Deals and People January 22, 2024

Mercer Appoints Susan Potter Region President for US, Canada

The Marsh McLennan subsidiary’s new leader for retirement business was promoted from the chief commercial officer role she had held since 2019.  

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Mercer appointed Susan Potter to the role of region president, U.S. and Canada—effective January 22—the financial services company and subsidiary of Marsh McLennan announced in a press release.

Susan Potter

Potter, who has been at Mercer since September 2019 as chief commercial officer for the U.S. and Canada, reports to her predecessor, Pat Tomlinson, now the president of Mercer and CEO of Marsh McLennan U.S. and Canada. Potter joined Mercer following 25 years at WTW.

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“Susan is an exceptional leader with strong commercial acumen,” Tomlinson said in a statement. “She has a deep understanding of Mercer’s solutions and how they can help address our clients’ complex challenges. Under her experienced leadership, Mercer’s US and Canada business is well positioned to meet the evolving needs of our clients and colleagues.”

In December 2023, Mercer announced plans to acquire the Vanguard Group’s Institutional Advisory Services business focused on nonprofit organizations.

Tomlinson was named president of Mercer in October 2023 and will succeed Martine Ferland as president and CEO of Mercer after Ferland retires on March 31.

Compliance January 19, 2024

Auto-Portability Proposal Is In

The proposal would implement a SECURE 2.0 provision intended to make it easier to transfer money between DC plans to limit leakage.

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The Department of Labor has proposed a regulation that would permit auto-portability providers to charge a reasonable fee for transferring retirement savings from an individual retirement account to a new Employee Retirement Income Security Act retirement plan.

Under Section 304 of the SECURE 2.0 Act of 2022, sponsors may distribute the account balance of an inactive participant to an IRA if the balance is $7,000 or less. The proposed regulation would codify Section 120 of SECURE 2.0, which permits the balance of such an IRA to then be transferred to a plan in which that participant is now active.

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In other words, if a participant leaves one employer, and their retirement plan savings are transferred to an individual retirement account, Section 120 permits that money to be moved to their new employer’s plan. The provision is intended to reduce leakage of retirement plan assets.

The proposed regulation permits service providers making such transfers to charge a reasonable fee. The imposition of the fee has certain requirements outlined in the proposal, such as prohibition of a liability waiver for an improper transfer.

The comment period for the proposal will remain open for 60 days after it has been entered into the Federal Register.

 

 

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