Deals and People October 7, 2016

Retirement Industry People Moves

The Standard hires VP for retirement business; PSCA's executive director stepping down; USI Consulting Group Hires assistant vice president for Retirement Services; and more.
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Bank of America Announces New Head of Merrill Lynch Wealth Management

Andy Sieg, current head of the Global Wealth and Retirement Solutions (GWRS) division at Merrill Lynch, will take over as the company’s head of Wealth Management, effective January 1, 2017, Bank of America announced.

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He will be succeeding John Thiel, who will take on the role of vice chairman of Global Wealth and Investment Management (GWIM) on the same date.

For the past five years, Sieg has led the firm’s retirement investment unit, which is comprised of the GWIM division’s product organization and retirement business. During that time, he worked with Thiel in the implementation of goals-based wealth management. Sieg was also instrumental in the firm’s development of a unified investment platform. He also currently manages the GWIM Chief Investment Office team together with Keith Banks, president of U.S. Trust.

“Andy Sieg has more than 20 years of experience at Merrill Lynch and has proven to be both a dynamic leader and accomplished at strategy execution,” says Bank of America Vice Chairman Terry Laughlin. “Under Andy’s leadership, we’ll continue to implement our goals-based advice model. He is ideally suited to lead Merrill Lynch on the next phase of its journey.”

As vice chairman of GWIM, Thiel will advise Laughlin, as well as the GWIM and Bank of America leadership teams on business integration, goals-based wealth management, and regulatory matters.

Thiel took on the role in 2011 when he was named as Lyle LaMothe’s replacement.

“Since 2011, under John Thiel’s leadership, Merrill Lynch has made tremendous progress by developing and beginning to implement goals-based wealth management,” said Laughlin.

He added, “Recognizing that our strategy has been proven and is now being implemented, John came to me and indicated he was thinking about his future and his desire to connect to the other passions in his life, particularly his commitment to working with organizations that help people who are less fortunate. As he considers how he can make his next important contribution, I’m very happy that he’ll be an important adviser to me, the Bank of America and GWIM management teams, and our advisers.”

Sieg first joined Merrill Lynch as an analyst in the Global Wealth Management business. He served in senior strategy and field leadership roles during the next 13 years, including as a market executive in San Diego and New York City. Sieg also led the Emerging Affluent Client Segment within Citigroup Global Wealth Management from 2005 to 2009.

NEXT: The Standard Hires VP for Retirement Business

The Standard Hires VP for Retirement Business

Standard Insurance Company has hired Todd Statczar as its new vice president of Retirement Plans Actuarial and Finance.

In his new role, Statczar will lead the Retirement Plans actuarial, finance and defined benefit (DB) teams. He’ll also be responsible for product development, planning, and risk management across the Retirement Plans business line. Statczar comes to the firm from Nationwide, where he spent the last 25 years assuming numerous leadership positions in the retirement plans business.

“The addition of Todd to our Retirement Plans leadership team is a reflection of the growth of the Retirement Plans business line at The Standard,” says Scott Hibbs, vice president and CIO at Standard Insurance Company. “His considerable experience working in a variety of actuarial leadership roles for more than two decades makes him very well suited to help us continue growing our business and providing the exceptional products and services we’re known for.”

Statczar graduated with a bachelor’s degree in mathematics from Miami University. He is a fellow of the Society of Actuaries and a member of the American Academy of Actuaries.

Standard Insurance Company is a provider of various financial products and services including group and individual disability insurance, retirement plan products, and individual annuities.

NEXT:  PSCA’s Executive Director Stepping Down

PSCA’s Executive Director Stepping Down
 
The Plan Sponsor Council of America (PSCA) has announced that Executive Director Tony Verheyen will be stepping down from his role in the coming months and return to the private sector. A committee comprising PSCA board members has been established to recruit a new, full-time executive director. Verheyen will remain with the organization during the transition.

“We are grateful for Tony’s leadership and passion,” says Stephen McCaffrey, board chairman of the PSCA. “Tony accepted the position of executive director in December, 2014, expecting it to be a two-year commitment. His dedication to PSCA has helped our organization make significant strides, and we look forward to identifying a leader who can continue to expand our efforts with plan sponsors and policy makers.”

Verheyen joined the PSCA as a board member before climbing to the role of executive director. He led efforts to reorganize the PSCA, expand its outreach, and focus the organization’s mission on better serving the plan sponsor community, the firm said.

“I am proud of the work we’ve done as the leading voice representing America’s plan sponsors,” says Verheyen. “Our staff and board have made terrific progress over the last two years, and it is now time for me to return to my career in the private sector. I will remain on the staff to ensure an orderly transition and expect to be involved in the organization on an ongoing basis.”

NEXT: USI Consulting Group Hires Assistant VPfor Retirement Services

USI Consulting Group Hires Assistant VP for Retirement Services

Ryan Savage has joined USI Consulting Group as the firm’s new assistant vice president for Retirement Services. Savage brings with him 15 years of experience in the industry working with employer sponsored retirement plans in the private and public sectors. His specialties include consulting on fiduciary coverage, vendor selection, plan design, investments and employee education. Recently, he spent eight years with Voya Financial.

Savage is also a representative with registered broker-dealer USI Securities and a member of FINRA/SIPC. 

