Bob Parise has joined Northern Trust Asset Management as practice lead, Public Funds and Taft-Hartley plans for the Institutional Group.

In this newly-created leadership role, he will collaborate across sales and client relationship management to establish business strategy and lead the delivery of investment solutions, including equity, fixed income and alternative asset classes, for these institutional segments.

Parise joins from J.P. Morgan Asset Management, where he was co-head of the Americas defined benefit business, responsible for new business development and relationship management across a group of corporate, public and Taft-Hartley defined benefit and defined contribution retirement plans.

“Bob’s exceptional leadership skills and depth of knowledge about the Public Fund and Taft-Hartley segments will strengthen our investment offering for these plans that serve millions of workers,” says John Abunassar, head of Sales and Distribution in North America for the Institutional Group at Northern Trust Asset Management.

Parise has more than 20 years of experience at J.P. Morgan Asset Management and its predecessor firms. Prior to his leadership role in the defined benefit business, Parise was Midwest regional manager, a client adviser and an institutional sales executive. He earned a Bachelor of Business, Finance degree from Western Illinois University and an M.B.A. from DePaul University.

Michael Rollings will join Vanguard next month as chief financial officer and head of its Finance division.

Rollings most recently served as executive vice president and chief financial officer of MassMutual Financial Group.

He will assume leadership of Vanguard’s Finance division from managing director Glenn Reed, who will remain a member of the firm’s 11-person senior leadership team and head Vanguard’s Strategy division. Rollings will be responsible for all of Vanguard’s finance functions, including middle-office investment operations, investment product accounting and administration, and internal audit.

After starting his career in banking in New York City, Rollings joined MassMutual in 2001 to lead the firm’s Capital Markets division, and was named executive vice president and CFO in 2006. He received a B.S. degree in business administration from Georgetown University and holds a postgraduate degree from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University.

Mike Amine, a longtime financial adviser and firm leader, is expanding the footprint of Securian Financial Services in Michigan with the opening of Wealth Strategies Financial Group, a new firm which Amine is leading as managing partner.

Securian Financial Services is an independent broker/dealer and registered investment advisory firm offering financial services through a network of locally owned firms and financial advisers.

Amine joins Securian with 26 years of industry experience, most recently as managing partner of the MetLife Premier Client Group of Michigan.

Amine is a former member of the American College of Financial Services President’s Circle, an active board member of the National Association of Insurance and Financial Advisors-Greater Detroit, and past president of the University of Michigan Letterwinners ‘M’ Club and Victors Club. He is a graduate of the University of Michigan.

Sapiens International Corporation, a global provider of software solutions for the insurance industry, with a growing presence in the financial services sector, has significantly increased its investment in its North American insurance and retirement services practice. 

Sapiens has fortified its local staff with Mike McCurley, the new head of North American sales, and an expanded sales team. The company has also added senior-level delivery personnel, SMEs, business analysts, developers and support teams in North America.

Sapiens’ North American insurance and retirement services experts—including sales, development, delivery and support—will be located across the United States and Canada. These experts will support all of Sapiens’ lines of business, including life, annuity, property and casualty, reinsurance, retirement services and decision management.

More information is at http://www.sapiens.com/.

Jim Rothaus was recently hired as the regional sales consultant for The Retirement Advantage, Inc. (TRA).

Rothaus is responsible for helping advisers in the small- to-mid-sized qualified retirement plan market delivering TRA's retirement plan solutions. He will be supporting Alaska, Northern California, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, and Washington territories. Rothaus will report to Craig Mazzini, national sales manager of TRA.

Rothaus has worked in the financial services and retirement plans industries for more than 26 years. For the past several years he has held various sales management roles within Aspire, including, most recently, regional sales manager.

Rothaus received a Bachelor of Science from University of San Francisco.