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Deals and People November 18, 2016
Retirement Industry People Moves
Ascensus acquires Retirement Educators; LGIMA expands U.S. Active Fixed Income team; MassMutual hires Taft-Hartley relationship manager; and more.
Reported by Javier Simon
Ascensus Acquires Retirement Educators
Ascensus, an independent retirement and college-savings services provider, has acquired Retirement Educators to offer enhanced support to its plan sponsor partners and the financial institutions it serves.
“We’re pleased to announce the acquisition of Retirement Educators, Inc., and are excited to welcome their team members to our family and expand our retirement plan education and enrollment support services,” says Shannon Kelly, Ascensus’ president of retirement. “Retirement Educators shares our commitment to helping more Americans save for a comfortable retirement, and we look forward to their contribution to our future growth.”
Ascensus has specialized in providing its clients with training, education and enrollment-support services in the retirement plan and health care markets for more than 40 years. Operating throughout the country for more than 20 years, Retirement Educators has serviced large plan providers as well as broker-dealers, asset management firms, and third-party administrators. The company also offers bilingual support and provides translation services for presentation and educational materials.
“Our presenters are results-oriented and specialize in understanding the unique needs of our clients and the employers and participants they support,” says Rob Kelley, president of Retirement Educators. “We’re pleased to combine our firm’s talent and experience with Ascensus’ resources and retirement industry expertise to offer best-in-class retirement plan education services.”
NEXT: LGIMA Expands U.S. Active Fixed Income team
LGIMA Expands U.S. Active Fixed Income team
Jordan Bond has joined Legal & General Investment Management America (LGIMA) as the firm’s senior portfolio manager for the U.S. Active Fixed Income team. He will be responsible for trading the banking and financial sectors for the U.S. Active Fixed Income team, which currently manages more than $57 billion in fixed-income strategies.
Bond brings more than 16 years of financial services experience to LGIMA. He most recently served as vice president, portfolio manager at PIMCO, where he was a member of a team responsible for managing investment grade assets across the firm. Previously, he spent eight years as a senior consultant with Morgan Stanley.
“Jordan brings substantial experience to LGIMA and we are thrilled to welcome him to our team,” says John Bender, CIO of U.S. Fixed Income. “We are excited about the significant impact Jordan will make in helping to drive meaningful investment results for our clients.”
NEXT: MassMutual Hires Taft-Hartley Relationship Manager
MassMutual Hires Taft-Hartley Relationship Manager
Bill Boyle has joined Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance (MassMutual) as a Taft-Hartley relationship manager serving the Western United Sates. He will join a team of more than 100 relationship managers helping plan sponsors serve their participants. Along with seven other individuals, he will join the Taft-Harley team dedicated to helping consultants, financial advisers, plan sponsors, participants, trustees, and others in the defined contribution (DC) and defined benefit (DB) industries across the country.
“We’re excited to have Bill join our Taft-Hartley team to provide local support and deepen our relationships with our clients in the Western part of the United States,” says Joe Carmignani, head of MassMutual’s Taft-Hartley Relationship Management team. “Located in California, Bill will help us grow the MassMutual brand and expand our relationships with advisers, trustees, consultants and other retirement plan professionals.”
Before joining MassMutual, Boyle was vice president and account executive at Associated Third Party Administrators, where he focused on Taft-Hartley plans. His eight years of experience in the Taft-Hartley marketplace has seen him serve many roles in DC, DB, health and welfare plans.
Boyle graduated from the University of California at Berkeley.
“As MassMutual continues to grow its Taft-Hartley business, we continue to add resources to our team,” says Doug DeNigris, Taft-Hartley practice leader. "In the last two years we have expanded the team and in doing so we have continued to increase our coverage to other parts of the country while hiring talented people with different service backgrounds. In joining us from ATPA, Bill brings a wealth of experience in defined contributions, defined benefit, and health and welfare plan administration, which complements our team’s capabilities.”NEXT: Lincoln Financial Expands Retirement Business with Three Industry Veterans
Lincoln Financial Expands Retirement Business with Three Industry Veterans
Lincoln Financial Group has hired Carolyn Bremer, Rusty McGiboney and John Killoy to enhance its Participant Engagement and Relationship Management teams across its Retirement Plan Services business. They will work to build and strengthen the firm’s relationships with participants and plan sponsors in order to help drive positive retirement outcomes.
“We are thrilled that Carolyn, Rusty and John have joined the organization,” says Aaron Moore, JD, head of Relationship Management and Participant Engagement for Lincoln Financial. “Each one of them has a distinguished track record of success, and we look forward to tapping their industry knowledge and deep, relevant experience that will increase the overall strength of our teams and result in better outcomes for our clients.”
Bremer joins Lincoln as assistant vice president and relationship management director. She will be responsible for leading a team of nine relationship managers in the Northeast Region, who are focused on building strong relationships with plan sponsors. Before joining Lincoln Financial, Bremer served as regional vice president of Client Relationship Management for Transamerica Retirement Solutions, where she led six teams of client executives within the emerging, middle and large markets.
McGiboney has also been named assistant vice president and relationship management director. He will be tasked with leading a team of six relationship managers in the Southeast Region. He joins Lincoln Financial from The Newport Group, where he held the position of vice president of Retirement Services. That role saw him lead the client services team, which consisted of account management, conversions and ERISA consulting. He also built the company’s Relationship Management model.
Killoy joins Lincoln from Transamerica Retirement Solutions, where he was assistant vice president and West Region Retirement Consultant director for the Participant Engagement team. Killoy has worked closely with client management, sales, plan design, plan administration and participant engagement.
“Leading a Lincoln team of 16 retirement consultants, John will provide leadership, direction and expertise to ensure we are delivering a world-class participant experience nationally,” says James Thompson, assistant vice president, managing director and head of the Retirement Consultant Channel. “Retirement consultants are a key part of Lincoln’s high-touch model, building strong one-on-one relationships with participants and providing education on retirement issues.”
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