Deals & People January 10, 2024

Voya, Goldman Start 2024 With Leadership Moves

Voya promotes Toms to CEO of investment management; Goldman names Wilson to new role heading retirement for asset and wealth management.

Reported by

Wall Street is starting the new year with some high-level leadership changes. Both the Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Voya Financial Inc. announced promotions on Wednesday in retirement wealth management and institutional investing.

Matt Toms

Voya announced that Christine Hurtsellers, CEO of Voya Investment Management, will retire later in 2024, with Matt Toms, global CIO of Voya IM, succeeding her in the role, effective immediately. 

Never miss a story — sign up for PLANADVISER newsletters to keep up on the latest retirement plan adviser news.

Before retiring, Hurtsellers will serve as a strategic adviser to the company. Meanwhile, Toms has joined Voya Financial’s executive committee; both executives report to Voya CEO Heather Lavallee.

“After almost 20 years at Voya, and as I look ahead to retirement and the ability to attend to my family’s needs, I am grateful for and proud of all that the team has accomplished over the years,” Hurtsellers said in a statement. “In the meantime, I look forward to working closely with Matt and Heather—and to engaging with our clients, intermediaries and employees—to ensure a smooth transition.” 

Christine Hurtsellers

In his prior role, Toms oversaw 300 investment professionals managing approximately $310 billion in assets under management across fixed income, equities, multi-asset solutions and alternative strategies. He previously served as CIO of fixed income. Prior to joining Voya IM in 2009, Toms worked with Calamos Investments as a senior vice president and director of its fixed-income business.

“Matt has been global CIO since 2022, has 30 years of asset management expertise, and has great insights into the needs of our clients,” CEO Lavallee said in a statement. “His deep knowledge and experience with our firm, and his passion for our clients, will serve him well as he leads Voya IM into its next stage of growth.” 

Stein Joins Voya From Morgan Stanley

Eric Stein

Voya also announced that Eric Stein has left a position at Morgan Stanley to become Voya IM’s head of investments and CIO of fixed income.

Stein, who will report to Toms, will lead the public fixed-income investment team, as well as oversee the broader equities, income and growth and multi-asset strategies and solutions investment teams.

“I am excited to have Eric on the Voya IM leadership team,” Toms said in a statement. “His more than 20 years of investment experience and demonstrated expertise in leading sizable teams throughout his career will no doubt bring great value to our investment teams and our clients.” 

Stein previously served as CIO of fixed income at Morgan Stanley Investment Management, managing 275 professionals and investment strategies for the division’s approximately $200 billion fixed-income platform.

Goldman Promotes Wilson to New Role

Goldman named Greg Wilson to a newly created position in the client solutions group as head of retirement for asset and wealth management, according to a company memo. Wilson will shift from his current role as head of workplace advisory solutions for Goldman Sachs Ayco, the firm’s workplace financial benefits division, but continuing to report to Larry Restieri, head of Goldman Sachs Ayco.

Greg Wilson

In the new position, Wilson will set strategy across the firm’s retirement distribution, defined contribution and workplace advisory divisions with the goal of “enhancing collaboration,” according to the memo from Marc Nachmann, Goldman’s global head of asset and wealth management.

“The firm has a long history of working with employers to help them deliver high quality financial wellbeing and retirement programs for their employees,” Nachmann wrote in the memo. “As we expand our focus on the growing DC and individual retirement account (IRA) market, we are seeing increasing demand from participants and the organizations that support them for personalized solutions, tailored strategies and engaging digital experiences.”

Nachmann noted that the firm’s multi-asset solutions group will continue to oversee managed account investment advice and DC advisory. The multi-asset group is co-headed by Tim Braude and Valentijn van Nieuwenhuijzen.

Wilson joined Goldman in 1995. Prior to his current role with Ayco, he had led Goldman’s Honest Dollar division, a low-cost retirement plan platform for individual savers, small businesses and independent contractors. Prior to that role, he led third-party wealth platform solutions by which he marketed the firm’s sub-advisory, hedge fund of funds, insurance solutions and DC investment-only products for the U.S. and Canada.

