Deals & People September 8, 2023

Retirement Industry People Moves

Newfront hires Lumban as retirement plan consultant; Vestwell selects new VP; PGIM hires Adler as private alternatives CEO and president; and more.

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Newfront Retirement Services Hires Lumban as Retirement Plan Consultant

Khirstine Lumban

Newfront Retirement Services has hired retirement plan consultant Khirstine Lumban, who will join the firm later in September and bring more than a decade of industry experience, according to a company LinkedIn post.

“Khirstine’s deep focus on building strong relationships and long history of delivering best in class client results will be a perfect fit for the Newfront team,” Greg Kaplan, Newfront’s retirement services practice leader, wrote in the post.

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According to LinkedIn, Lumban has been a 401(k) consultant at Sequoia Consulting Group since 2018. She previously served as an investment counselor for Fisher Investments.

Vestwell Selects New VP of National Accounts, Advisory Enterprise Sales

John Resurreccion

Vestwell Holdings Inc. has hired John Resurreccion as vice president of national accounts and advisory enterprise sales. He will report to Joshua Forstater, senior vice president and national sales manager.

Vestwell is expanding its national accounts team to support its growing list of partnerships among large advisory firms. Resurreccion will be responsible for developing new national account solutions and supporting ongoing sales coverage. With the addition of Resurreccion, Vestwell’s enterprise and national accounts team comprises nine employees across business development, partner success and enterprise relationship management.

“I’m excited to join an innovative team, reshaping the savings industry, and look forward to expanding Vestwell’s reach across the retirement adviser community,” Resurreccion wrote in an emailed response.

Prior to joining Vestwell, Resurreccion spent nearly eight years at Dimensional Fund Advisors, most recently as vice president, and he also held retirement positions at LPL Financial and Index Fund Advisors.

PGIM Names Adler President, CEO of PGIM Private Alternatives

Eric Adler

PGIM has appointed Eric Adler as president and CEO of a newly formed group, PGIM Private Alternatives, bringing together the firm’s private alternatives capabilities.

Adler is currently president and CEO of PGIM Real Estate and chairman of PGIM Private Equity. His appointment is effective October 1, at which time Cathy Marcus and Raimondo Amabile will jointly assume leadership of PGIM Real Estate as co-CEOs. 

“Eric is uniquely qualified to lead PGIM Private Alternatives, having grown PGIM Real Estate into one of the largest real estate investors globally and leading a team of more than 1,200 investment professionals overseeing $210 billion in assets,” David Hunt, PGIM’s president and CEO, said in a statement.

PGIM currently manages $310.9 billion in private alternatives strategies across real estate, agriculture, private credit and private equity. These strategies are managed by PGIM Real Estate (real estate and agriculture), PGIM Private Capital (private credit, infrastructure debt) and Montana Capital Partners (private equity secondaries).

Loomis Names Madsen Director of Institutional Strategy, Development

Rachel Madsen

Loomis, Sayles & Co. announced that Rachel Madsen has joined the firm as director of institutional strategy and development.

Madsen will focus on business development efforts for existing and prospective clients in the Midwest, with a focus on both the corporate channel and the endowments and foundations channel. Based in Chicago, Madsen reports to Maurice Leger, head of global distribution.

“Rachel’s deep industry expertise, skillfulness in building strong relationships and commitment to serving clients with excellence make her a wonderful addition to our team,” Leger said in a statement.

Madsen joins Loomis from Franklin Templeton, where she was a senior institutional relationship manager. Previously she was client relationship director and interim head of client services for Aviva Investors Americas. Madsen has also served as a solutions strategist for Legal & General Investment Management.

José Jara Appointed Chair of ABA Employee Plans, Executive Compensation Group

José Jara

Fox Rothschild LLP named José Jara chair of the employee plans and executive compensation group of the American Bar Association’s section of real property, trust and estate law for the 2023 to 2024 term.

The employee plans and executive compensation group, of which Jara was formerly vice chair, is comprised of more than 200 attorneys with an interest in employee benefits, ERISA and executive compensation issues.

Counsel in the firm’s labor and employment department, Jara focuses his practice on ERISA and employment litigation and counseling. Jara’s practice also includes representing clients under investigation by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Employee Benefits Security Administration regarding civil and/or criminal violations of ERISA.

He was previously a claims director for a major international insurance company and a senior pension law specialist and investigator with EBSA.

Northern Trust Creates, Hires CIO Role

Anwiti Bahuguna

Northern Trust Asset Management named Anwiti Bahuguna CIO of global asset allocation at the investment management firm.

In the newly created role, Bahuguna will oversee the firm’s asset allocation and multi-manager teams, according to the firm. Bahuguna will report to Northern Trust Asset Management Global CIO Angelo Manioudakis.

