Deals and People July 22, 2022

Retirement Industry People Moves

Lincoln Financial Group names workplace solutions head; T. Rowe Price adds two senior executives to its institutional DC business; new attorney joins The Wagner Law Group; and more.

Reported by

New Attorney Joins The Wagner Law Group

The Wagner Law Group has recently announced that attorney Beth Davis has joined the firm’s Los Angeles office as of counsel. 

Davis advises collectively bargained multiemployer funds. She also provides counsel to clients on retiree medical trust matters, including implementing health reimbursement arrangements and compliance with rules and regulations under the Internal Revenue Code. Her experience in employee benefits includes short-term and long-term disability claims, life waiver of premium claims and life insurance claims.

Never miss a story — sign up for PLANSPONSOR newsletters to keep up on the latest retirement plan benefits news.

Before joining the firm, Davis spent 15 years representing individual claimants seeking benefits under ERISA plans. Davis has spoken on ERISA topics ranging from the intersection of ERISA with Social Security disability income benefits to how best to support a benefit claim at the initial and appeal levels.

Beth was previously a senior attorney at a Los Angeles law firm handling ERISA matters. She has been admitted to the bars of California, North Carolina and Illinois.

Lincoln Financial Group Names Workplace Solutions Head

Lincoln Financial Group has announced that James Reid will be joining the company in August as executive vice president, head of workplace solutions, to lead the organization’s group benefits and retirement plan services businesses. Reid will report to President and CEO Ellen Cooper and will be a member of the company’s senior management committee.

As the head of workplace solutions, Reid will be responsible for the strategy and executive leadership of core business lines for Lincoln, which offers a variety of products and services to employers and their employees. Continuing to align the employer-focused businesses under one leader will enable Lincoln’s workplace solutions team to collaborate and leverage best practices, according to firm leadership.

Reid comes to Lincoln from Versant Health, a subsidiary of MetLife, where he served as president and CEO. Prior to leading Versant, he held several senior leadership roles at MetLife for the past decade, most recently as executive vice president and head of global employee benefits. He has been in the industry for more than 30 years and has leadership experience in worksite-focused businesses.

Additionally, Ralph Ferraro will be stepping into an expanded role at Lincoln Financial as senior vice president and head of retirement plan services, reporting to Reid. This new role enables one leader to focus holistically, end-to-end, on the company’s retirement business.

Ferraro joined Lincoln Financial in 2016 as head of retirement product solutions, and in 2021, he took on a combined leadership role in the workplace solutions organization with additional leadership of the company’s group benefits product and underwriting functions. Ferraro has more than 25 years of industry experience; prior to Lincoln Financial, he held leadership positions at Voya Financial and CitiStreet.

T. Rowe Price Adds Two Senior Executives to Its Institutional DC Business


T. Rowe Pricehas announced that it has made two new hires to support its Americas institutional defined contribution investment only business.

Meenu Annamalai is a senior institutional client service executive. In this role, she will service DC plan sponsor clients located in the western and central U.S. and be responsible for engaging with consultants, advisers and DC organizations. She will primarily cover DCIO relationships, but also support defined benefit public and corporate clients, as well as endowments and foundations and high-net-worth clients. Based in San Francisco, Annamalai will report to Kim Young, head of institutional client service for T. Rowe Price’s Americas business.

Annamalai has more than 18 years of experience in the DC market and comes to T. Rowe Price from Mercer, where she was DC leader for the West market. Previously she served as a plan sponsor for HP Inc., where she was director of retirement investment and compliance. Annamalai holds a B.A. from York University and an MBA from University of California, Berkeley.

Jessica Sclafani is a senior defined contribution strategist. In her role, she will be responsible for driving Americas’ DC research and thought leadership agenda and contributing to overall DCIO strategy. Additionally, Sclafani will serve as a subject matter expert for the firm’s DC brand-building efforts more generally. She will be a resource to client service and business development professionals, as well as T. Rowe Price retirement professionals across the enterprise, to support firmwide DC initiatives. Sclafani will report to Michael Davis, head of defined contribution plan specialists for the Americas.

Sclafani has more than 14 years of experience, most recently with MFS Investment Management, where she served as a DC strategist for the investment solutions group. Prior to MFS, she led the retirement practice for industry consultant Cerulli Associates, where she guided the firm’s DC research efforts. Previously, she held an analyst position with Wellington Management. Sclafani holds a B.A. from Boston College and the Chartered Alternative Investment Analyst designation. She is based in Boston.

