Retirement Industry People Moves

Voya Hires VP Focused on 403(b), 457 and 401(a) Plans

Voya Retirement has hired Denise Fortune as a vice president of Institutional Clients for the company’s Tax Exempt Markets business. 

Based in Maryland, Fortune will be responsible for generating new 403(b), 457 and 401(a) business as well as building key distribution relationships in Maryland, Delaware, Washington D.C., Virginia and North Carolina.

Most recently, Fortune served as a relationship manager with Empower. She comes to Voya with more than 20 years of sales and service experience in the retirement plan space with several well-known recordkeepers.

Fortune graduated from the University of Maryland College Park with a bachelor’s degree in Business Management.

OneAmerica Selects Past Board Member as Retirement Services President

OneAmerica appointed Sandy McCarthy as president of Retirement Services. A new addition to the OneAmerica team, McCarthy brings more than 30 years of industry experience, including key leadership roles at Mercer, ING (now Voya) and CitiStreet. 

Before joining Mercer, McCarthy was a 14-year contributor at ING, now Voya, and its legacy companies, serving as president, Institutional Plan Services. Prior to the acquisition of CitiStreet by ING in 2008, she served as president and board member of CitiStreet, LLC, representing $265 billion assets under administration, over 11 million participants and a workforce of about 3,600. Her past leadership positions also include service with Fidelity Investments, Bank of America and State Street. 

McCarthy graduated with honors from Tufts University, earning both her undergraduate in sociology/education and Master of Arts degree in education, then completing an MBA from the Fuqua School of Business at Duke University. She served on the board of directors of the American Benefits Council, Employee Benefits Research Institute (EBRI), Spark Institute and Boys and Girls Club of Middlesex County Massachusetts. She was also a founding member of the Superannuation Industry Leadership Group in Australia. She currently serves on the board of trustees for the Children’s Center for Communication Beverly School for the Deaf as well as a mentor for the Entrepreneurship for All (EforAll) program. 

Franklin Templeton Adds SVP for Multi-Asset Solutions

Franklin Templeton Investments announced the appointment of May Tong as a senior vice president, portfolio manager for Franklin Templeton Multi-Asset Solutions (FTMAS). Tong is based in New York and reports to Tom Nelson, senior vice president, director of Portfolio Management for FTMAS.

“May’s retirement and solutions experience make her a valuable addition to our FTMAS investment team, and her quantitative and qualitative research background are a complementary fit with our core FTMAS processes and capabilities,” says Nelson. “We are excited to have May on board and look forward to leveraging her ideas and expertise. We anticipate adding her as a portfolio manager to certain US products over the coming months.”

Prior to joining FTMAS, Tong was a portfolio manager and head of portfolio implementation and management at Voya Investment Management. In that role, she was responsible for multi-asset strategies and solutions including asset allocation, target date/risk, 529 plans and multi-manager and retirement income portfolios.

Layton Road Adds Managing Director for San Francisco Office

The Layton Road Group has added industry veteran Daniel Cohen, as managing director of the firm’s newly established San Francisco office. Layton Road’s expansion to California will help the firm further meet the needs of the West Coast’s alternative investment managers and institutional investors.  In addition to the firm’s headquarters in New York City, Layton Road will also have professionals in New Jersey and Dallas, Texas.

Cohen will serve the West Coast’s alternative investment manager and institutional investor communities, and additionally, will seek to introduce and expand Layton Road’s outsourced capital introduction solutions to the prime brokerage and custodial services industries.

Cohen joins the Layton Road Group after leading sales teams at Cantor Fitzgerald, J.P. Morgan and Bear Stearns. He has contributed more than two decades in the prime brokerage industry having held senior roles in sales and risk management. 

intellicents Opens Branch offices in Central Iowa  

intellicents has added two new branch offices in Des Moines and Pella, Iowa, led by Devin Reimer.

“We have always been actively involved with both educating and giving advice to our clients’ 401(k) participant base.  Most of this effort has focused on the accumulation phase of retirement planning,” says Brad Arends, CEO of intellicents.  “Our plan sponsor clients now want us to assist their employees with the distribution phase, too. Devin and his Focus 50 team will now be able to provide local retirement income planning and full financial planning services to our participant base in central Iowa.”

Reimer founded Focus 50 in 2011 along with his business partner, Bryan Borchert.  Prior to launching Focus 50, Reimer worked for ING for 20 years in various senior management and sales positions.  Borchert will continue in his current role of providing financial planning and investment solutions to current and prospective clients. Lindsay Stout has also joined the firm and will work out of the Pella branch.

“Starting up and leading an intellicents branch is a great opportunity to provide better service to our existing clients and to expand our business,” expresses Reimer.  “The intellicents philosophy is consistent with the Focus 50 philosophy which was a top priority to us as we performed our due diligence. Brad and his team have unique technology and effective marketing that we will use to help our clients plan for the future.”

Ascensus Acquires TPA Firm

Ascensus has entered into an agreement to acquire QBI, LLC (QBI). The third-party administration (TPA) firm will immediately become part of Ascensus’ TPA Solutions division. 

Based in Woodland Hills, California, QBI is one of the largest administrators of defined contribution (DC) and defined benefit (DB) plans in the country. The firm works with more than 3,500 plans and employs over 80 employees—most of whom are long-tenured due to the company’s high employee retention rate. 

“QBI is a fast-growing company whose expertise in defined contribution and defined benefit plans is matched by their passion for building solid, long-lasting relationships with clients,” states David Musto, Ascensus’ president. “These traits—along with the culture of corporate and associate responsibility that they’ve created—will make QBI a meaningful contributor to Ascensus’ mission to help Americans prepare for the future.” 

Fidelity Adds Senior Executive to Health and Welfare Practice

Fidelity Benefits Consulting has appointed Erin Tatar to the role of senior vice president within the Health and Welfare consulting practice.

Erin joins Fidelity from Willis Towers Watson, where she led its health management practice and was responsible for thought leadership, client delivery and operations, including the management of more than 60 physicians, nurses and other specialty consultants who were assigned to the organization. She also led Willis Towers Watson’s development of employer strategies to improve value, access and quality in health care delivery. 

In her new role on Fidelity’s Health and Welfare leadership team, Erin will focus on helping employers evaluate and improve workforce health and the delivery of health care plan benefits.

Tatar will be based in Denver, Colorado and will report to Pearce Weaver, senior vice president, Fidelity Benefits Consulting. “Health care plans continue to increase in sophistication and play an even greater role of importance within employers’ benefits platforms. As a result, Fidelity is focused on adding the talent and resources necessary to meet the complex needs of our clients, as well as their employees,” says Shams Talib, executive vice president and head of Fidelity Benefits Consulting. “Adding Erin to our team will help us extend the capabilities of our health care practice and ensure we can help our clients effectively evaluate and select the right clinical and delivery models for their health care plan.”