Retirement Industry People Moves

AndCo Consulting (AndCo) has announced that it is expanding its Pittsburgh presence with the addition of three new consultants to its local team: Tim Walters, Chris Brokaw, and Chris Pipich. Each consultant has extensive experience in both Western Pennsylvania and nationally within the public, Taft-Hartley, corporate, healthcare and the endowment/foundation spaces.

AndCo has had an office in the Pittsburgh market since January 2015. Subsequently, the firm has steadily grown its local clientele across various plan types, while adding new resources and qualified team members to better service the region. 

Chris Brokaw and Tim Walters will both join the AndCo team as senior consultants, while Chris Pipich will join as an investment consultant.

Walters and Brokaw officially joined AndCo on December 1. Chris Pipich will join on December 12.

Commonwealth Adds Midwest Financial to Team of Advisers

Commonwealth Financial Network announced the addition of Midwest Financial Group of Madison, Horicon, and Platteville, Wisconsin, to its network of independent financial advisers. Formerly affiliated with SII Investments Inc., advisers involved in the partnership include Mark Miehe, Matt Cuplin, Brandon Masbruch, and Tony Pochowski—along with their team.

After performing extensive due diligence on several potential partner firms, Cuplin says Commonwealth’s technology innovation and company culture were the determining factors.

Pensionmark Reveals ProCourse as Latest Affiliate

Pensionmark has announced its newest affiliate, ProCourse Fiduciary Advisors (ProCourse). Based out of Indianapolis, ProCourse is and will continue to be an independent registered investment adviser (RIA). Their team members have provided retirement plan investment advisory and consulting services since 1998 and specialize in advising institutional retirement plans.

The new relationship with Pensionmark is in part designed to enhance ProCourse’s custom Financial Well-Being Program, “Tilt,” along with the company’s other employee- and sponsor-facing offerings. 

Franklin Templeton Hires Head of Client Investment Solutions

Wylie Tollette will rejoin Franklin Templeton Investments to take on the newly created role of head of client investment solutions for Franklin Templeton Multi-Asset Solutions. He will join on January 8, 2018. 

Tollette will be rejoining Franklin Templeton from CalPERS, where he currently serves as chief operating investment officer. Tollette has close to 25 years of financial services experience, almost two decades of those years with Franklin Templeton. Prior to leaving in 2014, he had served as head of the firm’s performance analytics and investment risk group.

Tollette’s responsibilities will include oversight of client investment solution development for the firm’s multi-asset platform.  As a key member of the senior leadership team, he will partner closely with the company’s global distribution groups on all Multi-Asset Solutions-related opportunities across a broad range of clients. 

Edelman Announces Employment of Two Chief Officers

Edelman Financial Services has announced that it has named Rene Chaze to a newly created role of chief development officer, charged with driving an expansion strategy via acquisitions for the 30-year-old company. The company also named Jon Isaacson as its new chief financial officer, overseeing accounting and finance operations for the company.

Chaze has led several vital transactions for the firm. Before joining Edelman in 2011, Chaze was a partner at Ernst & Young.

Following Chaze’s appointment to chief development officer, the firm appointed Jon Isaacson to assume the role of chief financial officer, leading accounting, finance, budgeting, forecasting, treasury, tax and financial analysis areas.

Most recently, Isaacson served as the managing director of buyouts for American Capital, Ltd., a publicly traded private equity and global asset-management firm that merged with Ares Capital Corporation earlier this year. Prior to American Capital, Ltd., he was with private equity firms Thayer Capital Partners and GTCR Golder Rauner, LLC. 

Isaacson received his master’s of business administration from Stanford University Graduate School of Business and a Bachelor of Arts in political science from The Johns Hopkins University.

Industry Veteran Joins Jennison Associates as Global Head of Distribution  

Jennison Associates has announced that Loraine McEvoy will join the firm as global head of distribution, effective December 15. The new role, which combines oversight of all of Jennison’s client-facing sales and servicing activity, will include responsibility for institutional, sub-advisory, and retail distribution; consultant relations; and client service.