Alta Trust Company Names New General Counsel

After his over 30-year career as an ERISA attorney in private practice, Bruce Ashton has joined the Alta Trust Company team as general counsel. Prior to this position, Ashton provided legal services for Alta Trust for over a decade, which forged a strong professional relationship.

Ashton is an ERISA expert with an extensive background in retirement income and collective investment trusts, making him an ideal candidate to serve as Alta Trust’s general counsel.

Data and Research July 22, 2022

Employers Are Focused on Remodeling Workplace Benefits

Among large employers that responded to a Mercer survey, 11% offer free employee-only coverage in at least one medical plan option and another 11% are considering it.

Reported by

Employers are focused on enhancing health and benefits packages to recruit and retain workers, according to “Health & Benefit Strategies for 2023,” a Mercer survey report.

The survey, which examined how companies are reworking benefit programs as they engage in a battle for talent exacerbated by the current tight labor market and volatile economic conditions, found that 65% of all employers that responded to the survey plan to make benefit enhancements for 2023.

“Employers are grappling with finding a delicate balance between what they need to do for talent attraction and retention in tight labor markets versus the challenges of the current economic environment,” Tracy Watts, senior partner and national leader for U.S. health policy at Mercer, stated in a release. “Employers need to be really thoughtful and specific about their benefits enhancements to ensure they will get a return on their investment. This requires an understanding of the values and needs of their unique workforce.”

For more stories like this, sign up for the PLANSPONSOR NEWSDash daily newsletter.

The survey separated results by employer size instead of reporting aggregated results that combined all sizes. Small employers, or those with fewer than 500 employees, constituted 36% of the survey respondents; large employers, with 500 to 4,999 employees, 46%; and very large employers, with 5,000 or more workers, 18%. 

The survey found that 70% of all large employers plan to enhance benefits for 2023, while 65% are planning some enhancements and 5% plan significant enhancements. Very large employers were the most likely to say they are planning significant enhancements at 7%. And, among large employers, 16% reported that enhanced benefits were introduced in 2022 and that additional changes are not planned in 2023, and 14% are not planning to enhance benefits, Mercer found. Meanwhile, among small employers, 53% are planning enhancements.

As employers focus on their strategic planning needs for 2023 and beyond, the need to attract and retain employees in the current tight labor market is a big concern, according to the survey.

“Compensation alone doesn’t build the kind of engagement and sense of belonging that a well-designed benefit program can,” the report states.  

Health care plan sponsors are shortening retirement plan vesting periods to attract and retain talent. This comes at a time when a 65-year-old couple retiring this year can expect to spend an average of $315,000 on health care costs throughout retirement, according to Fidelity’s estimate.  

Lowering the cost of health care is a top concern for workers, and some employers have responded by considering plan design changes, the Mercer survey found.

High-deductible plans have grown in recent years, and, when paired with a health savings account, they can be used to invest for future health care expenses and lower future costs. However, as the report notes, “While high-deductible health plans have grown rapidly over the past decade, employers have recognized that these plans aren’t a good fit for some employees.”

The survey found that among large employers, 41% will provide a medical plan option with a low deductible or even no deductible, such as a copay-based plan, in 2023, and 11% are considering it.

Mercer also found that among large employers, 11% offer free employee-only coverage with no paycheck deductions for at least one medical plan option and that 11% are considering it.

“While free employee-only coverage historically has been relatively common among small employers–29% currently offering—it is a newer strategy for large employers,” the report states. “Employers in high-tech industries were early adopters, but more recently we’ve seen employers advertising free coverage for high demand/low supply jobs such as truck drivers.”

The data show that for large employers there is a special focus on enhancing benefits for hourly and low-wage workers.

“In today’s competitive labor market, employees are able to leave jobs for others offering only slightly higher pay,” Watts said. “Employers are looking to create a stronger bond with this workforce by offering health and well-being benefits and resources that their employees will value.”

Among large employers, 20% have prioritized hourly employees as an employee group targeted for benefit enhancements, while 15% have targeted low-wage workers, 14% highly skilled workers and 13% workers at the entry level, Mercer found.

“While hourly workers are the group most likely to be singled out for special attention across all industries, highly skilled workers are the priority for large health care employers (24%),” the report states.

The survey found that 65% of large employers are not prioritizing any group for benefit enhancements.

The survey was conducted this year from April 26 to May 13. It comprises responses from 708 employers.

«