Deals & People July 23, 2021

Retirement Industry People Moves

Dakota Wealth Management acquires Persimmon Capital Management; Evercore Wealth Management selects new wealth and fiduciary adviser; ISIAH International partners with Hub International and Forest Capital Management; and more.

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Art by Subin Yang

Art by Subin Yang

Dakota Wealth Management Acquires Persimmon Capital Management 

Dakota Wealth Management is expanding into Pennsylvania with the acquisition of Persimmon Capital Management. Persimmon, which is located outside Philadelphia and employs four people, manages roughly $260 million in client assets.

The transaction was expected to close earlier this month and would push Dakota Wealth Management’s total assets under management (AUM) to roughly $1.7 billion. Dakota acquired four firms in roughly its first year of existence, most recently moving into Akron, Ohio, through its acquisition of $300 million Springside Partners in May 2019.

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Through its deal with Persimmon Capital Management, Dakota Wealth Management is acquiring a firm that specializes in working with ultra-high-net-worth clients. Led by Managing Partner Greg Horn, Persimmon Capital Management works with just 18 client families.

Dakota Wealth Management also plans to fold in Persimmon Capital Management’s in-house investment products, which include a long/short equity fund and an absolute return fund. Neither party commented on a specific purchase price for the transaction. However, Peter Raimondi, chief executive officer and founder of Dakota, indicated that the transaction was structured so that 70% of the total consideration was paid in Dakota Wealth Management equity, while the remaining 30% was paid in cash.

Evercore Wealth Management Selects New Wealth and Fiduciary Adviser 

Evercore Wealth Management has appointed Eva Anthony as managing director and wealth and fiduciary adviser of Evercore Wealth Management and Evercore Trust Co. N.A.

Anthony joins Evercore from BNY Mellon Wealth Management, where she worked as a senior fiduciary specialist, providing fiduciary and planning advice to high-net-worth clients. Prior to joining BNY Mellon in 2015, she worked as a lead trust officer at Morgan Stanley Private Bank, N.A. and, earlier, as senior trust officer and trust counsel at Fiduciary Trust Co. International. Anthony began her career as a trusts and estate lawyer.

“We are pleased to welcome Eva to our firm,” says Chris Zander, CEO of Evercore Wealth Management and Evercore Trust Co. “Her professional experience and team approach in serving families with complex wealth planning and fiduciary needs will contribute to our continued growth.”

Anthony is based in the New York office of Evercore Wealth Management.

She received a bachelor’s degree from the Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art and a juris doctor from Brooklyn Law School. She is admitted to the bar in both New York and New Jersey and is a member of the New York State Bar Association. She currently serves on the board of the New York Civil Liberties Union as Chair of the Audit and Oversight Committee.

She previously served on the board of the LGBT Bar Association of Greater New York.

ISIAH International Partners with Hub International and Forest Capital Management

ISIAH International is entering the global insurance broker and employee benefits marketplaces by partnering with Hub International and Forest Capital Management. 

Isiah Thomas, an NBA Hall of Famer, will be the chief executive officer of the new venture. This opportunity will leverage his sports business experience to establish new partnerships with premium properties and organizations across the business landscape.

“I’ve experienced firsthand the challenges that businesses face in securing insurance and benefits for their companies and employees,” says Thomas. “We have formed ISIAH Insurance with the goal of addressing that need. I am excited to be in partnership with the Hub International and Forest Capital Management teams. Their products and customer service are world class and allow us to provide the feel of a local business with the support of a national provider.”

“The vision that Isiah has to become the largest minority-owned insurance broker in the world is something we take a lot of pride in being a part of and we look forward to partnering with Isiah and his team to make this happen,” says Nick Gialamas, area president of Hub International and 27-year industry veteran.

“Forest Capital Management is excited to partner with Isiah and his team in expanding our services across the U.S. We look forward to the complementary nature of the value that Isiah and his team can provide and feel this is the beginning of a long-standing partnership,” says Brian Jessen, president and managing partner of Forest Capital Management.

MassMutual Hires Investment Management Solutions Head

Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Co. (MassMutual) has added industry veteran Andrea Anastasio in a newly created role as the head of investment management solutions.

“Andrea joins us at a critical time as we continue to evolve our differentiated offering in a highly competitive and deeply entrenched universe of investment managers,” says Paul LaPiana, head of MassMutual U.S. product. “Andrea will lead the investment product team and partner with our distribution and marketing teams to champion our investment capabilities as we continue to grow our MassMutual Investments brand and business. She brings a significant breadth and depth of expertise to MassMutual, where we are more widely known for our prominence in providing top tier insurance solutions to market.”

Anastasio joins MassMutual from State Street Global Advisors where, most recently, she served as head of investment strategy and research, North America. Previously, Anastasio spent more than 15 years with Wellington Management Co., most recently as an investment director, equity product management. 

Anastasio holds a Master in Business Administration from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business and a bachelor’s degree in economics from College of the Holy Cross. She is a member of the Boston Security Analysts Society and the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) Institute. 

Retirement Clearinghouse Adds Executive VP of Public Policy

Retirement Clearinghouse LLC has appointed Renée Wilder Guerin to serve as the firm’s executive vice president of public policy.

