Retirement Industry People Moves

Beacon Pointe Advisors Merges With CBD Wealth Management

Beacon Pointe Advisors has announced its merger with CBD Wealth Management, a wealth management firm with $690 million in assets under management/advisement.

CBD is located in Metairie, Louisiana, a suburb of New Orleans, and represents clients throughout the state of Louisiana. CBD brings to Beacon Pointe 11 additional employees, including three managing directors and partners, Rocky Daigle, Bobby Comeaux and Walter Bond.

Daigle oversees CBD’s corporate retirement plan division. He previously worked as a practicing attorney before turning to financial planning. Bond has a background as a practicing attorney focused on the areas of defense litigation and estate planning. Now, he specializes in advising business owners and retirees, including clients retiring from Chevron and Entergy. Also beginning his career as an attorney, Comeaux oversees CBD’s investment and operational functions and assists clients with their retirement and business planning needs.

“Joining Beacon Pointe, ranked by Barron’s as one of the top 30 RIA [registered investment adviser] firms in the nation, will give us access to enhanced resources, including a larger investment management team, a broader financial planning department, and enhance our management of 401(k)s and other retirement plans, all resulting in a better experience for our clients,” Bond says. “Moreover, this partnership provides our team members with a clearly defined career path to aid in retention and attraction of talented professionals.”

CBD Wealth Management will be Beacon Pointe’s second office in the southern region of the United States.

Strategic Benefits Advisors Hires Leader of DB Administration Team

Employee benefits consulting firm Strategic Benefits Advisors Inc. (SBA) has welcomed retirement plan consultant Chris Lorino as the leader of the firm’s defined benefit (DB) administration team.

Lorino has 30 years’ experience providing benefits consulting, trust administration and relationship management services to DB and defined contribution (DC) plan providers.

Lorino served as a benefits consultant within SBA’s DC practice 10 years ago. Most recently, he was a senior client relationship executive at TriNet, where he managed some of the organization’s largest client relationships. Previously, he served as senior client relationship manager at Newport Group, where he assisted plan sponsors in the management of fiduciary responsibilities, developing and managing business plans tailored to each client’s specific business objectives. Lorino has also held senior management positions at Aon Hewitt predecessor Hewitt Associates.

Lorino holds a bachelor’s degree in corporate finance and investment banking from the University of Alabama.

Nationwide Hires Chief Data Officer

Nationwide has hired Laura Titas as senior vice president and chief data officer, responsible for leading Nationwide’s enterprise data office. Titas will report to Nationwide Executive Vice President and Chief Technology Officer Jim Fowler.

“We are so pleased to welcome Laura to Nationwide. She comes to us with a wealth of experience as a global digital strategist, marketing and technology leader with a proven track record of delivering transformational business outcomes,” Fowler says. “I know that she will be an outstanding addition to our team as we continue to evolve our technology offerings to provide customers with extraordinary protection and care.”

Titas joins Nationwide from Dublin, Ohio-based restaurant chain Wendy’s, where she served as the chief digital experience and technology officer leading the company’s global technology center of excellence. She also served as a board member on the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption and recently earned a 2020 Restaurant Business “The Power 20” leader selection.

Prior to Wendy’s, Titas worked as a managing director for Accenture Digital, where she led and evolved digital offerings globally. She also has financial services industry experience, having served at Rosetta as partner of the financial service industry business and partner of the customer insights and analytics practice. 

Titas earned a bachelor of science in applied mathematics and a bachelor of arts in statistics from the University of Rochester.