Deals and People January 17, 2025

Retirement Industry People Moves

NEPC names Contorno principal and head of DC vendor management; JPMorganChase announces new responsibilities for senior leaders; CG Financial Services Appoints Hiipakka as President and COO; and more.

Reported by

NEPC Names Contorno Principal and Head of Defined Contribution Vendor Management

Michael Contorno

NEPC LLC, an investment consulting firm, appointed Michael Contorno as a principal and head of defined contribution vendor management.

Contorno joined the firm on January 13, reporting to Bill Ryan, a partner and defined contribution team leader. Contorno will lead NEPC’s nationwide DC vendor management search practice. He will also support NEPC’s DC clients by helping them optimize relationships with recordkeepers, financial wellness providers, executive compensation plans and overall plan governance.

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

Contorno previously held consulting roles at Marsh & McLennan and Aon, as well as a tenure at Vanguard, where worked to modernize recordkeeping capabilities.

“Mike’s diverse background uniquely positions him to elevate NEPC’s DC vendor management services to new heights,” Ryan said in a statement.

JPMorganChase Announces New Responsibilities for Senior Leaders

Daniel Pinto

JPMorgan Chase & Co. announced new responsibilities for several senior executives across its global financial services departments.

Daniel Pinto, president and chief operating officer, who has served the firm for more than 40 years, informed Chairman and CEO Jamie Dimon of his decision to retire at the end of 2026. Pinto will relinquish his responsibilities as COO immediately and as president as of June 30. He will continue to serve the company as vice chairman.

Jennifer Piepszak

Jennifer Piepszak, currently co-CEO of JPMorganChase’s Commercial & Investment Bank, has been named the company’s new chief operating officer. She will work closely with Pinto over the next few months. Piepszak will manage and coordinate technology, operations, the chief administrative office, data and analytics, corporate strategy, and diversity, equity and inclusion efforts. She will also oversee the firm’s global corporate centers in India and the Philippines, which employ more than 80,000 professionals.

Doug Petno

Doug Petno, currently co-head of global banking, will succeed Piepszak as co-CEO of the CIB, partnering with current CIB Co-CEO Troy Rohrbaugh to manage the business. John Simmons, currently head of commercial banking, will succeed Petno and join Filippo Gori as the new co-head of global banking, with both reporting to Petno and Rohrbaugh.

Carson Group Brings On California-Based Advisers Choi, Dunphy

The Carson Group announced California-based advisers Kiho Choi and John Dunphy will join the platform and rebrand their practice as Twin Pines Wealth Management, which manages $411 million in assets. 

“Kiho Choi and John Dunphy have spent the past three decades building something special, and we’re honored to help them continue to grow in their next chapter,” Gregg Johnson, the Carson Group’s national sales director, said in a statement.

Twin Pines will be able enhance its client offerings due to Carson’s resources and technology stack, according to the announcement.


CG Financial Services Appoints Hiipakka as President and Chief Operating Officer

CG Financial Services, which manages more than $4 billion in client assets, hired Scott Hiipakka as president and chief operating officer. 

Hiipakka most recently served as the CEO of the Michigan Israel Business Accelerator, a nonprofit organization that promotes economic ties between Michigan and Israel. He also serves as a major general in the Michigan Army National Guard.

“As the industry is changing fast, with large national brands consolidating smaller firms, CG wants to grow independently,” said Tony Mazzali, CG Financial Services’ CEO, in a statement. “Scott brings experience to guide teams as they adapt to challenging obstacles.”

401GO Names Smith as Chief Growth Officer

Stan Smith

Retirement plan provider 401GO announced the appointment of Stan Smith as chief growth officer.

His 26-year career includes leadership positions at Fidelity Investments, SaveDaily and DriveWealth. As CGO, Smith will work to meet 401GO’s market share growth projections while helping the company extend retirement planning to clients and partners.

In addition to leading a sales team, Smith will help 401GO diversify its revenue streams through the development of additional products tailored to underserved markets.

