Retirement Industry People Moves

Wilshire Associates (Wilshire) has appointed two senior investment professionals, Suehyun Kim and Rebekah Chow, to the team at Wilshire Funds Management.

Kim joins as vice president of Wilshire Associates and portfolio manager at Wilshire Funds Management, based in Santa Monica. In this role, she will be responsible for creating multi-asset class, multi-manager investment solutions for financial intermediary clients. Chow joins as senior associate and a member of the manager research group at Wilshire Associates, based in Chicago. Her research will primarily focus on core, core plus and credit focused fixed income strategies.

Kim previously served as investment director at Cetera Financial Group and head of manager research for Cetera Investment Management. Prior to this, Kim was an equity analyst and director of research at the Global Fund Group, LLC. Before relocating to Los Angeles, she spent over a decade in New York, working as a fundamental equity analyst on long-only and long/short strategies, first at Morgan Stanley Asset Management in domestic equity, then with Millgate Capital, a hedge fund focused on international investment.

Chow comes to Wilshire with almost two decades of industry experience. Prior to joining Wilshire Associates, Chow worked at Aon Hewitt as an investment analyst and was a senior member of the Investment Manager Research Group, focusing on fixed income managers. Before entering the consulting business, Chow spent a decade on the buy-side as a corporate credit analyst.

Ladenburg Thalmann Invests in Tax Automation Provider

Ladenburg Thalmann Financial Services Inc. (Ladenburg), a publicly-traded, diversified financial services company, has announced its investment in Track Technologies, Inc. (Track), a San Francisco-based digital provider of tax automation for independent contractors, freelancers, and other workers who generate self-employed income.

The investment enables Ladenburg to align technology-enabled solutions to support the business growth of financial advisers affiliated with its five independent advisory and brokerage (IAB) subsidiary firms: Securities America, Triad Advisors, KMS Financial Services, Investacorp and Securities Service Network. 

Track Technologies calculates, withholds and submits quarterly estimated payments on self-employment taxes for workers who use IRS 1099 Forms. Users can connect the software to their bank or credit card accounts to save time by allowing Track to synch, detect, and review transactions such as deposits and expenses, in order to notify users about income taxes owed as well as potential deductions.

Southern Maryland Insurance Joins The Hilb Group

The Hilb Group, LLC (THG) has announced the addition of Maryland-based Southern Maryland Insurance, Inc. (SMI).

SMI is primarily a property/casualty insurance agency offering coverage to businesses throughout the Mid-Atlantic area. Located in Bowie, Maryland, SMI’s managing director Ken Wyvill and his associates will join THG’s Mid-Atlantic operations led by Rick Tepel.

“Our clients can continue to rely on our commitment to provide the outstanding service that has earned us a reputation as a knowledgeable and hard-working insurance partner,” says Wyvill. “They will also gain the added resources and benefits from partnering with a national organization to ensure we offer our customers the best solutions for their business.”

PGIM Investments Joins Edward Jones Group

PGIM Investments has joined Edward Jones’ group of Strategic Product Partners.

In addition to offering PGIM funds, Edward Jones offers products from Prudential Annuities and Individual Life Insurance. 

“We’re pleased to add PGIM to our list of strategic partners,” says Kyle Andersen, Edward Jones principal, managed investments. “We believe their offerings enhance our ability to provide our clients the best solutions to achieve their investment goals.” 

Portfolio Management Platform Joins LPL Program

LPL Financial has selected SS&C’s Black Diamond Wealth Platform for their Vendor Affinity Program.

Black Diamond Wealth Platform provides advisers with a purposeful suite of tools including portfolio management, reporting, client communications and more. Advisers use Black Diamond to manage their client’s complete wealth picture, and the newest version of Investor Experience provides advisors with a clear way to differentiate their client experience in a competitive market for high-net worth investors.

“We are creating strategic partnerships with valued technology providers to offer data integration with their tools to make it easier for advisors to manage their businesses,” says Burt White, managing director, investor and investment solutions, and chief investment officer, LPL Financial. “The addition of Black Diamond to our Vendor Affinity Program as an integrated solution creates a lot value for our advisers. Advisers will have access to their consolidated reporting capabilities with a streamlined experience offered at a more competitive price. This is the next step in our evolving journey to deliver an enhanced and sophisticated technology experience that will drive more efficiency for our advisers.”

 “In order to support compliance and oversight of our mutual clients, we worked with the LPL team to establish specific reporting to meet those needs,” says Bob Conchiglia, vice president, advisory sales, SS&C Advent. “Our latest partnership with LPL continues our mission of delivering an outstanding digital experience for advisers to elevate their client relationships and practice.”

