Deals and People April 17, 2020

Retirement Industry People Moves

SLC Management expands fixed income team; SS&C Technologies names VP for retirement plan administration team; Office leader joins Mercer Northern California division; and more. 

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Art by Subin Yang
Art by Subin Yang
Art by Subin Yang

SLC Management Expands Fixed Income Team

SLC Management has updated its Total Return Fixed Income Team.

Effective immediately, Christy Whittington will join SLC Management as managing director, Business Development, reporting to Chris Adair, head of U.S. Business Development and Client Relationships, SLC Management. Whittington will be responsible for developing and managing relationships with institutional investors, including corporate and public pension plans, endowments and foundations, and consultants and outsourced chief investment officer (OCIO) teams. She will be located in Chicago with a focus on the Midwest and Southeast regions.

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Whittington brings over 20 years of experience working with plan sponsors and global investment consultants. Most recently, she was senior investment director at Legal & General Investment Management America, where she was responsible for establishing, growing and maintaining relationships with institutional plan sponsors and consultants in the Southeast region. Her portfolio of work includes roles as manager, Retirement Investments, FedEx Corp., and senior investment consultant, Consulting Services Group LLC.

Christy holds a master’s degree from the University of Memphis and a bachelor’s in business administration from the University of Mississippi.

In addition, SLC Management has announced that Annette Serrao has been promoted to senior director and portfolio manager, U.S. Total Return Fixed Income, SLC Management, effective immediately. In her new role, she will co-manage various strategies with a focus on corporate credit. Serrao will be involved in the portfolio construction process as well as trading and will make investment decisions based on fundamental and technical credit research. She has held various roles within SLC Management and has been with the firm since 2010. Prior to her new role, Serrao was a credit analyst and performed credit research and valuation on fixed income investments.

Serrao holds a master’s degree from Pace University, Lubin School of Business, with a major in financial management. She will continue to report to Richard Familetti, CIO, U.S. Total Return Fixed Income, SLC Management, and will be based out of New York City.

SS&C Technologies Names VP for Retirement Plan Administration Team

SS&C Technologies Holdings Inc. has announced that Nicholle Taylor has been named vice president of Retirement Plan Administration. She will focus on expanding business process outsourcing for SS&C retirement plan clients.

SS&C Retirement Solutions supports organizations that represent more than 8 million participants and approximately 400,000 plan sponsors. Taylor will focus on improving servicing, operations and growth. She will report to John Geli, president, Retirement Solutions.

“Nicholle is a respected leader in retirement operations and services with more than 20 years of experience and a proven track record. Her strong background in process design and plan and participant servicing will bring tremendous value to the organization,” Geli says.

Taylor joins SS&C from Ameritas, where she managed operations for its Retirement Plan Services business. She spent the first 20 years of her career at Vanguard in a variety of roles, including participant support and plan administration, day-to-day client services and sales and relationship management.

Office Leader Joins Mercer Northern California Division

Mercer has named Ben Kibbe as its Northern California office leader, based in San Francisco. His responsibilities include driving revenue growth and building brand and market awareness across Northern California and Hawaii. He will report to Macaire Pace, west market CEO.

“Ben is a proven leader with a deep understanding of the industry and the Bay Area,” Pace says. “His experience during these uncertain times will benefit our clients and our colleagues, and we are delighted to have him leading our business in this important market.”

Kibbe has spent nearly 30 years in the human resources (HR) consulting industry. Prior to this role, he served as Mercer’s client management leader for the West Market. Kibbe joined Mercer from Willis Towers Watson, where he held a variety of leadership roles. He earned his bachelor’s degree in political science at Northwestern University.

NFP Acquires FIA

NFP has announced the acquisition of Fiduciary Investment Advisors LLC (FIA), in a transaction that closed on April 1.

NFP is integrating FIA with DiMeo Schneider & Associates LLC, (DiMeo Schneider), a national investment consultant serving retirement plans, nonprofit organizations and private clients, and a subsidiary of NFP. The combined entity, led by the DiMeo Schneider and FIA management teams, operates independently under the DiMeo Schneider brand.

Robert DiMeo, managing partner of DiMeo Schneider, is CEO of the combined entity; Mark Wetzel, president of FIA, serves as president.

 “We have great respect for what Mark and his team have built, their approach to the business and how they serve clients,” DiMeo says. “We look forward to learning from each other, working together to enhance opportunities for our employees and clients, and increasing our ability to help current and future clients prosper.”

The Wagner Law Group Adds ERISA Attorney as Partner

The Wagner Law Group has added Ivelisse Berio LeBeau as a partner. 

Le Beau is an attorney specializing in ERISA [Employee Retirement Income Security Act] and employee benefits law and has been working in the field for more than 25 years.

She has counseled sponsors of multiemployer pension and welfare benefit plans; assisted health plan sponsors in complying with the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA); worked with benefit plan sponsors and fiduciaries during U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) investigations; and defended benefit plan fiduciaries in federal and state court actions alleging breaches of fiduciary duty, challenging trustee decisions, or seeking plan benefits. Le Beau has also served as a trial attorney in the Office of the Solicitor of the DOL, representing the DOL in ERISA breach of fiduciary duty and prohibited transaction lawsuits related to employee pension and welfare benefit plans, including actions with respect to imprudent investment decisions, and against service providers who generated and retained undisclosed indirect compensation.

Le Beau is editor-in-chief of Bloomberg The Bureau of National Affairs’ (BNA) Employee Benefits Law, 4th edition, and the Winter and Fall 2018 Supplements to the 4th Edition—a legal treatise covering employee benefits law practice.

