Deals & People June 22, 2010

Clarity Expands its Actuarial Practice

Clarity in Numbers, LLC (Clarity) today announced its addition of a new practice leader to consult with closely held businesses.
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According to a press release, Alex Kuhel has been hired to lead the Cash Balance Plan practice.  Before joining Chicago-based Clarity, Kuhel served as Consulting Actuary for over 100 closely held businesses nationwide, according to a press release.  Prior to that, he served as primary consultant for several law firms and smaller organizations at J.P. Morgan Compensation and Benefits Strategies, along with Towers Perrin and Price WaterhouseCoopers.

The firm also said that Shawn Marnell was recently hired to lead Clarity’s Defined Benefit Administration practice.  Prior to joining Clarity, Marnell managed call centers and benefit administration teams serving retirement plan sponsors of all sizes as an Administrator for Mercer LLC and Hewitt Associates.  He maintains responsibility for providing Clarity’s outsourcing solution for defined benefit administration services.

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Other recent additions to the firm include:

Jeffrey M. Van Wagner, who assists employers in providing actuarial valuation, administration and consulting services in many industries: not-for-profit, tax-exempt, and publicly traded Fortune 100 companies.  “Jeff leads the efforts to ensure that management understands the significant impact oftheir employee benefit programs during business combinations and divestitures by providing financial statement and cash flow analyses, purchase price considerations, and post-merger integration and design. Jeff also provides guidance and leads the process for our clients in the event of a plan freeze, or plan termination,” according to a press release.  Before joining Clarity, Van Wagner was with Towers Watson, formerly Watson Wyatt Worldwide, and Ernst & Young. 

Anna M. Mitchell brings both accounting and actuarial perspectives to Clarity’s clients with close to 20 years of experience at three other major benefits consulting firms, according the firm.  Mitchell served as a lead consultant and set peer review procedures for retirement clients at a national consulting and accounting firm. Before joining Clarity, Mitchell served as lead consultant and client manager with RSM McGladrey, Mercer LLC, and Towers Watson, formerly Towers Perrin.

Clarity is a national actuarial consulting practice focused on serving small-to-medium-sized businesses and any size governmental organization. More information about Clarity In Numbers is available at http://www.clarity-llc.com. 

Products June 21, 2010

PowerAdvisor Takes on New Power Source

Account aggregator ByAllAccounts, Inc. and Cornerstone Revolutions, a provider of software and services for independent investment professionals, have announced a product enhancement.
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According to an announcement, the firms say that PowerAdvisor, a solution for managing assets, producing reports, billing clients and rebalancing accounts, is now powered by what the firms described as “professional-grade” account aggregation.  According to a press release, an option now exists for PowerAdvisor portfolio management system customers to “cost-effectively add account aggregation, creating new opportunities to identify, advise on and bill against new assets under management and more easily and efficiently manage compliance-related activities”.

“Our goal is to bring account aggregation to as many advisors as possible through platforms that are most familiar to them,” said James Carney, president of ByAllAccounts. “This partnership with Cornerstone Revolutions inserts our account aggregation solution into the proven PowerAdvisor workflow, giving independent investment advisors and smaller firms yet another competitive, but still cost-effective advantage over larger firms.”

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“We are very excited about our partnership with ByAllAccounts,” said Mary Helper, president and CEO, Cornerstone Revolutions, Inc. “In today’s challenging market, we are seeing more and more advisors who want to invest their clients’ money to maximize earnings and minimize fees. Our partnership with ByAllAccounts enables us to give our advisors the flexibility to easily and affordably capture data from wherever they choose to custody assets.”

ByAllAccounts’ patented aggregation engine, through which more than $170 billion in assets flows, aggregates all client account data within an advisor’s wealth management platform or trust accounting system for a truly comprehensive view.

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