Deals and People February 16, 2024

Retirement Industry People Moves

Alerus adds retirement plan consultant; Vestwell appoints pair of regional VPs; Wagner Law Group adds to Taft-Hartley practice; and more.

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Alerus Adds Retirement Sales Consultant

Ashley Avaregan

Alerus Financial Corp. announced on February 15 it hired Ashley Avaregan as a retirement sales consultant.

He is responsible for retirement plan sales in California and works closely with financial advisers to develop tailored retirement plan solutions for their clients, according to a press release.

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Avaregan has nearly 30 years of experience in the financial services industry, with expertise in partnering with small and midsized organizations to provide defined contribution plans and managed account services. Before joining Alerus, he spent six years as a regional sales director for Mutual of Omaha, where he was responsible for retirement plan sales in California, Hawaii and Nevada.

Avaregan reports to Wade Dykema, director of retirement and benefits sales.

Vestwell Names Pair of Regional Vice Presidents  

Phil Kennedy

Stephen McNeill

Vestwell hired Phil Kennedy and Stephen McNeill to the roles of regional vice president, effective February 5, a company spokesperson confirmed.

Kennedy is responsible for the Rocky Mountain territory, and McNeill the Pacific Northwest.

Keaton Beams also joined Vestwell as a sales strategy team senior associate. Beams was previously an associate strategic plan analyst at Empower. He reports to April Mellas, vice president of sales and strategy.  

 

Wagner Law Group Bolsters Taft-Hartley Group

Peter Hutchinson

The Wagner Law Group announced Peter Hutchinson has joined the firm as a partner in its Los Angeles office, bolstering the Taft-Hartley retirement plans practice.

Hutchinson will “spearhead” Employee Retirement Income Security Act retirement plan collections litigation and other ERISA litigation matters, advise Taft-Hartley plans and work with the firm’s union trust fund clients, according to a spokesperson.

Wagner Law hired Hutchinson due to growth in its Taft-Hartley practice.  

“We need more dynamic lawyers to help support the practice,” the spokesperson said.

Prior to joining Wagner, Hutchinson worked at a California law firm and in Washington, D.C. as an attorney for the Service Employees International Union as a legal adviser to member Carol Waller Pope of the Federal Labor Relations Authority.


Pennsylvania RIA Names Managing Director

Elizabeth Fugler

Registered investment adviser Logan Capital Management announced it hired Elizabeth Fugler as managing director of institutional sales and client service.

Fugler will help grow and strengthen the firm’s institutional client base and expand existing relationships, according to a February 13 announcement.  

Logan Capital Management hired Fugler because she has more than 20 years of experience leading business development in the asset management space, said a company spokesperson by email.

Fugler was hired to build Logan’s visibility and broaden its institutional consultant relationships.

“As demand grows for our various domestic and international managed portfolios there is an opportunity to work with a significantly larger number of consulting firms,” the spokesperson said.

Fugler reports to Logan Capital Management’s founding principals, Dana Stewardson and Stephen Lee.  

Products February 15, 2024

Investment Product and Service Launches

F&G Annuities & Life launches RILA; iCapital announces tool designed to build stronger portfolios; and CAPTRUST joins list of advisories partnering with Pontera on 401(k) management tool.

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F&G Annuities & Life Launches RILA

F&G Annuities & Life Inc., a provider of insurance solutions for retail annuity and institutional clients, launched its first registered index-linked annuity.

According to the firm, the F&G Confidence Builder addresses retirement challenges, including volatility and inflation, and aims to find a balance between managing risk and long-term growth potential.

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The Confidence Builder personalizes investment strategies through customizable crediting periods, diverse crediting methods, a tailored level of downside protection depending on individual preferences and a broad range of index options, according to the announcement.

“F&G’s new RILA is positioned to be a solution that maximizes growth potential, limits downside risk and offers flexibility to adapt to changing market conditions,” said John Currier, president of retail markets at F&G, in a statement.

iCapital Announces Tool Designed to Build Stronger Portfolios

The global fintech platform iCapital announced that its new portfolio construction tool, Architect, is available on iCapital Marketplace.

With the launch, more than 350,000 U.S. financial advisers will have access to the tool, which combines a “user-friendly” interface with analytics to evaluate alternatives and structured investments alongside traditional assets. The offering aims to help advisers “design portfolios that align with their clients’ return objectives and risk profiles,” according to the announcement.

Architect is also designed for advisers to evaluate the impact of adding alternatives—such as private equity, private credit, hedge funds, private real estate funds—and structured investments, to an existing portfolio that includes traditional investments, including equity, fixed income, ETFs and mutual funds.

Advisers can also fold in custom assets and run them through Architect’s models, allowing advisers to evaluate nontraditional client assets.

The launch on iCapital Marketplace follows a six-month beta phase with more than 300 wealth managers, including more than 150 RIA firms. iCapital also announced a partnership with Morningstar last month, and once the integration is completed, more than 170,000 advisers can subscribe to Architect through Morningstar Advisor Workstation.

CAPTRUST Adds Pontera 401(k) Account Management Tool

CAPTRUST Financial Advisors joined the list of registered investment advisories partnering with Pontera to offer its 401(k) account management services to advisers.

Pontera, which announced partnerships with numerous advisories and financial services firms last year, providers advisers with a secure, client-permissioned platform to manage defined contribution workplace retirement accounts directly, as opposed to using client logins or working ad hoc with them on their savings. Through the partnership, CAPTRUST advisers can look at clients’ fund options, review historical fund performance and set target-fund allocations.

The partnership “boosts the ability of CAPTRUST financial advisers to deliver comprehensive wealth planning and investment advice across client accounts, helping more retirement savers achieve their long-term income and lifestyle objectives,” according to the announcement. The firms also highlighted a 2023 Gallup poll that found 59% of retirees rely on Social Security as a source of income, signaling the need for improved focus and management of supplemental retirement saving sources.

“CAPTRUST and Pontera are united in the belief that every investor can benefit from receiving personalized wealth management from a trusted and unbiased financial advisor,” said Eddie Welch, CAPTRUST’s head of wealth management. “Through this partnership, Pontera’s technology can help CAPTRUST advisers make their clients’ money work even harder across all of their accounts, including their employer-sponsored retirement savings plans.”

CAPTRUST has about 1,500 employees in 90 locations working on three business lines: wealth management, retirement plans, and endowments and foundations. The Raleigh, North Carolina-based RIA oversaw $817 billion in assets, including more than $668 billion in nondiscretionary assets under advisement and more than $149 billion in discretionary managed account assets, as of September 30, 2023.

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