Wilder Guerin’s primary responsibility will be to drive support for public policy matters aiming to preserve retirement savings and increase retirement security for all Americans. Wilder-Guerin will be taking over the position from Tom Johnson, who is retiring.

“Enabling seamless plan-to-plan asset portability remains a top priority for the retirement services industry, but while much progress has been made in terms of public policy on this matter, there is still much to be done,” says Spencer Williams, founder, president, and CEO of Retirement Clearinghouse. “Renée’s many years of experience working on plan design and innovative programs which advocate for, and advance, improved service and retirement savings outcomes for the federal civilian and military workforce will be crucial as we look toward the next phase of Retirement Clearinghouse’s evolution. The progress we have made thus far would not have been possible without Tom Johnson’s commitment and vision, and we wish him all the best as he begins his next chapter.”

Prior to joining Retirement Clearinghouse, Wilder Guerin served as director, office of enterprise planning at the Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board (FRTIB), where she drove the vision, strategy and execution for the Thrift Savings Plan (TSP), the largest defined contribution (DC) plan in the country.

Earlier in her career, Wilder Guerin was executive director and CEO of the National Tax-Deferred Savings Association, an organization focused on 403(b) and 457(b) retirement markets. She was also an assistant vice president at MetLife Resources, where she was in charge of product development, marketing and communications in the health care, higher education and nonprofit sectors. Wilder Guerin obtained her master’s in business administration from Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business.

Compliance July 22, 2021

Women’s Retirement Protection Act Reintroduced in Congress

Democratic lawmakers in the House and Senate say the bill is needed to help address longstanding retirement insecurity issues—and to address some of the negative impacts of the pandemic.

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U.S. Senator Patty Murray, a Democrat from Washington who is the current chair of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee, and Representative Lauren Underwood, D-Illinois, have reintroduced the Women’s Retirement Protection Act of 2021 (WRPA).

According to the lawmakers, the legislation aims to address the gender-based retirement savings gap and bolster women’s financial security overall. They say the reintroduction comes in light of the COVID-19 pandemic and the related economic crisis that has disproportionately impacted women, particularly women of color.

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“COVID-19 has upended the finances of families across the country and led to severe job loss, especially in sectors like child care that disproportionately employ women, particularly women of color,” Murray says. “Even before this pandemic, women in America typically had less money saved for retirement, in part because they were paid less than their male counterparts for the same work throughout their careers. Inequities, like investments, compound over time—which is why it is so critical we take action now to address how this pandemic and other challenges are undermining women’s financial futures.”

Underwood echoes these warnings, noting that even before the COVID-19 pandemic, data has long shown women’s financial futures are undermined by various factors. She and Murray cite data from the National Women’s Law Center, showing the average woman loses more than $400,000 over a 40-year career due to pay inequality, requiring women to work for almost a decade longer than their male counterparts to make up the gender wage gap. The same research shows women are also more likely to be part-time workers—which can limit their access to employer-sponsored retirement plans. They may also be prevented from securing the retirement resources they are entitled to following a divorce due to barriers like complex rules and legal fees.

Responding to these issues, the WRPA includes a set of solutions that work to close the retirement gap by addressing some of the challenges that disproportionately affect women as they plan for their financial futures. The legislation, according to its sponsors, would strengthen consumer protections to safeguard retirement savings, increase eligibility for employer-sponsored retirement savings plans for part-time workers, increase access to information about retirement and savings tools, and help women with low incomes and survivors of domestic abuse get the retirement benefits they are entitled to following a divorce.

Among other goals, the WRPA would pursue the following:

  • Strengthen consumer protections to safeguard retirement savings by expanding existing spousal protections for defined benefit plans to defined contributions plans to prevent one spouse from making decisions that might undermine a couple’s retirement resources without the other’s knowledge and consent.
  • Ensure more part-time workers are offered retirement savings plans by expanding the minimum participation standards for part-time workers—most of whom are women.
  • Increase access to information about retirement and savings tools by providing grants for community-based organizations to help provide information and financial tools to women who are of working or retirement age.
  • Support women with low incomes and survivors of domestic abuse seeking retirement benefits by providing grants for community-based organizations that assist them in obtaining qualified domestic relations orders, the legal instruments that allow for the division of retirement benefits—assuring they receive the retirement benefits they are entitled to following a divorce or legal separation.

The bill enjoys more than a dozen co-sponsors it the Senate, and a handful of co-sponsors in the House—all of them Democrats.

Upon its reintroduction, the WRPA immediately received endorsements from the National Women’s Law Center, the Pension Rights Center and AARP.

“Women, especially women with low incomes and women of color, were facing a retirement crisis even before the pandemic,” says Amy Matsui, director of income security at the National Women’s Law Center. “Without swift and targeted action, women will feel the impact of the past year and a half of economic devastation for the rest of their lives. The Women’s Retirement Protection Act will take meaningful steps to safeguard and protect women’s retirement security.”

Karen Friedman, executive director of the Pension Rights Center, says the bill would effectively expand savings options for part-time workers, provide help for women in obtaining a share of their former spouse’s retirement benefits at divorce, and improve spousal rights in 401(k) plans.

Full text of the Women’s Retirement Protection Act can be found here.

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