Deals & People May 12, 2008

MassMutual Names Senior Vice President for Retirement Services

Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company (MassMutual) named Hugh O’Toole as Senior Vice President in charge of national sales and distribution for the company’s Retirement Services division.
Reported by

O’Toole will lead the distribution of the entire product and services offering through the division’s sales team.

He joined MassMutual last December as Vice President, Northeast division sales manager and national nonprofit market leader. Most recently he served as the company’s Interim Head of Distribution, reporting to Elaine Sarsynski, Executive Vice President and Head of the Retirement Services division.

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O’Toole has more than 20 years of experience in the retirement and benefit solutions industry. He is a former partner of Professional Pensions, Inc., which was sold to Principal Financial Group in 1999. As part of the sale, O’Toole was retained by Principal Financial, where he served as Corporate Vice President of non-profit solutions, responsible for growing Principal’s non-profit business.

“Since Hugh joined MassMutual, he has been instrumental in accelerating our sales efforts, and I am confident he will continue to make great advances in our key distribution channels while furthering our commitment to the adviser,’ Sarsynski said. “With his in-depth knowledge and experience, strong leadership capabilities, and highly regarded reputation, Hugh is the ideal leader to help us win in the marketplace.’


Products May 12, 2008

State Street Unveils Two SPDRs

State Street Global Advisors (SSgA), the investment management arm of State Street Corporation, said two SPDR exchange-traded funds (ETFs) will begin trading on the American Stock Exchange Tuesday.
Reported by

Developed to provide investors with precise exposure to targeted segments of the international markets, the company said the SPDRs include:

  • SPDR DJ Wilshire Global Real Estate ETF (ticker: RWO): The ETF is based on the Dow Jones Wilshire Global Real Estate Securities Index (RESI). The index includes more than 240 commercial and residential real estate companies domiciled in 23 countries across the globe, including the U.S (the ETF has expense ratio of 0.5%);
  • SPDR S&P International Mid Cap ETF (ticker: MDD) — The index includes more than 850 companies with market capitalizations between $2 and $5 billion domiciled in 25 developed countries outside the U.S. (the ETF has an expense ratio of 0.45%)

“Offering a level of international diversification that has not been readily accessible in the past, the new SPDR S&P International Mid Cap ETF was developed to meet increasing investor demand for more high quality international portfolio management tools,’ said James Ross, Senior Managing Director at State Street. “With the addition of the SPDR DJ Wilshire Global Real Estate ETF, our family of SPDRs ETFs now provides investors with distinct exposure to the domestic, international, and global real estate markets.’

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As of March 31, U.S. assets under management in State Street’s ETFs totaled more than $148.2 billion.

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