USI Consulting Group is a provider of defined contribution (DC) and defined benefit (DB) plan consulting and administration services, as well as health and welfare administration. It is the parent company of both USI Securities and USI Advisors, a federally-registered investment adviser.

NEXT: IFM Investors Appoints Executive Director

IFM Investors Appoints Executive Director

Matthew Wade has joined IFM Investors as the firm’s new executive director of Debt Investments for North America. He will be tasked with growing debt origination capabilities from the firm’s New York office.

“Our long and successful track record in infrastructure debt for our institutional investors gives us a strong foundation to attract high caliber specialists, such as Matthew Wade, who will continue to build the business and focus on attractive opportunities in North America,” says Rich Randall, global head of Debt Investments. “Matthew will further enhance our ability to serve our existing investment partners and attract new similarly aligned investors in the region.”

Earlier this year, IFM announced the appointment of Randall to global head of Debt Investments and Joseph Braun to associate director of Debt Investments in North America.

Wade brings more than 15 years of experience to the firm. His most recent position was director of project finance at the Royal Bank of Canada in New York. This role saw him structure and execute finance and advisery solutions in the energy and infrastructure sectors. Previously, he held positions with Royal Bank of Scotland in both New York and London, where he worked in the energy and infrastructure sectors.

IFM Investors is a global fund manager with $52 billion under management. It was established more than 20 years ago and is owned by 29 Australian non-profit pension funds. Its investors include three of the six largest U.S. public-sector pension funds.

NEXT: DiMeo Schneider Expands to Austin
DiMeo Schneider Expands to Austin
 
DiMeo Schneider & Associates, a nationwide investment-consulting firm, announced it will be opening a new office in Austin, Texas. Scheduled to open in December 2016, the new office will be the firm’s second branch in the United States.  

Headquartered in Chicago, DiMeo Schneider advises hundreds of retirement plans, financial institutions, private clients, and non-profit organizations in more than 35 states.

“We’ve been thoughtful and deliberate about our growth since our founding more than twenty years ago,” says the firm’s Managing Director Bob DiMeo. “Establishing this new office in Austin will enable us to better serve and add clients in Texas and throughout the region, and allows us the opportunity to expand our team of professionals while continuing our current growth trajectory into the near future.”

DiMeo Schneider advises on more than $60 billion in assets as of June 30, 2016.

Benefits October 7, 2016

More Employers Adopting Value-Based Health Plan Strategies

In addition, more employers are embracing plan design features that encourage employees to use higher-quality, more efficient and lower-cost services, Willis Towers Watson finds.
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A growing number of employers seeking to achieve better health outcomes for employees at a lower cost are implementing value-based reimbursement and payment arrangements with their health insurers and medical service providers, according to the 21st Annual Best Practices in Health Care Employer Survey by Willis Towers Watson.

More employers plan to adopt the following value-based plan strategies in the coming years;

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  • Establish centers of excellence (COEs) for specialty services with health plans, separate providers or third-party vendors. Today, 45% of employers are giving employees access to COEs for specialty services such as back, knee, cardiac and infertility issues. This is up from 37% of employers who provided access to COEs in 2015. Another 32% are planning to do so by 2018. The vast majority of employers that have established COEs (97%) did so working with their health plans. While just 17% of employers reduce employee cost sharing at a COE today, that could triple to 54% by 2018.
  • Implement high-performance networks. Today 20% of employers offer networks of high-quality, cost-effective medical service providers that agree to provide care for a specific population at lower cost. The use of high-performance networks is up from 11% in 2015, with another 39% potentially adding them over the next three years. Of employers that offer such networks, about 50% reduce employee cost sharing for care within the network; that number is expected to increase along with the expansion of such networks over the next two years.
  • Contract directly with service providers to secure improved pricing. While few employers are contracting directly with service providers today, nearly 16% of employers are currently considering this approach. Among the service providers they identified as potentials for direct contracting are COEs, accountable care organizations and patient-centered medical homes.
NEXT: Changes in plan design

The survey also found that more employers are embracing plan design features that encourage employees to use higher-quality, more efficient and lower-cost services.

The plan design features expected to grow in usage include:

  • Reducing point-of-care costs for the use of high-value services - 11% of employers do this today, but the number could reach 47% by 2018;
  • Increasing point-of-care costs for the use of commonly overused services - 9% do so today, but the number could grow to 41% by 2018; and
  • Requiring employees who get certain types of medical procedures to pay a higher cost share if they do not get a second opinion - 4% do so today, but the number could reach 31% by 2018.

“As employers grapple with how to lower the cost of health care without lowering quality, they are increasingly looking to pay medical service providers for health outcomes instead of the services they provide,” says Trevis Parson, chief actuary, Health and Benefits, Willis Towers Watson. “Today, these strategies are more common in geographies where employers have large concentrations of employees or where cost-efficient providers are available and willing to engage in emerging reimbursement models. But this is just the start of a much larger transition—a move from a health care delivery system based on fees for services to a more patient-centric system based on fees for value or outcomes.”

The annual Willis Towers Watson Best Practices in Health Care Employer Survey was completed by 600 U.S. employers between June and July 2016. Respondents collectively employ 12.2 million full-time employees and operate in all major industry sectors.

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