PLANSPONSOR Announces Retirement Plan Adviser and Adviser Team of the Year Awards

James L. Worrell of GPS Investment Advisors, LLC in Providence, Rhode Island, was named 2011 PLANSPONSOR Retirement Plan Adviser of the Year and FDG Institutional Consulting Group at UBS in Stamford, Connecticut was named 2011 PLANSPONSOR Retirement Plan Adviser Team of the Year.

The announcement was made at the PLANSPONSOR and PLANADVISER 2010 Awards for Excellence dinner in New York Thursday. Worrell and FDG Institutional Consulting Group were selected from a pool of more than 400 nominations. 

“The retirement security of millions of Americans depends on 401(k) and other employer-sponsored programs, and most plans today rely on the skills and presence of a financial adviser,” said Nevin Adams, Global Editor-in-Chief of PLANSPONSOR. “These awards recognize the contributions of the nation’s best financial advisers, who help make retirement security a reality for workers across the nation.”

Finalists for the 2011 Retirement Plan Adviser of the Year included:

• Sean Deviney, Provenance Wealth Advisors, LLC, Fort Lauderdale, Florida  
• Gregg L. Fine, Gallagher Benefit Services, Boca Raton, Florida  
• John W. Spach, 401(k) & 403(b) Advisors-Los Angeles, Woodland Hills, California  
• Philip Steele, Pension Architects, Malibu, California  

Finalists for the 2011 Retirement Plan Adviser Team of the Year were:

• Rogers Financial (Kenneth Rogers, Jenifer Nesselrodt, Raymond Gay), Harrisonburg, Virginia  
• The (k)larity Group (C. Todd Lacey, Stephanie Hunt, Blake Overbay), Athens, Georgia  
• The Ratay Group at Morgan Stanley Smith Barney (Mark Ratay, Daniel Peluse), Lisle, Illinois  
• Institutional Investment Consulting (Michael Kozemchak, Barry Stoey, Paul Stephens, Tony Ciocca, Greg Cimmino), Bloomfield Hills, Michigan  

Launched in 2005, the PLANSPONSOR awards recognize the contributions of the nation’s best financial advisers in helping make retirement security a reality for workers across the nation. Nominations were solicited online from retirement plan advisers, their employers and/or broker/dealers, and plan sponsors, as well as from working partners of these advisers, including investment vendors, accountants and attorneys, and pension administrators (advisers who have attained the PLANSPONSOR Retirement Professional (PRP) designation receive an automatic nomination).  The award is based on both quantitative and qualitative measures.

In addition to Adams, the judge’s panel for both awards included Steff Chalk, CEO, Fiduciary Consulting Group and Alison Cooke Mintzer, Executive Editor, PLANADVISER. In addition, serving on the panel as judges for the Retirement Plan Adviser of the Year were Steven Dimitriou, Managing Partner, Mayflower Advisors, LLC (2009 PLANSPONSOR Retirement Plan Adviser of the Year) and Rick Wedge, of Northgate Benefits, in Novato, California (2010 PLANSPONSOR Retirement Plan Adviser of the Year). The judges panel for the Retirement Plan Adviser Team of the Year judging panel included Ryan Gardner, representing Fiduciary Investment Advisors, LLC, the 2009 PLANSPONSOR Retirement Plan Adviser Team of the Year, and Doug Prince, representing The Price Group of Stifel Nicolas, the 2010 PLANSPONSOR Retirement Plan Adviser Team of the Year.