Retirement Industry People Moves

First Eagle Investment Management (First Eagle) has entered into a multi-year partnership with Boston College’s Center for Retirement Research (CRR).  Their objective is to work together to develop insights and tools for plan sponsors and financial advisers to use when helping retirement savers reach their goal of living a dignified life throughout retirement.

Initially, CRR and First Eagle will collaborate and publish a series of wide-ranging papers that explore key challenges that retirement savers face in the years leading up to and while in retirement. Topics will address how different workers save in their company-sponsored retirement plans, what affects spending in retirement, and the impact of health care expenses for different segments of the retiree population.

In addition, First Eagle and CRR plan to develop a customized, interactive platform that plan sponsors, financial advisers and plan participants can use to establish goals, project key milestones, and take positive action on the journey towards a secure retirement. Combined with specific plan features and aggregated participant data, this solution should be an effective avenue for plan sponsors to increase engagement of their participants as they save for retirement.   

John Hancock Adds Regional Vice President for Taft-Hartley Practice

John Hancock Retirement Plan Services (JHRPS) has hired Leo Reed as regional vice president, eastern region, for JHRPS’ Taft-Hartley practice. In this role, he is responsible for Taft-Hartley plan sales. Reed reports to Nick McParland, national sales manager for Hancock’s Mid/Large/Taft-Hartley markets.

Reed most recently served as head of Marketing and New Business Development for Scott’s Cove Management, where he oversaw all marketing, new business development and investor relations. Prior to that, he served as managing director for Sales and Relationship Management at Logan Circle Partners/Fortress Investment Group where he marketed investment products to Taft-Hartley plans nationally.

Reed earned a bachelor’s degree from Boston College and holds Series 7, 66, 31, 33 and Futures Branch Manager licenses.

Voya Hires Sales Executive for Small-Mid Business

Voya Retirement has recently hired Will Ahrens as regional vice president of Sales for the company’s Small-Mid Corporate Market business.

Ahrens will be responsible for generating new business and building key distribution relationships in Alabama, Mississippi and the Florida Panhandle. He will be working through all channels, including wirehouses, banks and independents that serve employers with plans up to $75 million in assets.

With nearly 20 years in the financial services industry, Ahrens comes to Voya with significant sales experience in the retirement plan space. Most recently, he held the position of regional vice president of Sales at TransAmerica, where he covered the Alabama territory.

“We’re thrilled for Will to join our expanding sales team here at Voya,” noted George Lessner, senior vice president, Worksite Markets at Voya. “His deep sales experience and noted success within the plan market space make him a great addition to our team.” 

Ahrens graduated from the University of Mobile with a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration.

OppenheimerFunds Adds to CEO Advisor Institute’s Executive Consulting Team

OppenheimerFunds has appointed Julie Sendelbach and Dave Thomas to its CEO Advisor Institute’s Executive Consulting team. Reporting to Paul Blease, director of CEO Advisor Institute at OppenheimerFunds, Sendelbach and Thomas will lead personal and professional development programs for financial advisers across the Midwest and Mid-Atlantic regions.

Sendelbach has over 25 years of experience and joins OppenheimerFunds from CEG Worldwide, where she spent 17 years advising some of the country’s largest and most complex adviser teams. Thomas joined OppenheimerFunds in 1997 and has held numerous roles, including most recently as regional sales manager for Virginia. 

“Leveraging their extensive industry experience, our senior business consultants assist advisors in developing strategies to grow their business, strengthen their teams and offer guidance to clients, especially during periods of increased market volatility,” says Blease.

The CEO Advisor Institute programs, including Compelling Conversations, Professional Practice, and Constructing and Managing a Synergistic Team, are offered through its CEO Advisor Institute app that addresses financial advisers’ personal and professional goals and challenges. 

intellicents Adds Analyst to Kansas City Office

The Kansas City office of intellicents has expanded their Personal Financial Management division with the addition of Scott Wightman, chartered financial analyst.  

Wightman joins the team along with the recent addition of Nick Madl. 

Prior to joining intellicents, Wightman worked as a financial analyst for Sprint and Adknowledge.  Most recently, he worked for American Century Investments providing consultative support to financial advisers on investment products offered through American Century.  In addition, Wightman earned his charter financial analyst(CFA) designation in 2017 and is a member of the Kansas City CFA Society.

Now as the chief investment officer for the intellicents Personal Financial Management Services, his responsibilities will include monitoring and overseeing investment and asset allocation policy.  In addition to his responsibilities as CIO of Personal Financial Management Services, he will work as a consultant to plan sponsors and personal financial management clients for intellicents in Kansas City. 

Greed Named Chairman of Board at Mutual of America  

Mutual of America Life Insurance Company has announced that John Greed was named chairman of the board, effective March 8. Greed, who is also president and chief executive officer of the company, succeeds Thomas Moran, who retired as chairman after more than 40 years of service with the company.

“I am leaving the company in the very capable hands of John Greed and a leadership team that, like John, is second to none,” says Moran. “He possesses the right combination of experience, expertise and vision to lead and help grow the company, while always remaining committed to the needs of our customers.”

