Deals & People August 4, 2017

Retirement Industry People Moves

Marsh & McLennan Agency Expands Leadership; Zenith American Solutions Acquires Insurance Programmers; Hirtle Callaghan Hires Head of Client Engagement; and more.
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Marsh & McLennan Agency Expands Leadership

Marsh & McLennan Agency (MMA), the middle market agency subsidiary of Marsh, has appointed Bill Jeatran as president and Christina Mott as chief operating officer. In these roles, both will report to David Eslick, chairman and CEO.

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As president of MMA, Jeatran will focus on developing and advancing MMA’s strategic direction through acquisitions, client engagement and talent development. He will continue to be based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Jeatran succeeds Ben Allen who has left the firm. Formerly CEO of its upper Midwest region, Jeatran founded RJF Agencies in 1986 and served as CEO until its acquisition by MMA in 2011.

As COO, Mott will be responsible for operational best practices, innovation, technology/digitization initiatives, and product development. She will work closely with regional MMA leaders and teams across Marsh & McLennan Companies. Based in New York, Mott previously served as innovation leader, Marsh Global Risk & Specialties. Her prior roles include corporate global head of innovation and director of Solution Development for Oliver Wyman.  

NEXT: Zenith American Solutions Acquires Insurance Programmers

Zenith American Solutions Acquires Insurance Programmers

Zenith American Solutions announced today that it has acquired Connecticut-based Insurance Programmers (IPI).  

The firm provides health, welfare and retirement administration services to union trust organizations located across the East Coast. The acquisition of IPI expands Zenith's presence in the greater New England region and extends its client base, which includes Taft-Hartley trust funds, trade associations, government entities and corporate employers across the United States.

"IPI and Zenith share a long and impressive history of serving clients in this industry for more than 100 years combined,” says Art Schultz, chief executive officer. “Our companies also share a deep commitment to providing our customers with unmatched expertise and support."

Lawrence Bourland, chief executive officer and president, will continue to lead IPI and report to Schultz. The acquisition is effective immediately. Financial terms are not being disclosed.

This move marks the third acquisition that Zenith has completed in the past 18 months.

NEXT: Hirtle Callaghan Hires Head of Client Engagement

Hirtle Callaghan Hires Head of Client Engagement

Erica Evans has joined Hirtle Callaghan as head of client engagement. She will work closely with Hirtle Callaghan’s investment officers to advance a client-centric model.  

Evans brings more than 25 years of experience in the financial services industry. She’s served as head of sales strategy and institutional partnerships at Hartford Funds, head of institutional business at ING Investment Management and head of client investment management services at GE Asset Management.

In previous roles Evans has successfully worked with clients, grown assets, recruited and managed sales forces, and built strategic planning processes, according to the firm.  

NEXT:FIS Partners with CUNA Mutual

FIS Partners with CUNA Mutual

FIS announced a new contract to provide recordkeeping, data processing and operational processing for plans working with CUNA Mutual Retirement Solutions.

As part of the multi-year agreement, CUNA Mutual will have access to the FIS OMNI platform, which will be leveraged as part of a new initiative called PlanOnTarget.  

The program will provide CUNA Mutual’s adviser partners, plan sponsors, third-party administrators and participants with enhanced recordkeeping, reporting, and data management capabilities. A redesigned website and mobile application is also part of the effort.  

Paul Chong, senior vice president, CUNA Mutual Retirement Solutions, says this initiative will allow the firm to focus on its strengths, invest in resources to create a customer experience that differentiates it in the market, and reinforce its long-term commitment to the retirement business.

NEXT: Nationwide Names Chief of Investment Research

Nationwide Names Chief of Investment Research

Mark Hackett has been named chief of Investment research at Nationwide.

In his new role, Hackett will lead Nationwide Funds' capital markets analysis and mutual funds thought leadership initiative. He will be tasked with developing content to educate financial advisers and their clients on financial markets and the implications for investors. He is also responsible for conducting asset class research, making market commentary, and writing white papers. In addition, he will support several teams within Nationwide's mutual funds division.

Hackett has more than 17 years of experience in the asset management industry including roles in research for both Nuveen and Vanguard Group. He also served as a portfolio manager for Nuveen.

