Deals & People September 13, 2012

ING Names Ohl President of Tax-Exempt Markets

Jamie Ohl was hired as president of tax-exempt markets for the institutional retirement operations of ING U.S. 
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Ohl will be responsible for all aspects of the business, including developing and executing strategic direction and maximizing growth potential and profitability.

Ohl has more than 20 years of experience leading high-performing teams to profitable growth in competitive markets. For the past two years, she was president of Wilshire Funds Management, the global investment management business unit of Wilshire Associates, where she was responsible for guiding the company’s strategic investment, operations and growth efforts. Previously, Ohl served as head of the retirement division for The Hartford Financial Services Group, where she spearheaded that company’s entry into the 403(b) market. Ohl has also served in various management and consulting roles at VALIC and Hewitt Associates.

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Ohl, who will be based in ING U.S.’s Windsor, Connecticut, office, will report to Maliz Beams, chief executive officer of ING U.S. Retirement. Her appointment is effective October 1, 2012. 

“Jamie has an impressive track record of leadership and success in a variety of highly competitive markets,” Beams said. “Her passion, diverse experience and background in 403(b) and investment-only products will complement our leadership team and further ING U.S.’s mission to help Americans achieve retirement security.”

The tax-exempt markets team is focused on helping working Americans prepare for a secure retirement through employer-sponsored 403(b) and 457 savings plans in the health care, education, government and nonprofit sectors. 

Ohl holds a bachelor’s degree in business management from LeTourneau University in Texas and a master’s of business administration from the University of Nebraska. She is a Certified Employee Benefits Specialist (CEBS), a Qualified Pension Administrator, a member of the American Society of Pension Professionals & Actuaries (ASPPA) and holds Series 6, 7, 26 and 63 registrations.

Other accomplishments include recognition by 401kWire as one of the “Top 100 Most Influential People in Defined Contribution” in 2008 and 2009.  Ohl also received the 2009 “Women in Insurance Leadership Award” from Insurance Networking News and was named one of Business Insurance’s “Women to Watch” in 2009.

“I am thrilled to be joining an organization that has such a strong commitment to helping solve America’s retirement challenge,” Ohl said. “I look forward to developing strategies that expand the relationships and opportunities ING U.S. has built with its distributors, plan sponsors and the millions of individual plan customers it serves.”

 

The Markets September 13, 2012

PANC 2012: Participant Education and Advice

Sponsors and participants may be ready for the concept of “financial wellness,” speakers told the 2012 PLANADVISER National Conference.
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At a time when people have become so conscious of managing their budgets and reducing their debt, now may be the perfect time to offer 401(k) plan participants education and access to advice—all in the name of “financial wellness,” said William Chetney, executive vice president, LPL Retirement Partners. “Just as health wellness began to catch on with plan sponsors in recent years, financial wellness is beginning to create a lot of resonance,” Chetney said.

“The 401(k) plan is the best available vehicle for the accumulation of wealth,” Chetney said. “Remaking the industry to help our children to be financially literate is an opportunity and a responsibility. We should be talking about debt reduction along with 401(k) savings.”

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The best way to convince a plan sponsor to agree to offer participants advice is to let them know it is available, said Richard Schwamb, premier retirement benefits adviser, Merrill Lynch. “We don’t charge anything for advice access. You really need to talk to the plan sponsor. Some of them don’t want you prospecting their participants for other financial issues. So, we do a soft sell and ask the plan sponsor what they want.”

Otto G. Feddern, president and CCO, Feddern Financial Consulting Group, takes a more dogmatic approach. “We tell the plan sponsor that this is what we do—we offer individual advice that every participant has access to through our website on a daily basis.”

Education and advice have failed to prompt participants to make the right investment choices and save enough, but auto enrollment, auto escalation, scaled-down investment platforms and target-date funds have done a tremendous job at picking up the slack, Schwamb and Chetney agreed.

Making participants realize the seriousness of saving for a dignified retirement outcome is another successful approach to education, Schwamb said. “I am honest with clients about what they are going to face in retirement,” he said. “I started doing that five or six years ago, and at the end of the story, you tell them what they have to do.”

At the end of the day, higher savings rates trumps all, Chetney said. “If I can get people to put in 10% rather than 6%, that is the win,” he said. “That kind of relationship develops over time, over personal relationships.” 

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