“This nation is facing a true retirement crisis,” Smith said in a statement. “401GO has the opportunity to provide working Americans with the tools they need to shore up their financial futures.”

Beatrice Advisors Appoints 2 Senior Partners

Peter Lupoff

Beatrice Advisors L.P., an independent, woman- and minority-owned multi-family office, announced the appointment of two senior partners, Peter Lupoff and Mervin Burton, as it expands its investment team.

Lupoff joins the firm as a partner specializing in investments and partnerships. As a member of the Beatrice executive management team and investment committee, Lupoff will collaborate with Founder Christina Lewis on organizational objectives and with Meredith Bowen, president and CEO, on investments and operational strategies. His role will also include augmenting business development and overseeing client

Mervin Burton

engagement.

Burton joins the firm as a partner focused on research, leveraging more than 20 years of experience as a senior portfolio manager at various institutions, including a large foundation, an endowment, a pension fund and multiple family offices. Burton will be responsible for delivering active investment research, including asset allocation, manager selection and risk management.

Compliance January 17, 2025

Vanguard Fined by SEC for Misleading Retail TDF Investors

The regulator found that the firm did not provide accurate information about the capital gains and tax implications of a change to investment minimums.

Reported by

The Vanguard Group Inc. will pay $106.41 million to settle charges by the Securities and Exchange Commission that the firm misled retail investors in taxable accounts holding Vanguard Investor Target Retirement Funds, the SEC announced Friday. The settlement money will be distributed to harmed investors.

According to the commission, Vanguard’s statements about capital gains distributions and tax consequences for retail investors in the TRFs violated the Advisers Act and caused violations of the Securities Act and the Investment Company Act. Vanguard settled the charges without admitting or denying the SEC’s findings and agreed to be censured, cease and desist from future violations, and pay $106.41 million to be distributed to affected investors. That fine is in addition to the $40 million Vanguard had agreed to pay to investors as part of a class action suit.

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

A Vanguard spokesperson, in response to a request for comment, commented that the firm, “is committed to supporting the more than 50 million everyday investors and retirement savers who entrust us with their savings. We’re pleased to have reached this settlement and look forward to continuing to serve our investors with world-class investment options.”

The case stems from Vanguard’s December 2020 decision to cut the minimum initial investment amount for Vanguard Institutional Target Retirement Funds to $5 million from $100 million. In the months following that change, many retirement plan investors redeemed their retail-oriented Investor TRFs and switched to the Institutional TRFs, which had lower expenses.

To meet the demand for the redemptions, according to the SEC’s order, the Investor TRFs had to sell underlying assets that had experienced gains due to the rising financial markets. The order stated that, as a result, retail investors in the Investor TRFs who did not switch and continued to hold their fund shares in taxable accounts faced historically larger capital gains distributions and tax liabilities and were deprived of the potential compounding growth of their investments.

The SEC’s order also states that Vanguard Investor TRFs’ prospectuses, effective and distributed in 2020 and 2021, were materially misleading because they stated that the funds’ distributions may be taxable as ordinary income or capital gains and that capital gains distributions could vary considerably from year to year as a result of the funds’ “normal” investment activities and cash flows. But, according to the SEC’s order, the prospectuses failed to disclose the potential for increased capital gains distributions resulting from the redemptions of fund shares by newly eligible investors switching from the Investor TRFs to the Institutional TRFs.

The SEC order also states that Vanguard failed to adopt and implement written policies and procedures reasonably designed to prevent violations of the Advisers Act and rules thereunder with respect to the accuracy of the funds’ disclosures.

“Materially accurate information about capital gains and tax implications is critical to investors saving for their retirements,” said Corey Schuster, chief of the SEC’s Division of Enforcement’s Asset Management Unit, in a statement. “Firms must ensure that they are accurately describing to investors the potential risks and consequences associated with their investments.”

This settlement resolves the SEC’s investigation, along with settlements of parallel investigations of Vanguard announced today by state officials in New York, Connecticut and New Jersey on behalf of the North American Securities Administrators Association.

«