He earned a bachelor’s degree in business administration with concentrations in finance and economics at the University of Richmond. He holds chartered financial analyst (CFA) and chartered market technician (CMT) designations and is a member of the CFA Institute. 

NEXT: American Century Brings on New Portfolio Manager

American Century Brings on New Portfolio Manager

Tsuyoshi (“Yoshi”) Ozaki has joined American Century Investments as a portfolio manager within its Disciplined Equity Group. He co-manages the U.S. Disciplined Large Cap Growth, U.S. Disciplined Large Cap Long/Short, and the U.S. Utilities strategies.

Ozaki brings more than 18 years of experience to his new role. He has served as executive director of MSCI, senior quantitative researcher with Quantal International, and portfolio manager on the Japan Equity Market Neutral strategy for Algert Coldiron Investors.

He joined American Century from Axioma, where he served as director and senior member of the global equity analytics team. He will report to Vice President and Portfolio Manager Yulin Long.

Ozaki holds a bachelor’s degree in biophysics from Columbia University and a doctorate in neuroscience from Rockefeller University.

Data & Research August 4, 2017

Employers Need Help Addressing Aging Workers

While four out of five employers say they support employees working past age 65, they also understand that an aging workforce has its drawbacks. 
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A new report penned by Catherin Collinson, CEO and president of Transamerica Institute and its Transamerica Center for Retirement Studies, delves into the sensitive topic of managing the average age of a workforce.

At the top of her analysis, Collinson notes that the data underlying the 17th Annual Transamerica Retirement Survey has been collected since 1998, when Transamerica Center for Retirement Studies first kicked off its recurring national survey of U.S. business employers and workers regarding their attitudes toward retirement. Each update to the research sets quotas for large and small companies and results are statistically weighted as needed.  

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From a high level, the findings show both a positive and negative outlook for U.S. retirement plans. While the quality of plans has clearly improved since the survey effort began nearly two decades ago, overall, nearly seven in 10 plan sponsors believe that most employees at their company could work until age 65 and still not save enough to meet their retirement needs.

“People are living longer than at any other time in history, which is putting a strain on Social Security and intensifying shortfalls in personal savings,” Collinson warns. “It’s hardly surprising that many workers envision working past age 65 and some do not plan to retire at all.”

The data shows fully 72% of employers agree with the statement, “Many employees at my company expect to work past age 65 or do not plan to retire,” including 24% who “strongly agree” and 48% who “somewhat agree.”   

While four out of five employers say they support employees working past age 65, they also understand that an aging workforce has its drawbacks, some of them severe, for example from the perspective of health benefits expenses and higher average wages. Collinson suggests some of the willingness among employers to see employees work past the traditional retirement age comes from the fact that retirees are transiting away from work in a variety of ways.

“Almost half of employers say that many of their employees envision a phased transition that involves reducing hours and/or working in a different capacity,” she explains. “Forty-four percent of employers believe that many workers envision working as long as possible in their current or similar position until they cannot work anymore. Only 35% of employers believe that many employees envision a planned stop, i.e., when they reach a certain age or savings amount.”

NEXT: Older workers and employer perception

The Transamerica research goes on to warn that there are some seeming discrepancies between how employees and employers view this concept of phased retirement.

“Despite employers’ recognition that many of their employees envision a flexible or phased transition into retirement, few have actual programs in place to support them,” Collinson observes. “Only 39% of employers offer flexible schedules. Even fewer enable their employees to shift from full-time to part-time or take on positions that are less stressful or demanding. Moreover, employers are missing an opportunity to ensure smoother transitions when their employees do retire.”

In the end, only 27% of employers today encourage employees to participate in succession planning, training and mentoring, Transamerica finds. Given all these findings, Collinson says it is only natural that concerns about ageism are common in today’s society, especially with so many workers planning to work past age 65 and delay full retirement. As a result many employers are making a good faith effort to establish reasonable policies in this area.

As the data shows, when asked to “select all that apply” from a list of 12 potential perceptions of workers age 50 and over, the vast majority (85%) of employers cited one or more positive perceptions. Many employers indicated that older workers “bring more knowledge, wisdom and life experience, are more responsible, reliable and dependable, and are a valuable resource for training and mentoring. In contrast, a smaller majority of employers (59%) also cited some negative perceptions, including “higher healthcare costs, higher wages and salaries, and higher disability costs.”

The full analysis is available for download here. 

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