Deals and People June 3, 2024

Marta Norton Named Chief Investment Strategist of Empower

Norton is leaving Morningstar, where she held a similar position, for the newly created role at the recordkeeper and wealth manager. 

Reported by

Marta Norton

Empower announced on Monday the appointment of Marta Norton as its chief investment strategist, a newly created role within the company.

Norton will be leaving Morningstar Inc. to join Empower’s asset management division, Empower Investments, where she will offer macroeconomic and investment insights, thought leadership and market analysis. 

Get more!  Sign up for PLANSPONSOR newsletters.

The chief strategist will collaborate with business teams to share insights with the company’s clients, financial advisers, as well as investment and client teams, according to the announcement. She will also offer public commentary on general trends and economic factors affecting the markets.  

Norton will join Empower on June 17 and will report to Jonathan Kreider, executive vice president and head of Empower Investments. 

“Part of the value we can provide is to offer expertise on the forces that drive the equity and fixed income markets and help investors make informed decisions that are advantageous to them,” Kreider said in a statement. “I am thrilled that Marta is coming to Empower to lead that effort.” 

Marta joins Empower from Morningstar, where she most recently held the position of chief investment officer for the Americas. In that role, she oversaw strategies designed to achieve various investment goals, including income generation and capital appreciation. 

Before her 18-year tenure at Morningstar, where she held various senior leadership positions, Norton served as a research analyst at LECG LLC. She also has experience working for the Bureau of Labor Statistics in Washington, DC, where she contributed to the agency’s work on the monthly Producer Price Index, among other projects. 

Benefits June 3, 2024

Social Security’s Funding Issues are not Common Knowledge

The majority of savers don’t know about Social Security’s solvency issues; though once aware, the vast majority want the government to act, according to a new Peterson Foundation survey.

Reported by

According to a survey published by the Peter G. Peterson Foundation, only 30% of Americans know that the Social Security Old Age and Survivors Insurance Fund is projected to become insolvent in 2033.  

Once made aware of the cuts, 97% of those respondents agreed that leaders elected in November of this year should take action to help shore up the funds, found the think tank focused on addressing fiscal challenges including the national debt. Social Security has already been a talking point for both presidential candidates, and was a subject of President Joe Biden’s State of the Union Address earlier this year.

Never miss a story — sign up for PLANSPONSOR newsletters to keep up on the latest retirement plan benefits news.

According to the Social Security Administration’s 2024 Trustee Report, the OASI Fund is projected to have to cut benefits by 21% in 2035 when it exhausts its reserves. The fund has been running a deficit since 2010 and spending down the reserves of past surpluses to make up the difference.

The online survey involved 1,000 participants, polled on May 21 and 22, or about two weeks after the 2024 Trustee Report was published.

This 21% cut would be automatic once the fund has used up those reserves. Given that most Americans are unaware of this contingency, they are left unable to prepare since one cannot plan for a possibility they are unfamiliar with.

Whatever one’s risk tolerance, modeling Social Security cuts is widely recommended by financial planners to a wide range of clients, according to Robert Pagliarini, an ambassador with the CFP Board and the president of Pacifica Wealth.

Younger workers would be the most affected by Social Security cuts, since those cuts will likely only increase over time as life expectancy increases, Pagliarini notes. However, younger workers also have more time to take corrective action.

Many financial planners recommend that their clients account for the possibility of Social Security cuts using various models to forecast different outcomes. Such models can include small tweaks, such as increasing a client’s retirement age. They can also include a situation in which no reforms are made and Social Security is cut by 21% or more.

But corrective action requires awareness of the problem in the first place.

«