Catawba Capital Joins CAPTRUST

CAPTRUST has announced that Roanoke, Virginia-based investment advisory firm Catawba Capital Management has joined the company. Catawba brings more than $1 billion in client assets to CAPTRUST and will assume the company’s brand as part of this merger.  

Founded in 1992 and led by partners Terence Crowgey and R. Jay Irons, Catawba’s 10-member team specializes in investment management for individuals, businesses, and institutions across 21 states.

“We are excited to join together with CAPTRUST, first and foremost because they understand our culture and deeply embedded commitment to our clients,” says Crowgey. “As part of this new team, we’re excited to take advantage of an extremely deep bench of investment, research, and planning expertise to help our clients grow their wealth and plan for their futures. This is an exciting time for Catawba.”  

GAM Investments Appoints Managing Director

GAM Investments has hired Maggie Gresio as managing director of business development covering the institutional market in the U.S. She joins in July and will be based in New York, reporting to Gary Droscoski.

Gresio joins from Man Group where she was managing director of sales and marketing covering the U.S. west coast. Previously she was sales and marketing director at Fulcrum Asset Management for five years and has held various sales and investment research roles at Bluecrest Capital Management, Natixis Capital Markets and Lehman Brothers.

Gary Droscoski, head of business development North America, says: “Maggie brings a wealth of experience to GAM—this will be invaluable in helping us to achieve our strategic U.S. growth plans and to service our growing sophisticated institutional client base.” 

ABG Partners with Penchecks Trust on Proprietary Technology

Alliance Benefit Group, LLC (ABG) has announced a new partnership with Penchecks Trust. Located in La Mesa, California, Penchecks Trust uses proprietary technology to help companies like ABG save time and money by streamlining a variety of time-consuming administrative tasks. 

“Most of the ABG member firms have already worked with Penchecks Trust in some capacity, and they know the high quality of products and services that are offered. I was pleased that we could work out a partnership between us,” says Don Mackanos, president of Alliance Benefit Group, LLC. “As a national network of independent consulting firms serving retirement plan providers, we look forward to utilizing Penchecks Trusts’ participant locator, uncashed checks and IRA program services to streamline and reduce our administrative workflow related to retirement distributions.” 

“We specialize in helping plan sponsors, third-party administrators, retirement plan advisors and financial institutions perform the myriad administrative tasks required to manage retirement plans,” says Peter Preovolos, president and CEO of PenChecks Trust. “But what we really do is help these companies provide better service to their clients while focusing more time and resources on revenue-producing activities. We look forward to helping ABG’s many members build stronger relationships with their clients by making it easier to do business with them.” 

ProShares Names Managing Director

ProShares has named Ben Fulton to the role of managing director. As a member of senior management, Fulton will contribute to the firm’s strategy and growing its business. He will report to ProShares CEO Michael L. Sapir.

Fulton’s principal responsibilities will include overseeing the company’s tactical products business. These products include all ProShares’ and ProFunds’ geared (leveraged and inverse) and volatility ETFs and mutual funds.

Most recently, Fulton was chief executive officer of Elkhorn Investments, a company he founded in 2013. Previously, as managing director of the global exchange-traded fund (ETF) business for Invesco, he had day-to-day responsibility over the PowerShares ETF business. Prior to Invesco PowerShares, Fulton held senior roles at Claymore Securities (Guggenheim), and Nuveen Investments. Fulton holds a bachelor’s degree in business administration and management from Taylor University in Indiana. He holds Series 3, 7, 24, 30, 63 and 66 FINRA registrations.

Financial Strategy Leader Joins Willis Towers Watson

Willis Towers Watson has announced the appointment of Richard McEvoy as U.S. Delegated Integrated Solutions lead. McEvoy is based in New York City and reports to Clint Cary, U.S. head of Delegated Investment Solutions.

In this new position, McEvoy will lead the development of delegated investment value propositions for integrated client solutions across investment and actuarial services. He will also serve as the strategic investment adviser to large pension plan sponsors, addressing their growing need to coordinate the management of pension assets with liabilities.

“We are very excited to have someone with Richard’s experience join our team,” says Cary. “The creation of this position represents our commitment to solving clients’ retirement plan management issues with fully integrated solutions. Our delegated investment solutions business is dedicated to helping clients achieve their goals accounting for all areas of both asset and liability management in today’s complex capital markets.”

McEvoy joins Willis Towers Watson after 22 years at Mercer, where he most recently led its Financial Strategy Group, which includes its pension buyout advice and solutions in the U.S. He is a CFA Charterholder, Fellow of the Institute of Actuaries (London), Fellow of the Society of Actuaries, Member of the American Academy of Actuaries and an Enrolled Actuary under the employee retirement income security act (ERISA).