Deals and People May 31, 2024

Retirement Industry People Moves

New York Life Group Benefit Solutions promotes two into expanded leadership roles; Ocorian taps Buick as CFO; Mao named nonresident scholar at Georgetown’s retirement center; and more.

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New York Life Group Benefit Solutions Names Shea, Welke to Leadership Roles

Meghan Shea

New York Life Group Benefit Solutions has promoted two executives to senior leadership positions.

Meghan Shea has been promoted to head of distribution, where she will lead distribution strategy with the goal of driving business growth. She has been with the group benefits solutions team since 2005, where she has held leadership roles in distribution, marketing and strategy.

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Kristina Welke

Kristina Welke will now be stepping into Shea’s prior role of head of strategy, solutions and marketing, where she will focus on delivering products and experiences for the firm’s clients, customers and brokers. She joined the group benefits solutions team in 2018 and has over 15 years of insurance industry experience.

Both will report to Scott Berlin, head of New York Life’s Group Benefit Solutions. .

 

Ocorian Names Buick CFO

Craig Buick

Ocorian, a provider of fund administration, capital markets, corporate, trust and regulatory and compliance services, has named Craig Buick as chief financial officer.

Buick joins from Cabot Credit Management, where he was group CEO and group CFO; overall he has more than 30 years of experience in financial services leadership positions.

As CFO, Buick will be responsible for controllership, finance business partnership, business intelligence, group legal and mergers and acquisitions.

“Craig brings extensive global experience and expertise in building successful businesses, as Ocorian continues its organic and inorganic growth journey,” CEO Chantal Free said in a statement. “His style and approach is an excellent fit for our client centric and collaborative culture.” 

Georgetown Retirement Center Names Rao Nonresident Scholar

Manita Rao

The Georgetown University Center for Retirement Initiatives has brought on Manita Rao as a nonresident scholar.

Rao takes the position alongside her position as senior policy advisor for the AARP, a role she took after completing her Ph.D. in public policy at the University of Southern California.

“We look forward to continuing our collaboration with you as well as our longstanding partner AARP,” Angela Antonelli, research professor and executive director of CRI, wrote on LinkedIn.

AssuredPartners Adds 401(k) and Insurance Adviser Miller and Group 

David Miller

David Miller, president and CEO of First Harbor, will be bringing his team to AssuredPartners Investment Advisors to lead its retirement services department out of the Houston office.

Miller takes the role after nearly 25 years as head of First Harbor, where he started as partner and then led the firm to work with individuals and businesses in insurance, investment and retirement planning.

Joining AssuredPartners “give my team an advantage in Houston’s marketplace to continue to offer excellent customer service to our clients while fully integrating with AssuredPartners’ holistic client service model and leveraging APIA’s tools and resources,” Miller said in a statement.

APIA is the retirement services division of AssuredPartners.

3(38) Investment Fiduciaries Names Ramirez as Investment Director

Adrian Ramirez

3(38) Investment Fiduciaries, a firm specializing in 401(k) back-office work for advisers, has hired Adrian Ramirez as director of investments.

Ramirez joins from Endeavor Retirement, where he was director of retirement plans, and had prior retirement and investing-related roles at SWBC Retirement Plan Services and LeafHouse Financial.

Ramirez will bring experience in “plan lineup design, fee analysis, and vendor searches,” according to a post by the firm on LinkedIn. “As a fiduciary, Adrian is unwavering in his commitment to acting in the best interests of plan participants and to avoiding conflicts of interest.”

3(38) Investment Fiduciaries was founded by Managing Director Steve Wilkinson, who is also CEO of (k)quote, a fee benchmarking service for plan advisers.

Freedom Fiduciaries Hires New Retirement Plan Consultant

Ashley Butz

Retirement plan specialist Ashley Butz will be joining Shane Hanson’s Freedom Fiduciaries as a retirement plan consultant.

Butz joins from Fisher Investments, where she was a retirement counselor, and brings experience in fiduciary processes, participant education and client experience enhancement. She started her career in 2016 in banking and then transitioned into the retirement plan focus.

