Retirement Industry People Moves

Fidelity names Palmer marketing director; SageView enhances wealth management leadership team; Marasco to lead new protected retirement team; and more.

Fidelity Recruits Retirement Marketing Director

Kelley Palmer has joined Fidelity Investments in the role of marketing director for personalized planning and advice, a company spokesperson confirmed.

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Palmer is responsible for building and executing integrated marketing strategy across channels and engagement and enhancing digital experiences to drive greater engagement and outcomes, according to a LinkedIn Post describing her role.  

Palmer was previously a senior director at John Hancock Retirement, where she oversaw marketing and engagement strategy.  


SageView Enhances Wealth Management Leadership Team

Sophie Benander

SageView Advisory Group announced it hired as senior vice president and head of wealth management advisory services and Sophie Benander as vice president of wealth management client experience.

Reporting to chief operating officer Jorge Bernal, who joined SageView in 2022, Cosgriff and Benander will help to expand the firm’s position in institutional retirement and wealth management.

“Matt and Sophie deliver an excellent balance of experience and drive,” CEO John Longley said in a statement. “I am confident that their talent and leadership will have a significant impact on helping achieve our business goals.”

Cosgriff joins SageView from BerganKDV, where he served as director of wealth management, and also was a senior wealth and retirement plan advisor. Before joining SageView, Benander served as the assistant director of wealth management at Adviser Investments.


Marasco to Lead New Protected Retirement Team at Nationwide

Cathy Marasco, current associate vice president of retirement solutions product development, was selected to lead Nationwide’s new protected retirement team.

Cathy Marasco

“I’m excited to see rapidly growing interest in protected income solutions from both retirement savers and plan sponsors,” Marasco said in a statement. “That’s why it’s a great time to accelerate our efforts to enhance our solutions and make them available to even more Americans who want to ensure they don’t outlive their income and protect their hard-earned retirement savings from market volatility.”

Marasco will integrate and build a coordinated team responsible for advancing awareness and adoption of in-plan guarantee solutions.

“Cathy is well-positioned to be successful in this new role. She has vast subject matter expertise and has been instrumental in furthering our in-plan guarantee strategy,” Eric Stevenson, president of retirement solutions at Nationwide, said in a statement. “We’re confident the team will reach even greater heights and deliver even stronger results with these dedicated resources and the ability to focus fully on driving Protected Retirement solutions.”

IRI Elects New Board Chair, Vice Chair

The Insured Retirement Institute announced changes to its board of directors, including a new chair and vice chair.

Phil Pellegrino

The new chair is Phil Pellegrino, head of U.S. wealth planning and insured solutions at UBS. Pellegrino served as vice chair of the IRI board of directors for the past year. Corey Walther, president of Allianz Life Financial Services LLC, is the new vice chair.

Pellegrino succeeds Terri Fiedler, president of retirement services at Corebridge Financial, who becomes the immediate past chair and remains on the IRI executive committee. Paula Nelson, managing director and head of strategic growth with Global Atlantic Financial Group, will continue as treasurer/secretary. 

“I’m excited to welcome Phil as the new IRI board chair,” Wayne Chopus, president and CEO of IRI, said in a statement. “He has been a crucial member of our executive committee and a leader in our Digital First for Annuities Initiative over the past year. I’m grateful for his continued commitment to IRI and look forward to working with him in the coming year.”


Northern Trust Asset Management Names New Co-Head of Wealth Client Group

Northern Trust Asset Management announced that Sunitha Thomas will join NTAM as co-head of the newly formed wealth client group.

Sunitha Thomas

In this newly created role, Thomas will provide leadership to serving Northern Trust Wealth Management clients and strengthening NTAM’s presence in the intermediary wealth management industry. Thomas will report to NTAM’s president, Daniel Gamba.

“We are excited to bring additional focus to private wealth clients from an asset management perspective, including the addition of Sunitha’s strong investment capabilities and deep experience delivering innovative solutions to clients,” Gamba said in a statement.

Thomas joined Northern Trust more than 20 years ago, spending 15 years in wealth management as a regional senior investment officer and national portfolio adviser and five years as a fundamental equity researcher. Prior to that, she spent six years in investment management roles at Putnam Investments and Fidelity Investments. She currently serves on the board of directors of the Harris Theater.


NAGDCA Names New Board Member

Beth Conradson Cleary

The National Association of Government Defined Contribution Administrators appointed Beth Conradson Cleary executive director of the City of Milwaukee Deferred Compensation Plan at Milwaukee’s annual government member business meeting on October 10.

Conradson Cleary is currently director for the City of Milwaukee 457(b) Deferred Compensation Retirement Plan and was previously the deputy director of the City of Milwaukee Employees Retirement System.


