategies and overall portfolio management processes will remain the same.

In Practice February 22, 2013

Nationwide Helps Advisers Tackle Tough Issues

Nationwide Financial takes on client fears and retirement planning challenges in “Let’s Face It Together,” a newly launched campaign that supports advisers.  
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On the individual level, clients are experiencing a lot of angst, Bill Burke, senior vice president of brand marketing for Nationwide Financial, told PLANADVISER. “They’re still carrying over anxiety from 2008 and 2009 toward financial institutions and toward their own advisers,” Burke said. “The last four years of volatility have taken a toll on clients` psyches, and while the markets are beginning to recover, clients haven’t.”

“Let’s Face It Together” brings to light client fears and phobias that are based on relevant, real-world issues clients struggle to discuss with their financial advisers.

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When people are planning for retirement, complex and emotional issues come into play, Burke said. “Issues like outliving their assets, managing health care and long-term care costs, and the uncertainty surrounding Social Security and taxes,” he said. “Advisers are seeing their role expand beyond just being a financial expert—they now need to be part expert, part coach and part psychologist.”

The campaign is aimed at helping advisers turn clients’ fears and phobias into constructive conversations. It was developed through qualitative interviews with advisers, which found that clients’ expanding needs are forcing advisers into more complex roles.

Some of the phrases and taglines in the campaign, such as “retire-phobia,” “income phobia” and “enough-phobia,” were developed in response to feedback from advisers as well as investors showing that clients worry about these issues and need advisers to prompt difficult conversations and simplify complex issues.

 

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“Over the past year, we have spent time looking at how the retirement landscape is changing, how it is affecting our target advisers and how Nationwide Financial’s core values of being a thoughtful and trusted strategic partner play a role in that dynamic,” said Matt Jauchius, chief marketing officer of Nationwide. “We see ‘Let’s Face It Together’ as our way of speaking directly to our advisers and addressing the complex issues they face.”

Nationwide is offering an array of tools, strategies and a suite of products for advisers to use to get clients off the sidelines and ready for retirement, Burke said. One of the tools, a health care assessment calculator, was designed to help identify what costs clients will need to prepare for in retirement. “The tool helps advisers show clients how they can adequately save and put together the right investments,” he explained.

“We don’t want the adviser to be just a purveyor of Nationwide products,” Burke said. “We want to help them face difficult issues together, and we’d like to make sure advisers are armed with helpful tools for the reluctant investor.”

There is a general reluctance to face up to retirement challenges, Burke noted, adding that Nationwide Financial’s campaign is an articulation of the firm’s ability to break down and simplify these complex issues for advisers and help their clients prepare for and live in retirement.

The campaign will run online and in print publications. More information is available on Nationwide Financial’s site. 

 

 

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