Butz’s “experience and client-focused approach arrive at a pivotal time as we navigate through a period of significant demand and expansion,” CEO and President Hanson said in a statement. “Ashley’s role as a client-facing specialist will further enable us to enhance our client services and continue meeting their needs effectively. Her fresh insights are also invaluable as we innovate and develop new technologies to better support our clients.”

Administration May 30, 2024

ERIC Releases Priority Areas for Retirement, Health Benefit Regulations

The organization representing employment benefit leaders seeks clarity for a number of items in the SECURE 2.0 Act.

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The ERISA Industry Committee, a national trade group representing corporate benefit leaders has weighed in on key priority areas for coming years, including initiatives from the SECURE 2.0 Act of 2022 in retirement savings, such as student loan matching contributions and clarity on automatic enrollment mandates.

James Gelfand, president and CEO of ERIC, on Thursday released a letter on behalf of large employer member companies regarding Notice 2024-28 that guides priorities for the U.S. Department of the Treasury and Internal Revenue Service. The letter included agenda items focused on clarification and guidance on benefit health issues, such as health savings accounts and high-deductible health plans and retirement and compensation benefit issues.

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“In the case of each of these recommendations, and pursuant to Notice 2024-28, ERIC believes that the guidance requested above would resolve issues affecting broad classes of taxpayers, including employee benefit plans, plan sponsors, and plan participants,” Gelfand stated in the letter. “The recommended guidance would address several unanswered questions and also reduce burdens.”

The focus areas and recommendations pertaining to retirement savings include:

Matching Contributions for Student Loan Payments and Other Contributions

Section 110 of the SECURE 2.0 Act allows employers to match employee student loan payments, which ERIC would like to encourage companies to offer. To that end, it calls on the Treasury and IRS to clarify “reasonable procedures” for employees to claim the match and address the certification of loan payments to prevent fraud. Additionally, it called on regulators to consider extending matching contributions to other tax-preferred accounts like Section 529 plans or HSAs.

Catch-up Contributions

Beginning on January 1, 2026, individuals earning over $145,000 annually can only make catch-up contributions on a Roth basis as per SECURE 2.0. ERIC noted that it had submitted detailed comments in October 2023 ahead of the initial earlier deadline of 2024, which sought clarification on various aspects including the flexibility of plan sponsors regarding catch-up contributions. They also inquired about the voluntary nature of SECURE 2.0 catch-up limit increases for plans. ERIC is seeking additional guidance on non-discrimination rules, treatment of new hires, and the “mechanics of participant deferrals.”

Clarify the Automatic Enrollment Mandate Exemption for Existing Plans

SECURE 2.0 mandates certain employer plans adopt automatic enrollment from 2025, exempting existing “grandfathered” plans, ERIC notes. IRS Notice 2024-2 clarified that a plan is established upon initial adoption of terms. However, ERIC is seeking further clarification to confirm that plan changes, except for mergers or spinoffs, don’t trigger the mandate. Additionally, in multiple employer plans, ERIC believes the IRS should specify that a pre-enactment plan merged into a post-enactment multi-employer plan retains its pre-enactment status.

Optional Roth Match

SECURE 2.0 allows employers to enable employees to request Roth-based matching contributions. Notice 2024-2 clarified that offering Roth features doesn’t mandate all Roth contribution types. However, for plans with Roth matching or nonelective contributions, ERIC calls on the IRS to confirm the feasibility of “partial Roth” elections. It also calls on them to allow Roth treatment as the default for matching and nonelective contributions, regardless of vesting status. ERIC believes limiting Roth options to fully vested participants contradicts the statute’s nonforfeitable requirement for Roth contributions, without indicating such limitations in statutory language, and calls for clarity.

The letter goes on to seek clarity in several other benefit areas, limiting unneeded notice and disclosures to participants, clarifying long-term part-time eligibility rule changes, and increasing flexibility around employees using high-deductible health plans and health savings accounts.

The full letter is available here.

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