The firms make the moves as a number of financial analysts, including Goldman’s macro-economic team, are forecasting a more stable year in the markets after recent years of volatility stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic, inflation and rising interest rates.

Practice Management January 10, 2024

US Savers Estimate Lack of Financial Knowledge Cost Them $1,500 in ‘23

A plan advisory head says the financial industry should play an important role in combatting that knowledge gap.

Reported by

Americans estimated their own financial illiteracy cost them $1,506 per person in 2023, according to a new survey conducted by the National Financial Educators Council.  

The NFEC survey asked participants how much money they believe they lost in 2023 due to lacking knowledge of personal finances. The results were as follows:  

Want the latest retirement plan adviser news and insights? Sign up for PLANADVISER newsletters.

$0 – $499 

$500 – $999 

$1,000 – $2,499 

$2,500 – $9,999 

$10,000+ 

39.42% 

18.7% 

19.81% 

13.24% 

8.83% 

Generalizing the results to represent the the finances of approximately 258 million adults in the U.S., NFEC calculated that financial illiteracy cost Americans a total of more than $388 billion in 2023, an issue CEO Vince Shorb says starts with lack of attention to finances in early education. 

“Financial education still is not taught at schools with the rigor required of other core subjects,” Shorb says. “Parents aren’t really teaching their kids too much about money, either. Kids go to college, but not necessarily so they can be financially secure and successful.” 

The retirement plan advisement industry has not been blind to the issue, with advisories pushing further into participant education and wellness in recent years, including volunteer efforts in early education. In October 2023, the Retirement Advisor Council, an industry group, launched a financial education volunteer collaboration called FinLitFuture$. The goal is for advisers to work in their communities to forward early financial literacy. 

Advisers’ Role 

Courtenay Shipley, president of Retirement Planology Inc., says financial advisers should focus on helping clients build a good credit score, which she believes has the most impact on an individual’s financial life. 

According to Shipley, a credit score will control how much someone will pay for the privilege of using debt over their lifetime. She says it is imperative that participants understand what that score measures so they can adjust their behaviors and free up cash flow to spend other ways, including saving for retirement. 

“Financial advisers may be most interested in educating about investing, and don’t get me wrong, that’s really important,” says Shipley. “But the basic blocking and tackling of how to have a good credit score, good cash flow management, understanding insurance, how to plan for the expected, like college, and unexpected, such as estate planning, and being financially literate in the basics are much more impactful than splitting hairs about which large-cap fund a participant should choose to invest in.” 

Lack of Knowledge 

The cost of financial illiteracy has grown since 2017, when the NFEC began gathering data on the subject. From 2017 to 2019, the estimated cost rose steadily from $1,171 in 2017, to $1,230 in 2018 and then $1,279 in 2019. This was followed by some ups and down through 2020 ($1,634), 2021 ($1,389), 2022 ($1,819) and 2023 ($1,506).  

Asked why people feel they are losing more money, Shorb says increased temptations—prevalent advertising, comparison to peers on social media—are affecting financial behavior.  

“We feel we deserve what other people have,” he says. “I think there’s an increase in overspending and not aligning purchases with long-term goals. I don’t think it’s necessarily that they’re getting less financially literate. There are just other factors that are impacting a more complex financial market, more temptation out there.” 

Addressing the lack of knowledge when it comes to personal finance, Shorb encourages advisers to embrace personalization and meet individuals where they are.  

“Oftentimes, advisers will be pitching a one-hour workshop to get clients, which is fine, but is it truly meeting the needs of the employees?” Shorb asks. “Within a company, you may have guys working in the warehouse, salespeople, executives, middle management. Each has a different need.” 

The retirement industry is also focused on increased personalization in retirement plans. T. Rowe Price, a recordkeeper and defined contribution investment manager, noted personalization as one of its three key themes for the industry in 2024.  

The NFEC surveyed 1,540 U.S. adults from December 4 through 17, 2023. 

«