Retirement Industry People Moves

SageView Advisory Group Acquires LA-Based Wealth Management Firm 

SageView Advisory Group has announced that Summit Financial Consultants of Westlake Village, California, is the latest firm to join forces with the company. Summit Financial Consultants, which has $321 million in assets under management, offers retirement planning and comprehensive financial planning services to its clients.

The agreement with Summit Financial Consultants is the sixth that SageView has announced since July 2021, and closely follows recent retirement and wealth management acquisitions. SageView’s strategy of expanding in the wealth management space through recruiting and acquisitions has enabled the firm to build its presence in Southern California, where SageView has long maintained a focus on financial wellness and retirement plan support for its clients.

Summit Financial Consultants’ clients can expect to continue to receive the same financial advice and service they received before the acquisition, while enjoying the benefits of SageView’s full suite of investment and planning services.

SkyView served as exclusive financial adviser to Summit. The transaction is expected to close on July 31.

OneAmerica Brings Aboard New Head of Retirement Business Development

OneAmerica has announced the addition of Barbara Lewis as head of business development, a new retirement services leadership position.

In this role, Lewis leads a team focused on growing strategic distribution partnerships for OneAmerica—deepening existing relationships and exploring opportunities that leverage the firm’s differentiators in key markets. Her team is structured around major distribution channels including third-party administrators, broker/dealers, aggregators, retail and national consulting.

Lewis reports to Mike Domingos, head of distribution for retirement services, and she began earlier this month. She brings a wealth of industry experience and in-depth market knowledge, and served most recently as vice president of sales and strategic relations for Prudential Retirement, where she led the teams responsible for national adviser and consultant relationships.

Lockton Financial Services Adds Alternative Investment Expert

Lockton has announced the appointment of M. Machua Millett as chief innovation officer and alternative investment practice leader within its Lockton Financial Services unit.

Millett brings to Lockton deep technical expertise and complex claims experience. He has worked extensively with private equity and venture capital firms, hedge funds, SPACs and companies involved in traditional IPOs and reverse mergers. He joins Lockton from Marsh, where he spent 12 years in a variety of leadership roles, most recently as chief innovation officer in the company’s FINPRO Practice.

At Marsh, Millett helped to create a number of new insurance coverage solutions, including products focused on wage and hour liability, regulatory investigation costs, intellectual property infringement liability, reputational risk and SPAC/de-SPAC transactions. Prior to his brokerage career, he spent a decade as an intellectual property, securities and general commercial litigator and insurance coverage defense lawyer at Skadden Arps, Bingham McCutchen and Edwards Angell Palmer & Dodge.

Based in Boston, Millett will report to Gary Phillips, Lockton financial services leader for the Northeast.

NFP Appoints New Surety Leader in Canada

NFP has announced the hiring of John Stewart as senior vice president, surety leader, in Canada. In this role, Stewart will lead strategic surety business development in Canada and build a national surety team to service clients’ contract and commercial bonding needs. He will report to Guy Jolicoeur, managing director, technical risk construction surety natural resources, NFP in Canada.

Stewart joins NFP from Allianz Trade in North America, where he served as senior underwriter. Prior to that, he worked in a variety of underwriting and leadership roles for Liberty International Underwriting/Liberty Mutual Insurance Company and Ally Financial Inc. In addition to a bachelor’s degree from the University of Michigan, Stewart holds an Associate in Fidelity and Surety Bonding designation from the American Institute for Chartered Property Casualty Underwriters.

Morgan Stanley at Work to Acquire American Financial Systems

Morgan Stanley at Work has announced the acquisition of American Financial Systems, a provider of nonqualified executive benefit plan solutions and services to employers of all sizes. 

The business’s full-service deferred compensation plan offerings include plan design consulting; plan implementation and online enrollment; funding analysis and optimization; and client management and plan recordkeeping.

Terms of the transaction, which is expected to close in autumn, were not disclosed.

The Standard Hires Stable Value Sales Director

The Standard has announced the hiring of Mike Shamon as stable value sales director. He is responsible for growth through new investment-only stable value sales in the eastern region and is based in the greater Boston area.

Shamon has almost 30 years of experience in the retirement plans and benefits industry. He previously held roles as relationship manager at J.P. Morgan Asset Management and national 401(k) sales desk manager at Putnam Investments and Empower Retirement.

Shamon holds a master’s degree in business administration and management from Nichols College. He also earned a bachelor’s degree in political science from Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts. Shamon holds FINRA Series 6, 7 and 63 licenses.

Lincoln Financial Group Unites Investments, Risk and Sustainability Teams

Lincoln Financial Group has announced it has appointed Amber Williams, senior vice president and head of client investment strategies, to lead corporate sustainability as the firm’s chief sustainability officer.

Williams’ elevated responsibilities come as the investments and risk organization welcomes sustainability within its purview—a move that aligns Lincoln’s structure with its long-term strategic business plan being driven by newly appointed CEO Ellen Cooper.

Since joining Lincoln in 2019, Williams has grown the client investment strategies team, expanding its reach across Lincoln’s distribution channels and among client-facing professionals in support of Lincoln’s business lines. She and her team are responsible for establishing a differentiated thought leadership program that maximizes the value of Lincoln’s multi-manager platform.

Prior to Lincoln, Williams spent much of her career at Nationwide Investment Management Group in a variety of investment product management and investment consulting roles of increasing responsibility. Most recently, she served as head of product management, where she was responsible for building and leading a team dedicated to strengthening the quality of investment support to internal partners and financial advisers across Nationwide’s investment products.

Williams holds a bachelor’s degree in accounting from the University of Phoenix and is a member of the CFA Society of Philadelphia. She holds Series 6, 7 and 24 securities licenses.

PGIM Fixed Income Hires Former Deputy National Security Adviser as Chief Global Economist

PGIM Fixed Income has named Daleep Singh as chief global economist and head of global macroeconomic research, effective June 21.

Singh joins PGIM Fixed Income from the White House, where he was U.S. deputy national security adviser for international economics and deputy director of the National Economic Council. In this capacity, he served as President Joe Biden’s top international economics adviser, driving policy formulation at the intersection of economics and national security. His work has included the development of fiscal and tax policy; shaping the U.S. economic strategy with China; leading efforts to promote supply chain resilience; promoting the development of a digital asset strategy; and building an economic governance toolkit that includes tariffs, sanctions, export controls, energy security, debt relief, bilateral assistance and infrastructure finance.

Singh also served as the U.S. representative to the G7, G20 and APEC. Prior to joining the Biden administration, Singh was executive vice president and head of the markets group at the New York Federal Reserve, where he led a team of nearly 600 employees overseeing the group’s full portfolio during the most intense phase of the pandemic.

From 2011 to 2017, Singh worked at the U.S. Department of the Treasury as acting assistant secretary for financial markets and deputy assistant secretary for Europe and Eurasia. Preceding his tenure at the Treasury Department, Singh worked for Goldman Sachs, with a focus on U.S. interest rates and currency markets.

Singh will report to Gregory Peters, co-CIO for PGIM Fixed Income, and will be responsible for oversight of PGIM Fixed Income’s global macroeconomic research team, which includes senior economists with extensive experience in the public and private sectors.