Deals and People January 31, 2023

New Chief Retirement Strategist Named at JPMAM

JPMorgan Asset Management named a former head of education savings to the post.   

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JPMorgan Asset Management named Michael Conrath chief retirement strategist for the firm, effective February 1, the firm announced on Tuesday in a press release.

Conrath will be responsible for creating the firm’s research agenda and leading the retirement insights group. Conrath reports to Dan Oldroyd, portfolio manager and head of target date strategies at JP Morgan Asset Management, according to the press release.

“Michael’s extensive track record of helping people save for college and retirement make him the perfect fit to lead our retirement insights program, designed to provide plan sponsors, financial professionals and individuals with the insights and tools they need to make informed retirement decisions,” Oldroyd said in the release.

Conrath replaces Katherine Roy, who departed JPMorgan Asset Management last year. Roy is now a principal for retirement products, at Edward Jones, according to her LinkedIn.

Conrath has worked at JPMorgan Asset Management since 2011, most recently as the head of education savings, where he co-created College Planning Essentials, a guide for saving and investing for families’ college saving goals.

Conrath’s research portfolio encompasses the annual JPMorgan Asset Management retirement research report, the guide to retirement, according to a company spokesperson.

Prior to joining JPMorgan Asset Management, Conrath was wealth planning director at AllianceBernstein, where he spent more than a decade developing resources for college savings, wealth transfer and retirement planning, according to the press release. He previously held similar roles at Morgan Stanley and New York Life, according to the release.

Ask the Experts January 31, 2023

Does the SECURE 2.0 Act Make 403(b) Plans More Like 401(k) Plans?

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

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Q: I understand that the recently enacted SECURE 2.0 Act made 403(b) plans a lot more like 401(k) plans. Is this true?

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

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A: Yes, to some extent.  For example, SECURE 2.0 Act of 2022 does conform the hardship distribution rules for 403(b) plans to those of 401(k) plans. Historically the hardship distribution provisions for 401(k) plans were quite different than for 403(b) plans, particularly with regard to the types of funds that could be distributed for financial hardship. However, beginning in 2024, those historic differences will be eliminated, with the 403(b) hardship distribution provisions mirroring that of 401(k) plans.  The SECURE 2.0 Act also modified the long-term part-time rules first introduced in the SECURE Act of 2019 and extended those rules to ERISA-covered 403(b) plans, generally beginning with the 2025 plan year.

There are also other provisions in SECURE 2.0 Act creating new rules under which 403(b) plans will mirror 401(k) plans. For example, 403(b) plans and 401(k) plans will require automatic enrollment and automatic escalation for certain new plans beginning in 2025; age 50 catch-up contributions will need to be made on a Roth basis for certain employees beginning in 2024; and 403(b) plans, like 401(k) plans, will now be permitted to participate in multiple employer and pooled employer plans. There is also a provision that would allow 403(b) plans to invest in collective investment trusts (CIT), but as a practical matter CITs currently cannot be added to 403(b) plans without significant changes to securities law.

All in all, there remain many differences between 401(k) and 403(b) plans, but SECURE 2.0 Act did a little to address this issue.

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.

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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