“Increasingly, our clients are looking for holistic asset management solutions to their most complex investment challenges,” Manioudakis said in a statement. “With the addition of such an accomplished investment professional to our team, I am confident we can continue meeting the evolving needs of investors.”

Bahuguna’s appointment comes in conjunction with the appointments earlier this year of Michael Hunstad to deputy CIO and CIO of global equities and Sheri Hawkins to head of investment platform services to bolster NTAM’s investment capabilities, according to the firm.

Bahuguna joined NTAM following 17 years with Columbia Threadneedle Investments, finishing her tenure as head of multi-asset strategy and senior portfolio manager.

NTAM asset holdings comprise $1.1 trillion in assets under management as of June 30, according to the release.

Voya IM Promotes Regional Director

Voya Investment Management, a division of Voya Financial Inc., confirmed the promotion of Chris Burnett to vice president and senior regional director for the adviser channel, covering wirehoueses and large independent broker/dealers, the company confirmed.   

Burnett reports to Paul Bernardi, managing director and head of broker/dealer distribution for Voya Investment Management, a spokesperson wrote in an email.

“Chris was an internal wholesaler who was promoted to the field,” the spokesperson wrote. 

Burnett is responsible for sales coverage in Georgia, Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi and Arkansas. He joined Voya in August 2021 as a regional coordinator.

Compliance September 7, 2023

House Republicans Look to Repeal DOL Rule Permitting ESG in Retirement Plans

As the House of Representatives returned this week, it wasted no time proposing new bills targeting ESG investing.

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Republicans on the House Committee on Education and the Workforce introduced four new bills Tuesday that they say will “ensure financial institutions are focused on maximizing returns in retirement plans rather than on woke environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG) factors.”

The four bills add to a drumbeat by Republicans against plan sponsors offering workplace retirement plans that include ESG factors in investment strategy. ESG considerations are allowed by the Department of Labor as per their final rule from November, but Republicans in the House have sought to repeal that rule.

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Of the four bills issued this week, only two directly mention ESG, but all were announced by a committee press release as intended “to combat [President Joe] Biden’s Harmful ESG Rule.”

RETIRE Act

The Rollback ESG to Increase Retirement Earnings (RETIRE) Act, proposed by Representative Rick Wilson, R-Georgia, would essentially repeal the DOL’s current final rule on ESG in retirement plans. The DOL permits fiduciaries to use ESG considerations in their decision making and to consider “collateral factors” as a tiebreaker when two courses of action would “equally serve the financial interests of the plan over the appropriate time horizon.”

Wilson’s bill would require fiduciaries to act “based only on pecuniary factors.” Additionally, the bill would restore the tiebreaker test from the administration of former President Donald Trump, seen as less favorable to ESG funds, by replacing the wording “equally serve the financial interests of the plan” with “if a fiduciary is unable to distinguish between or among investment alternatives or investment courses of action on the basis of pecuniary factors alone, the fiduciary may use non-pecuniary factors as the deciding factor.”

The House Appropriations Committee’s July budget proposal would also block the DOL’s ESG fiduciary rule if passed, though it must be reconciled with the Senate’s budget proposal, which would not block the rule.

Retirement Proxy Protection Act

Another bill, the Retirement Proxy Protection Act, proposed by Representative Erin Houchin, R-Indiana, requires fiduciaries to only consider “pecuniary factors” when voting shares on behalf of plan participants. This is intended to ensure that fiduciaries do not “advance radical policies.”

The bill says that a fiduciary “shall not subordinate the interests of participants and beneficiaries in their retirement income or financial benefits under the plan to any non-pecuniary objective or promote non-pecuniary benefits or goals unrelated to those financial interests of the plan’s participants and beneficiaries.”

Houchin’s bill clarifies that not voting every share is not in itself a breach of fiduciary duty and that fiduciaries are required to monitor third parties that advise them on the exercise of shareholder rights, such as proxy voting advisers.

No Discrimination in My Benefits Act

A third bill, the No Discrimination in My Benefits Act, proposed by Representative Rob Good, R-Virginia, addresses governance by stating that “race, color, religion, sex, or national origin may not be taken into consideration when selecting a fiduciary, counsel, employee, or service provider of an ERISA plan.”

Providing Complete Information to Retirement Investors Act

Lastly, the Providing Complete Information to Retirement Investors Act requires defined contribution plans to explain to participants the difference between choosing investments selected by ERISA fiduciaries and those selected through a brokerage window.

Specifically, plans would be required to notify participants every time a participant “directs an investment into, out of, or within” a brokerage window that those investments were not selected by a fiduciary and that they may have lower returns than the investments offered within the plan.

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