Deals & People March 4, 2015

LPL Leader to Take Reins at LGIMA

Chicago-based registered investment adviser Legal & General Investment Management America, Inc. announced Robert J. Moore will be the firm's next chief executive officer.
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Moore was most recently president of adviser and institution solutions at LPL Financial. He takes over leadership of Legal & General Investment Management America, Inc. (LGIMA) in early April and will be based in Chicago—reporting to reporting to Mark Zinkula, chairman of the LGIMA Board and CEO of Legal & General Investment Management.

Moore has been a LGIMA board member since 2008, and succeeds Mike Craston, who has served as CEO of LGIMA since 2011. Craston will continue in his role as vice chairman of LGIMA.

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Zinkula says the firm looks forward to applying Moore’s experience to bring new investing solutions to the North America market. LGIMA currently manages institutional assets in excess of $110 billion while supporting the global investment team overseeing total assets of $1,105 billion as of December 31, 2014.

LGIMA notes its focus has been on expanding its liability-driven investing (LDI) and fixed-income solutions in the corporate pension space, and the firm is now building its index capabilities and expanding into the defined contribution (DC) market.

At LPL Financial, Moore was tasked with oversight of the company’s primary client-facing functions, client service and operations teams. After joining LPL Financial in 2008 as CFO, he transitioned to the role of president in 2012. Prior to LPL Financial, Moore was CEO and CFO at ABN AMRO North America and LaSalle Bank Corporation. He also held a number of finance management positions, ultimately serving as chief financial officer of Diageo PLC in Europe and the United Kingdom.

LPL Financial announced it would fill the vacancy with the promotion of current CFO Dan Arnold to the role of president, effective March 13.

“We thank Robert for his contributions to LPL and congratulate him on his new role,” says Mark Casady, chairman and chief executive officer of LPL. “Leading LGIMA is an exceptional opportunity for Robert and we know he will remain a passionate advocate and friend of LPL.”

Prior to becoming CFO for LPL, Arnold served as managing director, head of strategy for the firm. Previously, Arnold served as divisional president of LPL’s institution services business, a position he gained after 12 years of leading UVEST, a broker/dealer that was acquired by LPL in 2007.

With Arnold’s appointment to president, Tom Lux has been named acting chief financial officer while LPL conducts a search for a new CFO. Lux joined LPL in 2009, holding several positions in LPL’s finance organization, including executive vice president and chief accounting officer. With 30 years of accounting experience, Lux has held leadership roles with National Financial Services, Wachovia Securities, Everen Securities and Deloitte and Touche.

In addition, LPL also announced that it has promoted Andy Kalbaugh and Bill Morrissey to the positions of divisional presidents for institution services and independent adviser services, respectively, in recognition of their leadership in the firm and the role they play in setting the strategic direction of their respective business units.

Kalbaugh and Morrissey will report to Arnold.

More information on the respective organizations is at www.lgima.com and www.lpl.com. 

Products March 4, 2015

NARPP to Offer Participant Education Evaluation Tool

An evaluation tool created by NARPP can be used to measure the impact of education programs and initiatives.
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The National Association of Retirement Plan Participants (NARPP) is offering plan sponsors the opportunity to use its FELT study questionnaire internally, with their employees.

NARPP’s participant FELT (Financial Empowerment, Literacy and Trust) study examines the key drivers of engagement and savings rates of participants. Specifically, the study measures these participant metrics:

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  • Financial knowledge;
  • Understanding of financial terms;
  • Savings behavior;
  • Satisfaction with and helpfulness of education program; and
  • Levels of trust and confidence in their service provider.

In its first national FELT study in 2014, NARPP interviewed more than 5,000 participants, representing a wide range of demographics, employers and service providers. This study established that trust in the service provider is a key driver of participant engagement. While it is helpful to have a “big picture” view of all participants’ attitudes and behaviors, NARPP says it is equally important for plan sponsors to have specific data about their own employees.

NARPP has developed an easy, turnkey system that plan sponsors can use with their employees. The results of the study would be only for the plan sponsor and can be compared to national norms and used to measure the impact of education programs and initiatives. The study will be available for plan sponsor use in April.

“Participant-reported measures have to play a more central role in determining the effectiveness of education and engagement programs,” says Laurie Rowley of NARPP. “Without concrete data that examines all of the challenges facing participants, we can only guess at the path to improving outcomes.”

Sponsors and plan service providers seeking more information can contact Laurie Rowley at Laurie.Rowley@NARPP.org or visit the NARPP website, www.NARPP.org.

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