Professional Body for Financial Planners Names Research Director

The CFP Board appointed Kevin Roth as managing director of research, effective October 16.

Kevin Roth

Roth is responsible for leading the CFP Board research agenda, assessing the impact of financial planning on clients’ well-being, translating research findings into actionable recommendations and collaborating with CFP Board partners to share data through publications, presentations and other channels.

“The managing director of research will spearhead innovative research projects, showcasing the value of CFP certification to various audiences, including the general public, policymakers, firms and financial advisors,” CFP Board CEO Kevin R. Keller stated. “With his decades of experience leading research development, Kevin is exceptionally suited to lead and expand our research efforts in the face of growing demand for data.”

Roth was previously vice president of research, evaluation and technology at the National Recreation and Park Association.

2 ERISA Mandatory Arbitration Case Appeals Will Not Go Before Supreme Court

The cases focused on ESOP valuation, and both rulings held that that mandatory arbitration and class action relief are not enforceable.

The U.S. Supreme Court has declined to hear two cases concerning the enforceability of mandatory arbitration and class action waivers in plan documents.

The decision effectively denies appeals of decisions made by judges in the 3rd and 10th Circuit Courts of Appeal, which ruled that mandatory arbitration and class action waiver clauses in plan documents are unenforceable under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act. The Supreme Court declined to hear the appeal of the 10th Circuit decision on October 10 and the 3rd Circuit decision on October 16.

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Both cases alleged that private equity in employee stock ownership plans was improperly valued at the expense of the participants. In Robert Harrison v. Envision Management Holdings, the 10th Circuit ruled for Harrison, while in Marlow Henry v. Wilmington Trust, the 3rd Circuit ruled for Henry.

In both circuit court outcomes, the defendants’ moves to force individual arbitration and prevent a class action remedy were denied.

10th Circuit Complaint

Harrison initially brought his complaint in January 2021 in the U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado. The plaintiff alleged that his employer, Envision, a radiology company, violated its fiduciary duties in the management of an ESOP.

Specifically, Harrison alleged that Envision owners sold 100% of its private stock to the ESOP for approximately $160 million, $150 million of which the ESOP borrowed, since it had insufficient funds. Of that loan, $100 million came from the owners themselves and $50 million came from Envision.

The lawsuit alleges that contributions to the ESOP were first spent on paying interest on those loans, set at 12%, and that two separate prices were used to value the private stock of Envision, both of which were overpriced.

Envision argued that the plaintiff had signed an arbitration clause that required him to only claim individual damages, not plan-wide damages. The District Court refused to enforce that agreement. Envision then appealed to the 10th Circuit.

The 10th Circuit ruled that mandatory individual arbitration is invalid “because it disallows plan-wide relief,” a statutory right under ERISA. The court explained that the effective vindication exemption means that arbitration clauses cannot remove the right to pursue statutory remedies, which include plan-wide relief.

The defendants argued that the Department of Labor can still pursue enforcement action on behalf of the plan and that individual participants can seek individual relief through arbitration. The court ruled that ERISA expressly authorizes plan-wide relief in cases brought by participants, and mandatory individual arbitration cannot remove that right: “Because we agree with the district court that the remedies limitation contained in Section 21.1(b) prevents Harrison from effectively vindicating his statutory remedies, that means that the entire Arbitration Procedure outlined in Section 21 of the Plan is ’rendered null and void in all respects.’”

3rd Circuit Complaint

Henry similarly alleged the private stock of BSC Ventures was inflated and therefore hurt the ESOP’s participants, filing the initial complaint in U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware.

On appeal, the 3rd Circuit ruled that plan-wide relief—a remedy that addresses all affected members of the plan—is protected by ERISA. An individual cannot waive a statutory remedy for a plan, because it is not the individual’s right to waive, but the plan’s right.

This ruling was also effectively upheld when the Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal.

Mark Boyko, an ERISA attorney and partner in Bailey Glasser LLC, says that arbitration clauses as such are not unlawful. It is when they are paired with a class action waiver that they become unenforceable, because then a plaintiff cannot pursue the plan-wide relief protected by ERISA. Boyko says that courts have ruled that “the plan can agree to arbitration, but the plan can’t agree and limit the award to one individual” through a class waiver.

“You can waive your procedural right to go to court,” says Boyko, “but not your statutory right to plan-wide remedies,” whether awarded by a court or by an arbitrator.

The SECURE 2.0 Act of 2022 requires the DOL to issue regulations spelling out how private assets should be appraised for the purpose of creating ESOPs. A report published by Matrix Global Investors in September argued that a lack of regulatory uncertainty on ESOP valuation may be the greatest obstacle to their wider formation.

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