Kelliher Group at Morgan Stanley

The Kelliher Group was started by Stephen Kelliher in 1992 with the goal of helping plan sponsors find suitable recordkeeping, investments, and employee education. However, it was not long before Kelliher began encountering investment advisory opportunities with defined benefit plans, trustee-directed profit-sharing plans, and union Taft-Hartley health and welfare funds. He was offering investment advisory services to plans and, over time, rather than hiring and firing outside managers, Kelliher began serving as the investment manager for sleeves of assets.

However, as that business grew, Kelliher realized he could not do it alone. He crossed paths with Joseph McLaughlin, then at Putnam Investments, where he had been exposed to all aspects of the business, including sales and operations. McLaughlin joined Kelliher in 1996. That advisory business has continued to grow and, in addition to the more than $700 million in corporate plans, Kelliher personally now serves as a discretionary portfolio manager for about $300 million in assets. Furthermore, McLaughlin says that the experience of serving as a discretionary manager and “actually managing plan assets makes us better advisers.’

Continued growth also created a need for additional support with the group’s 401(k) business—and that led to the hiring of Bennett White, who joined the team in 2000. White had been running the defined contribution sales team in New England for Putnam Investments, and Kelliher and McLaughlin had interacted with White during his time as a wholesaler. Other than the principals of the retirement team—which focuses exclusively on retirement plans—the broader team includes two partners and eight total support staff.

The firm’s clients generally have between $5 million and $75 million in assets, with an average plan size of $9 million and about 200 participants. Clients are predominantly headquartered in Massachusetts and Rhode Island. Although, practically speaking, it is helpful for them to be based locally, McLaughlin says, “If there are situations in other areas, we’ll look.” If there are clients or locations in other areas, he says, it just means the team travels. “One thing we’ve found very interesting,” comments McLaughlin, “is that all our clients are very interested in making sure they’re offering the best plan to their participants.: In order to help clients meet that goal, one of the missions of the Kelliher Group is to ensure that it provides the best experience to all in the plan, and to “make sure that each participant is getting the best value from the [retirement] plan.”

Photo by John Soares