Deals and People April 29, 2022

Retirement Industry People Moves

Congruent Solutions elevates North American chief operating officer; Edelman Financial Engines appoints chief financial officer; Verity Asset Management names director of participant engagement and ambassador for new business unit.

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Art by Subin Yang
Art by Subin Yang
Art by Subin Yang

Congruent Solutions Elevates North American Chief Operating Officer

Congruent Solutions, a technology solutions and outsourced plan administration services provider to the retirement plan industry in the U.S., has announced the promotion of Lucas Soucy to the role of chief operating officer, North America. Soucy previously served as the vice president, North America, and has over 22 years of experience in operations and plan administration.

Moving forward, Soucy will oversee all back-office operations, both onshore and offshore, as well as sales, product support and relationship management. To strengthen Soucy’s team in North America, Congruent has also brought on Michael Kiernan as the sales vice president.

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Soucy joined Congruent Solutions in 2005 to help set up a back-office delivery center for retirement services that focuses on providing plan providers, recordkeepers and TPAs support for transaction processing and compliance testing. He helped develop Congruent’s CORE platform, a cloud-based modular technology solution, and is a board member of the SPARK Institute.

Kiernan brings to his role over 15 years of experience in the retirement plan industry, having worked in sales and account management for qualified plan recordkeeping, administration, DCIO, software and technology solutions.

Edelman Financial Engines Appoints Chief Financial Officer

Edelman Financial Engines, an independent wealth planning and investment advisory firm, has announced that Suzanne van Staveren has joined the firm as executive vice president and chief financial officer, effective immediately.

With more than 20 years of experience in leadership positions within the financial services industry, van Staveren will oversee a team of more than 90 professionals across the finance, strategy and small retirement plans teams.

Van Staveren will serve as a member of the executive leadership team and work with them to develop the firm’s long-term growth strategy and financial objectives. She joins Edelman Financial Engines from Goldman Sachs, where she was CFO of the firm’s personal financial management group and helped integrate Ayco, the firm’s workplace financial planning business, and United Capital.

Prior to joining Goldman Sachs, van Staveren worked at Fidelity Investments and AXA in a variety of functions, including developing and executing strategic plans, implementing new financial tools and processes, optimizing sales channels, improving product roadmaps and working with clients.

Van Staveren earned a B.S. from Johnson & Wales University and an MBA from Northeastern University.

Verity Asset Management Names Director of Participant Engagement

Verity Asset Management, a registered investment adviser, has announced the appointment of Jae Di Lorenzo as director of participant engagement and ambassador for their newly launched business unit, the plan governance platform Vynntana.

Serving the 403(b) and 457(b) plan space, Vynntana provides a comprehensive suite of tools and expert guidance. The platform will support employer sponsors and the non-ERISA retirement vehicles they provide for their eligible public school, college, church, governmental agency and nonprofit employees.

Di Lorenzo joined Verity Asset Management in June 2020 and focuses on improving participant engagement by creating and delivering financial webinars. She has nearly two decades of experience in marketing, and has worked with both for-profit and nonprofit entities.

Moving forward, Di Lorenzo will be responsible for messaging, marketing and the production of content designed to encourage participants to take control of their financial success. She earned her J.D. from Georgia State University College of Law and her B.S. in neuroscience from Furman University.

Data and Research April 28, 2022

Retirement Confidence Remains High

One-third of workers who feel less confident cited inflation and the rising cost of living as reasons for less optimism.

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Workers’ retirement confidence remains high, despite the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Employee Benefit Research Institute’s “2022 Retirement Confidence Survey,” released this week, found that more than 70% of workers are somewhat confident that they will have enough money to live comfortably throughout their retirement and that almost 30% are very confident.

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In 2021, the survey found that 80% were confident they would have enough money to live comfortably in retirement. 

“Workers’ overall confidence in having enough money to live comfortably throughout retirement remained steady in 2022 relative to 2021,” says Craig Copeland, director of wealth benefits research at EBRI.

Other aspects of retirement confidence remained steady in 2022 from 2021. EBRI found that 74% of workers remained confident that they will have enough money to cover their basic expenses during retirement compared to 77% in 2021, and 65% reported feeling confident that they will have enough money to last their lifetime compared to 63% in 2021.

However, workers’ retirement confidence was impacted by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, Copeland explains. 

“2020 and 2021 were trying times with significant financial impact on both American workers and retirees,” he says.

When workers were asked specifically how the pandemic affected their confidence in having enough money to live comfortably through retirement, “one in three report[s] that they were somewhat or significantly less confident in their retirement prospects,” he explains. “In contrast, one in seven report[s] that they’re more confident because of the pandemic.”

The least confident workers were also less prepared for retirement—workers with poor health, lower incomes, less savings and investments, major debt or who have not saved for retirement—because of the pandemic.

“Confidence levels have held at or just below their all-time highs even with the pandemic; however, those feeling less confident were those that were already less confident prior to the pandemic and were also those that were least prepared for retirement prior to the pandemic,” Copeland says. 

Individuals who can access a retirement plan at work remain satisfied with their plan, as 82% of workers offered one are satisfied, according to EBRI. “One factor that appears to help confidence remain high is a continued satisfaction with workplace retirement savings plans,” Copeland says. “Furthermore, eight in 10 of these workers are satisfied with the investment options offered and eight in 10 of these workers utilizing tools and resources to help determine how much to save or to help them determine how to generate a stream of income from their savings are satisfied with the tools.”

Workers’ top choices for improvements to retirement savings plans were:

  • better explanations of how much income their savings will produce in retirement;
  • more options that provide guaranteed lifetime income; and
  • better understanding of whether they are on track to accumulate sufficient retirement savings.

“With just under three in ten citing each of these as the most valuable improvements in the plans—just below those—one-quarter listed more options designed for after they retire and more investment options being available,” Copeland says.  

EBRI also found that 10% of workers who have saved for retirement had taken a plan loan or hardship withdrawal from the workplace savings plan in the prior 12 months.

“The top reasons for taking these loans or withdrawals were to pay off credit card debt, make ends meet, make a large purchase, buy a home, cover COVID-19-related need or cover another emergency expense,” Copeland explains.   

EBRI and Lisa Greenwald, CEO at Greenwald Research, conducted the online survey of 2,677 Americans 25 and older—1,545 workers and 1,132 retirees—from Jan. 4 through Jan. 26.

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