Greed, who joined the company in 1996, was appointed chief executive officer of Mutual of America in April 2016, succeeding Moran. Prior to that appointment, he served as president for one year and as senior executive vice president and chief financial officer since December 2007. Prior to joining Mutual of America, Greed was a partner with Arthur Andersen.

Vanguard Promotes Four Professionals Within Fixed Income Group

Vanguard has announced four key appointments within its Fixed Income Group as part of the firm’s long-standing practice of periodically rotating investment professionals to broaden their experience and strengthen and deepen the firm’s equity and bond management teams.

“We have employed rotations as a way to build global investment teams that are deep, diverse, and experienced. Along with low costs, our investment teams are a source of competitive strength and the primary driver of fund performance over time,” says Vanguard Chief Investment Officer Greg Davis.

Among the changes:

• Paul Jakubowski, global head of the Taxable Credit Group, will be assuming the position of head of Investments-Europe and global head of Fixed Income Indexing, responsible for all of Vanguard’s bond indexing operations worldwide. Jakubowski, who has worked in investment management since joining Vanguard in 2000, replaces Ken Volpert, who is retiring in August. 

• Christopher W. Alwine, head of Municipal Investment, will assume Jakubowski’s previous responsibilities, overseeing the active corporate bond portfolio management and trading teams in the U.S., Europe, and Asia-Pacific. In addition, he will be responsible for the oversight of the global taxable credit research team and the Stable Value Group. Alwine joined Vanguard in 1990 and has more than twenty years of investment experience.

• Paul Malloy, currently head of fixed income in Europe, will assume Alwine’s role leading the municipal bond team of 30 investment professionals who manage more than $183 billion in 12 municipal bond funds. Malloy joined Vanguard in 2005 and the Fixed Income Group in 2007, and has held various portfolio management positions in Vanguard’s offices in London and the United States.

• Christopher Wrazen, manager of the $103.5 billion Vanguard Total International Bond Index Fund, will move to manage the Bond Index Group in Europe. Wrazen has been with the Fixed Income Group since 2008 and his team currently manages more than $200 billion in more than 20 bond index fund portfolios. Josh Barrickman, head of fixed income indexing – Americas, will become sole portfolio manager on nine funds, including VanguardTotal International Bond Index Fund.

Ascensus Acquires Chard Snyder for Health Division

Ascensus has entered into an agreement to acquire Chard Snyder. Chard Snyder, which will serve as the anchor business for Ascensus’ newly formed Health division, is a third-party administration (TPA) firm that services consumer directed health (CDH) plans including health savings accounts (HSAs), health reimbursement arrangements (HRAs), and flexible spending accounts. It also offers benefit continuation services like COBRA and FMLA leave administration along with retiree billing administration and commuter benefits.  

“When looking at Chard Snyder, we identified a market leader in the CDH space with an outstanding market and client reputation,” states David Musto, Ascensus’ president. “Adding their employee benefits expertise to our suite of service offerings positions Ascensus to better achieve our mission of helping Americans save for retirement, education, and health needs.”

“Chard Snyder’s difference has always been our people and our ability to maintain authentic customer experiences,” says Joy Snyder, president of Chard Snyder. “As part of Ascensus, we’ll continue to provide a no-noise atmosphere to our advisers, clients, and business partners via a highly-personalized approach that incorporates flexibility and customization in addition to technology and compliance expertise.”

SageView Adds Retirement Plan Consultant in Northern California

SageView Advisory Group, an independent retirement consulting firm, hired Eric Weissman as a retirement plan consultant.

Weissman will be joining the Northern California office and fellow SageView colleagues including Bob Patton, David Shnapek, William Posch and Ann Cheu.

With more than 11 years in the retirement plan industry, Weissman has a wide-range of experience in retirement plan design specializing in managing the complexities of Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) compliance, vendor relationships, investment monitoring, audit support, fiduciary duties, investment education, and plan participant advising. He has spent most of his career partnering with plan sponsors to help them reduce costs, increase participation, and minimize fiduciary liability.

Weissman began his career at VALIC Financial Advisors in Emeryville providing retirement planning, education and investment management for retirement plan participants. Most recently, he was director of Retirement Plan Consulting at BPM Advisors where his duties included overseeing all operations of a large-market RIA, consulting with over 100 retirement plan clients, and navigating complex and time-sensitive compliance issues, including plan conversions, plan acquisitions & mergers, and plan audits. Additionally, he holds numerous certifications, including Accredited Investment Fiduciary (AIF).

 “We are excited to add a person of Eric’s caliber and expertise.  Eric is extremely knowledgeable in plan design, investment consulting, cost management, ERISA compliance, and understanding the fiduciary obligations of the plan sponsor. We love Eric’s passion in helping people ultimately have a successful retirement. His talents complement and enhance our team and will add depth to help grow our practice and expanding client base in the Bay Area,” says Bob Patton, managing director at SageView’s Woodside, California, location.