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Deals & People August 12, 2009
Great-West Beefs Up Wholesaler Ratios
Great-West Retirement Services has hired eight additional internal wholesalers to further enhance the support it provides its external sales force and their financial adviser and third-party administrator (TPA) distributors.
Reported by Nevin E. Adams
According to a press release, with the recent additions, the external to internal wholesaler ratio has improved to 2:1 from 3:1.
“By adding to our internal wholesaler team, we’re able to provide increased service and support to both our sales force and their distributors,” said Bill Harmon, vice president of 401(k) sales. Financial advisers and TPAs are critical to our sales success, so we work very hard to assist them.”
Great-West Retirement Services assigns each internal wholesaler to a regional sales director. Internal wholesalers then support their respective sales director in cultivating relationships with financial advisers and TPAs.
The new internal wholesalers are:
- Mike Burke – California
- Edward Carlson – Louisiana, Texas
- Bob Fitzpatrick – Arizona, Idaho, North Dakota, New Mexico, Montana
- Tom Geiger –Illinois, Iowa, Wisconsin
- Trevor Millberg – Washington, D.C., West Virginia, Virginia
- Jeremy Oaster – Alaska, Oregon, Washington
- Gina Schimpf –Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York, Vermont
- Amy Turley – Colorado, Nebraska, Utah, Wyoming
The hiring of the internal wholesalers began this spring, bringing the current number of Great-West Retirement Services internal wholesalers to 20. As the external sales team increases, Great-West Retirement Services says it will continue to hire internal wholesalers to maintain its 2:1 ratio.
In addition to tapping internal talent, recent hires have come from firms such as Allianz Group, 1st Global, IKON Financial Services, The Hartford, Lincoln Financial Group and Oppenheimer.