Deals and People February 22, 2013

Vanguard Announces Investment Manager Changes

February 22, 2013 (PLANSPONSOR.com) – Five members of Vanguard’s investment management teams will be transferred as part of an effort to broaden their experience and provide them with new responsibilities.
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Joseph Brennan, who served as the firm’s Asia Pacific chief investment officer (CIO) in Australia since 2009, will return to the United States to lead the Equity Index Group. He will oversee the investment professionals responsible for more than 80 U.S. and international equity index funds and exchange-traded funds (ETFs), representing nearly $1 trillion in indexed assets. Prior to his Australian post, the 12-year Vanguard veteran managed the Portfolio Review Department.

Gregory Davis, head of the Bond Index Group since 2007, will assume the Asia Pacific CIO role, as head of the Vanguard Australia team, which manages equity and fixed-income portfolios available to Australian and Asian investors and has nearly $64 billion in assets under management.

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Josh Barrickman, a 14-year Vanguard veteran with more than ten years of experience in bond indexing portfolio management and trading, has assumed leadership of the Bond Index Group. He previously managed bond index funds with aggregate assets of $90 billion and led Vanguard’s bond ETF management process since the 2007 inception of fixed-income ETF shares. Barrickman has been named a manager or co-manager on 13 funds, including the flagship $115 billion Vanguard Total Bond Market Index Fund.

John Ameriks, Ph.D, will oversee the Active Equity Group within the Equity Investment Group. Previously a member of Vanguard’s Investment Counseling & Research Group (IC&R), he assumed leadership of the group in 2008 and has been closely involved in the structure and implementation of several active and index investment products and strategies. The Active Equity Group manages $13 billion in quantitative equity fund assets, serving as investment advisor to Vanguard Strategic Equity Fund and Vanguard Strategic Small-Cap Equity, as well as managing portions of 10 other Vanguard stock funds.

Catherine Gordon, a veteran investment professional who created IC&R in 2001, will reassume leadership of this group, as well as help to lead Vanguard’s initiatives on advice methodology and focus on institutional investment thought leadership. Since she joined Vanguard in 1994, Gordon spent several years with the Portfolio Review Department and directed Vanguard Institutional Advisory Services.

“We have found that there are significant benefits to our clients and our crew when we offer our investment professionals the opportunity to broaden their skill set,” said Vanguard Chief Investment Officer Tim Buckley. “In addition to offering growth and development potential to individual portfolio managers, it also enables Vanguard to build an investment team that is deep, experienced and globally oriented.”

Separately, Vanguard announced new portfolio management assignments involving 15 equity funds, 11 fixed income funds, two balanced funds and the Vanguard Target Retirement Fund series. The changes are effective with the February 22 filing of prospectus amendments that detail the leadership and portfolio manager assignments. The funds’ investment philosophies, objectives, strategies and overall portfolio management processes will remain the same.

Benefits February 22, 2013

Many Expect Health Coverage Will Come from Government

February 22, 2013 (PLANSPONSOR.com) – Nearly half of U.S. consumers polled believe the majority of Americans will have government-provided health insurance within the next three to five years.
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In addition, a new LIMRA survey found, despite reports of many employers saying they plan to continue to provide health care insurance, four in 10 consumers believe the majority of employers will cease to offer health insurance coverage and pay the penalty instead. One-third of consumers responded that they “don’t know” or didn’t share an opinion, which may indicate a lack of knowledge on health care reform.  

According to the survey results, consumers embraced the idea of buying financial products through the new exchanges mandated by the health care reform law. Forty-five percent of consumers would be interested in life insurance, and 50% would be interested in disability insurance.  

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Sixty-seven percent would be interested in dental plans, and 56% would be interested in critical illness products. Approximately 30% would be interested in individual retirement accounts (IRAs) and annuities.  

Based on these results, exchanges may offer the industry a new way to reach Americans and help them protect their financial security, LIMRA said.

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