McEvoy, who has 31 years of investment industry experience, was most recently head of institutional sales at ClearBridge Investments. In this role she was responsible for the direction and management of institutional sales, consultant relations, and sub-advisory relationships. She also was a member of the leadership team that managed the distribution and sales organization. Before joining ClearBridge, she was head of institutional sales and service, and director of consultant relations at Fred Alger Management. Prior to her time at Alger, she was director of consultant relations at WisdomTree Investments.

McEvoy, who will work at Jennison’s New York headquarters, earned a bachelor’s of science degree from Rosemont College. She also has FINRA Series 26, 7, 6, and 63 licenses.

Millennium Acquires Inspira and ABG

Millennium Trust Company has announced the acquisition of InspiraFS, Inc. (Inspira) from Ad-Base Group, Inc. (ABG Capital). Inspira will be a subsidiary of Millennium and continue to market its services under the Inspira brand name.

Inspira’s technology platform offers both branded and private-label IRA [individual retirement account] recordkeeping solutions to retirement plan sponsors, financial institutions, corporations, third-party administrators (TPAs), and individual investors. 

The firm says this acquisition is an example of Millennium’s ongoing commitment to addressing emerging client needs, delivering innovative solutions, and strengthening its footprint in the retirement market. Millennium is actively pursuing acquisition opportunities and expects to complete additional transactions during the upcoming year.

First Empire Securities Adds President to Fixed Income Business  

First Empire Securities, a national fixed-income broker/dealer for institutional investors, announced the arrival of Christopher O’Connor as president. O’Connor, the former managing director of Capital Markets and Investment Banking at Incapital, will lead the company’s fixed income business.

O’Connor, who will be based in the company’s New York headquarters, will oversee the build out of its institutional sales and trading capabilities, most notably the debt capital markets and other specialty finance groups. He will also lead efforts to grow the firm’s relationships with upper tier financial institutions.

The arrival of O’Connor is the most recent high-level hire for the Long Island-based First Empire. In early November, the company added industry veterans Thomas O’Neill, a founding principal of the investment banking and brokerage firm Sandler O’Neill + Partners, and Edward LaScala, who formerly led the institutional sales group at Incapital.

 In addition to Incapital, O’Connor has held leadership positions at Pierpont Securities and Bear Stearns. His early career was spent as a corporate bond trader at J.P. Morgan Chase, First Boston and Salomon Brothers. O’Connor is a graduate of Washington and Lee University and Harvard Business School.

OneAmerica Hires Regional Vice President for East Coast Operations

OneAmerica has hired 25-year retirement industry veteran Todd Smiser to helm the company’s East Coast operations as regional vice president of retirement sales. 

Smiser was most recently senior vice president, corporate markets, with Voya Financial. Smiser, who begins this week, will lead a team of approximately 12 regional sales directors with retirement plan responsibilities for the eastern region. 

Glenmede Investment Appoints Portfolio Manager to Small & Mid Cap Equity Team

Glenmede Investment Management LP has announced the appointment of Jordan Irving as a portfolio manager on its Small & Mid Cap Equity team.

Irving joins long-term GIM portfolio managers Robert Mancuso and Christopher Colarik in the management and oversight of all Small Cap Equity and Mid Cap Equity portfolios.

Irving has 20 years of investment management experience. He most recently served as a founding partner and portfolio manager at Irving Magee Investment Management. Previously, Irving worked as a senior portfolio manager for both large and small cap value equity strategies at Macquarie Investment Management (formerly Delaware Investments). Earlier, he was part of the U.S. Active Large-Cap Value team within Merrill Lynch Investment Managers where he worked for six years.

Irving earned a bachelor’s of arts in American Studies from Yale University and a graduate diploma from Oxford University in England.