She was also editor-in-chief and co-editor of earlier editions of that vital legal resource. Le Beau is a frequent speaker on employee benefits law topics at events sponsored by organizations such as the American Bar Association’s Joint Committee on Employee Benefits and the Florida Bar Labor & Employment Law Section. She is also a fellow of the American College of Employee Benefits Counsel, an invitation-only organization of nationally recognized employee benefits lawyers.  

Benefits April 17, 2020

Voluntary Benefits Provide Much-Needed Help During COVID-19 Crisis

Plan sponsors should consider an off-cycle voluntary benefits enrollment and prepare for a workforce that will pay more attention to voluntary benefits in the future.

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Benefitfocus in Charleston, South Carolina, provides a cloud-based software program uniting health, wealth and lifestyle benefits on a single technology platform. Misty Guinn, director of Benefits & Wellness at the firm, says voluntary benefits can be very useful to employees during the COVID-19 pandemic.

She says telehealth options may be most helpful at this time to ensure employees are not forgoing medical care. Some employer group health plans have telehealth services as part of their offering, but some do not. And telehealth can be underutilized by health plan participants because they don’t want to pay the copay, Guinn says. But for those plans that don’t have it in their offering, telehealth options—such as Doctors on Demand, which Guinn cites as an example—may be offered as a voluntary benefit.

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She points out that virtual office visits with psychiatrists may be a great need right now with COVID-19 also being a mental health crisis as families are stuck at home and many may be experiencing job loss.

Guinn explains that telehealth as a voluntary benefit could be employee-paid, or employers may decide to sponsor it or provide subsidies to lower costs for employees.

Considering voluntary benefits related to wealth, Guinn notes that short-term loan benefits offered by employers from providers such as Kashable may be used by employees instead of Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act distribution and loan options that may affect long-term savings. “The difference between a voluntary short-term loan benefit and a payday loan is that since the voluntary benefit is offered by employers, employees can get a better interest rate,” Guinn says.

She adds that employers may offer financial coaching platforms through which employees can receive tax advice that employers shouldn’t be giving and tips about how to increase savings now that discretionary spending may be lower while employees shelter in place. In addition, student loan refinancing benefits can help ease financial burdens for cash-strapped employees.

While employees are staying at home to reduce the spread of COVID-19, certain voluntary benefits can help with their lifestyles. For example, Guinn notes that some employers offer concierge benefits such as Shipt grocery delivery at a discounted rate so employees can have essentials delivered. In addition, physical wellness offerings such as Wellbeats help employees practice good health habits. Employees can use physical wellness apps to get ideas for workouts or healthy meals.

“The good thing is [all] these voluntary benefits are open year-round, not just during open enrollment,” Guinn says. Employees can opt-in at any time.

But there are other employee-paid voluntary benefits that may be helpful and for which employers may want to consider an off-cycle enrollment period, says Kim Buckey, vice president of client services at DirectPath, a health care consultant for large employers, in Boston. She says voluntary benefits are often ignored because, employees are typically concerned with basic coverage during the annual open enrollment period. Doing an off-cycle enrollment will help them focus on just voluntary benefits.

Critical illness coverage, hospital indemnity plans and cancer coverage are just a few of the benefits employees may need to look at now. The first two are important for those worried about getting COVID-19, Buckey says. She notes that employees may also want to consider “buying up” their life insurance or disability coverage. “The current situation brings into focus what is available and may be needed to protect employees and their families now and in the future,” Buckey says.

She points out that since these voluntary benefits are employee-paid, they are not Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) plans, and since benefits providers handle administrative processes, an off-cycle enrollment is possible and can be done more quickly than annual open enrollment. However, “it’s not as easy as flipping a switch,” Buckey says. Employers need to talk to their providers and/or benefits brokers to determine which benefits to offer during an off-cycle enrollment and when. Payroll providers will need to be apprised as well to prepare them for new benefit payment deductions.

Buckey recommends telephonic support for enrollment. She notes that many providers have sophisticated artificial intelligence (AI) enrollment tolls to help employees select benefits that are right for them, but she says , right now, employees are looking for human contact. “If telephone appointments are scheduled at employees’ convenience, they can have spouses or significant others on the call and have the opportunity to ask about health care needs and financial concerns specific to their families,” she adds. “It provides more personalized support than even the most sophisticated AI program can give them.” And, for employees new to a voluntary benefit, a support person can walk them through what it is and what it pays or covers.

Guinn points out that since employees don’t have to wait until the fall to enroll in many benefits, and employees’ needs can change at any time, communications should be tied into meaningful moments—what Benefitfocus calls “smart moments.” For example, right now, scammers are using COVID-19 to try to get individuals’ personal information, so employers could communicate about their identity theft protection offering.

In addition, April is stress awareness month, so employers can use that message to communicate about their employee assistance programs (EAPs), Guinn adds.

“It may seem cynical or opportunistic to take advantage of this right now when so many employers are shutting down and employees are losing jobs, but for those employers staying open, it can make employees feel really valued,” Buckey says. She and Guinn say they believe voluntary benefits will be valued differently by both employers and employees following the COVID-19 crisis.

“I believe in a comprehensive and innovative benefit package, especially in a multigenerational workforce. Just having core benefits doesn’t work anymore,” Guinn says. “This time shows the importance of planning ahead for the unexpected and making sure you have peace of mind in case something does happen.”

She says she believes employees will take a deeper look at the resources employers make available. “Employers will have to do a better job of stressing the importance of voluntary benefits. I like to use testimonials, real life stories, and I think we will see more of that after this crisis,” Guinn says.

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