Deals and People June 3, 2022

Retirement Industry People Moves

TIAA appoints chief institutional client officer, and Wilshire enhances investment capabilities with new senior vice president.

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

TIAA Appoints Chief Institutional Client Officer

TIAA has announced the appointment of Kourtney Gibson as chief institutional client officer.

Gibson joins July 1 following the retirement of Doug Chittenden, a 38-year TIAA veteran. Most recently, Gibson was executive vice chairwoman of global investment services firm Loop Capital, where she served in a range of leadership roles. She will report to president and CEO Thasunda Brown Duckett and become a member of the company’s executive committee. Chittenden will serve as an adviser and vice chairman of institutional relationships until March 2023.

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In her last role, Gibson was responsible for setting long-term strategy and aligning talent and other resources to deepen client relationships and deliver a wide array of solutions at the firm, which manages over $6 billion in assets on behalf of institutional clients and executes an average of $1.75 billion in daily trading in over 80 countries. Over more than 20 years at Loop Capital, she oversaw various corporate, governmental, institutional and consultant client relations and led multiple functions, including asset management, strategy, sales and trading.

Gibson also has firsthand experience with TIAA clients. She sits on the boards of trustees at the University of Miami, where she serves on the investment committee, and at Viterbo University, where she serves on the finance committee. She is also a director on the boards of Lululemon Athletica and MarketAxess Holdings.

Gibson holds an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University and a Bachelor of Business Administration from the University of Miami. She is a board member of the Dibia DREAM Foundation, which provides STEM education for underserved youth, and a board member and immediate past chairwoman of the Chicago Scholars Foundation, the largest college access and success program in Chicago.

Wilshire Enhances Investment Capabilities with New Senior Vice President

Wilshire has announced the arrival of Julija Kod as senior vice president of the institutional client solutions team. In her role, Kod will be focused on Wilshire’s institutional defined contribution business and advising defined contribution plan sponsors, both public and corporate.

Prior to joining Wilshire, Kod spent over 10 years at Mercer, most recently as a senior investment consultant, providing investment consulting services to corporate retirement plans. Kod earned a Master of Science in finance and investment and a Bachelor of Science in economics and finance from the University of Bristol. She holds the chartered financial analyst designation.

Compliance June 3, 2022

Missing 401(k) Contributions Must Be Restored, Court Rules

More than $150,000 ordered paid to a Maryland company's retirement plan; company and owner barred from any future ERISA fiduciary roles.

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A federal court in Maryland has entered a consent judgment that requires a Baltimore logistics, engineering and management support company and its owner to restore more than $150,000 in missing contributions and interest to the firm’s 401(k) plan.

The consent judgment is the result of an investigation by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Employee Benefits Security Administration, which found that Bicallis LLC and its owner Bryan Hill did not forward employees’ pay deductions for plan contributions and failed to collect matching and safe harbor contributions the company owed the plan from October 2017 through December 2019.

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Under the consent judgment, Bicallis and Hill have been removed from their fiduciary positions with the plan, and they are permanently barred from serving in a fiduciary capacity for any plan covered by the Employee Retirement Income Security Act in the future. The firm and its owner must also pay for the cost of an independent fiduciary to administer the plan and distribute benefits to its participants and beneficiaries.

The court appointed AMI Benefit Plan Administrators, Inc. as the independent fiduciary for the plan. AMI will have plenary authority over the administration, management and assets of the plan, and will be subject to ERISA’s fiduciary duties. Once AMI has completed distributing the plan’s assets, the new fiduciary will decide whether it is appropriate to terminate the plan. If it does, AMI will have authority to perform all actions necessary to wind down and terminate the plan. Bicallis and Hill will also be assessed a penalty of 20% of the applicable recovery amount.

“When fiduciaries fail to take required actions regarding the hard-earned retirement savings of participants in plans they manage, workers lose trust in those managing their retirement earnings and the fund’s growth is compromised,” EBSA Regional Director in Philadelphia Michael Schloss said in a statement. “EBSA is committed to ensuring the integrity of employee benefit programs and holding those who violate the law accountable.”

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