Deals and People July 18, 2023

Fiducient Advisors Names Bailey to CEO Role

Fiducient names Sabrina Bailey as CEO successor to co-founder Bob DiMeo.

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Fiducient Advisors, owned by insurance, wealth and retirement planning aggregator NFP Corp., has hired retirement and asset management veteran Sabrina Bailey as CEO to start on July 31, according to a press release.

Sabrina Bailey

Bailey will join from the London Stock Exchange Group plc, where she was global head of investment and wealth solutions. She will succeed Bob DiMeo, the co-founder of Fiducient, who will become chairman.

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“Across her career, [Bailey] has successfully built collaborative and accountable teams and consistently delivered meaningful value for stakeholders,” Doug Hammond, the CEO of NFP, said in the press release. “Fiducient Advisors is operating from a position of strength—the result of extraordinary leaders and professionals in growing the firm. Sabrina is the right leader to ensure the firm continues to meet the dynamic needs of clients.”

Investment consultant Fiducient, headquartered in Chicago, is an adviser to retirement plan sponsors; endowments and foundations; individuals and families; and financial institutions.  

In January, DiMeo announced Fiducient Advisors’ plan to initiate a nationwide search for the firm’s next CEO, according to the press release. DiMeo will become chairman and remain active in the business, according to the announcement.

Bailey is experienced in the retirement businesses, with stops as the global head of retirement solutions at Northern Trust Asset Management and as U.S. investments defined contribution leader for Mercer. More recently, she was senior vice president of digital investment advice at Northern Trust, then CEO of Emotomy, the firm’s financial technology business.

“Our mission continues to thrive on fostering prosperity among the individuals, businesses and communities we are devoted to serving,” Bailey said in the statement.

NFP named Joel Shapiro as president of its retirement division and appointed Geoff Keeling CIO for NFP Retirement Inc., its retirement division, earlier this year.  

Fiducient Advisors maintains seven locations and has clients in 46 states, managing more than $240 billion in assets under advisement as of December 31, 2022.

Ask the Experts July 18, 2023

Can Participants Access Annuities if They Are Not Offered by the Plan?

Experts from Groom Law Group and CAPTRUST answer questions concerning retirement plan administration and regulations.

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Q: I read with great interest your Ask the Experts column on the difference between investment in an annuity and an annuity distribution from a 403(b) plan. We are a relatively new church plan sponsor that does not offer annuities at all in our 403(b) plan, either as investment options or as a form of distribution. Since we do not offer annuities in-plan, can our participants still avail themselves of an annuity option in retirement if they wish? Or are they out of luck?

Kimberly Boberg, Taylor Costanzo, Kelly Geloneck and David Levine, with Groom Law Group, and Michael A. Webb, senior financial adviser at CAPTRUST, answer:

A: Your plan participants can absolutely avail themselves of an annuity option in retirement, but instead of purchasing that annuity in the plan, they would purchase an annuity outside of the plan. There is a strong retail market for annuities, and participants will generally have a variety of options from which to choose. Though such retail annuities may be more expensive than an annuity purchased in-plan due to a plan’s collective purchasing power, the annuity might be more easily tailored to the individual needs of a participant.

There are generally two ways of purchasing an annuity outside of the plan: by rolling over an eligible rollover distribution to an IRA or other retirement plan that offers annuities as an investment option, or by taking a plan distribution and using the proceeds from that distribution to purchase an annuity benefit. Since annuities can be complicated, and not everyone is a good candidate for an annuity, the Experts urge anyone considering an annuity option to discuss the issue with a financial adviser well-versed in such vehicles.  

NOTE: This feature is to provide general information only, does not constitute legal advice and cannot be used or substituted for legal or tax advice.

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Do YOU have a question for the Experts? If so, we would love to hear from you! Simply forward your question to Amy.Resnick@issgovernance.com with Subject: Ask the Experts, and the Experts will do their best to answer your question in a future column.

 

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