Products November 10, 2009

Guardian Adds CIFs in Plan Management

November 10, 2009 (PLANSPONSOR.com) – The Guardian Insurance & Annuity Company (GIAC) announced that Stadion Money Management, Inc., is introducing collective investment funds to Stadion’s managed account services offered to plan participants who utilize The Guardian Choice and The Guardian Advantage group retirement products.

Reported by

A news release said the underlying investment vehicles in the funds will be exchange-traded funds (ETFs), cash, and cash equivalents.   The funds will be used by Stadion in its management of plan participant accounts and are not available for direct investment by plan sponsors or plan participants.

“The new CIFs will benefit plan participants by improving trading efficiencies that allow Stadion, as investment adviser, to respond more quickly to changing market conditions and by reducing investment expenses through the use of these lower cost investment options,” said Scott Dolfi, Guardian’s Executive Vice President, Retirement Solutions, in the announcement.

In 2009, more than 87% of the plan sponsors who have utilized The Guardian Choice or The Guardian Advantage as their funding vehicle have adopted the Stadion managed account service as their qualified default investment alternative (QDIA), the company said. 

More information is available at www.GuardianLife.com.
Deals & People November 10, 2009

Franklin Templeton Snags Beaulieu from Columbia



Franklin Templeton Investments recently added Matthew Beaulieu to its team of regional defined contribution investment-only (DCIO) specialists to cover the Western U.S. region.

Reported by

Beaulieu joins Franklin Templeton’s growing DCIO team headed by Yaqub Ahmed, senior vice president and Investment-Only division head. Ahmed also recently joined the firm from Columbia Funds (see “Franklin Templeton Snatches Ahmed From Columbia Funds”).

As vice president and DCIO specialist, Beaulieu is responsible for DCIO sales in the Western U.S. region. Prior to joining Franklin Templeton, he was vice president and regional sales director at Columbia Management. Previously, he was regional vice president/director, investment-only at Principal Funds and regional sales director at The Hartford Corporate Retirement Plans. 

Franklin Templeton said its DCIO team now has three regional specialists and plans to further expand.  “Expanding our regional sales team is a key step to further developing and defining Franklin Templeton’s DCIO strategy and efforts to provide strong DCIO coverage for clients, strategic partners, and retail wholesalers,” Ahmed said.

«