Deals and People September 9, 2016

Retirement Industry People Moves

OneAmerica hires new regional manager; Taft-Hartley plan consultant joins Milliman, and more.
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New Regional Manager Joins OneAmerica

OneAmerica has hired Kara Knott as its regional sales director for the central region. Prior to joining the team, she worked as a retirement services wholesaler for major accounts with ADP.

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Knott will oversee a four-state service territory, including cities throughout Iowa, Nebraska, Kansas, and western Missouri. She is tasked with educating plan sponsors and plan advisers about how they can help people progress toward financial wellness and comfortable retirements.

“Kara is a tremendous addition to the OneAmerica team,” says Pete Schroedle, vice president of retirement services. “She knows the industry, understands the needs of financial advisers, plan sponsors and participants, and her approach to developing relationships mirrors our philosophy of ‘high-touch’ service. Kara’s knowledge of the region, capabilities in sales and connecting with people, will benefit her and us in this role.”

Knott is a graduate of the University of Iowa. 

NEXT: Custodia Financial Hires Two Leaders to Manage Retirement Loan Eraser

Custodia Financial Hires Two Leaders to Manage Retirement Loan Eraser

Custodia Financial, the creator of Retirement Loan Eraser (RLE), has hired Terri Johnson and Sandy Tassinari as its senior executives of strategic accounts. They will be responsible for managing key client relationships in Custodia's RLE business.

Prior to Custodia, Johnson was managing director of relationship management at Wells Fargo Institutional Retirement and Trust. She was responsible for the large market defined contribution (DC) segment. During her 24-year Wells Fargo career, Johnson served in a number of senior management roles in the large market, leading operations, service delivery and communications teams.

Sandy Tassinari brings more than 35 years of experience in the human resources and benefits space to the organization. Previously, Tassinari led relationship management for large corporate business at Voya Financial and Mercer Outsourcing. She also spent a decade with Fidelity Investments, which saw her holding both client-facing and internal roles in Benefits and HR. Most recently, she was senior vice president of human resources systems and process.

"We are so fortunate to have people of Terri and Sandy's caliber join our growing RLE business," said CEO Tod Ruble. "Together with George and Eric and the rest of our management team, they have an intimate understanding of the retirement industry. They share our excitement because RLE not only prevents loan defaults and associated cash outs, it reduces fiduciary risk, retains plan assets and improves retirement outcomes."

According to Custodia Financial, RLE is the only solution available that prevents 401(k) loan defaults caused by involuntary job loss.

NEXT: Bukaty Companies Financial Services Hires New Consultant

Bukaty Companies Financial Services Hires New Consultant

Bukaty Companies Financial Services (BCFS) and Resources Investment Advisors have welcomed investment adviser Pat J. McCandless as asenior retirement plan consultant and wealth adviser.

McCandless brings more than 20 years of experience in the retirement plan industry to the organization. In 2013, she earned the C(k)P Designation or Certified 401(k) Professional Designation which is administered by The Retirement Advisor University in collaboration with UCLA Anderson School of Management Executive Education. She also was awarded the Accredited Investment Fiduciary designation. She graduated summa cum laude from the University of Missouri. 

“Joining BCFS and RIA made perfect sense,” says McCandless. "Having their portfolio management team behind me, along with their technology suite of tools and knowledgeable staff support, will give me the time needed to focus on my existing and future clients."  

NEXT: MainStay Hires New Director

MainStay Hires New Director 

MainStay Investments welcomes Ken Bossen as its new director of ETF business development for its Institutional Intermediary Business (IIB). He will focus on investment strategies and research analytics. Bossen brings more than 30 years of investment and management experience. He previously served in senior positions with State Street Global Advisors, Morgan Stanley and Citigroup.

Bossen’s responsibilities also include providing coverage and thought leadership to ETF analysts, portfolio construction teams, investment strategists and the RIA ETF investment strategist marketplace. With a focus on building close partnerships with these analysts and strategists leveraging MainStay’s suite of IndexIQ ETF solutions, he will work to grow IndexIQ’s platform and model presence.

He reports to John Lloyd, managing director and head of the Research Platform Group for MainStay's IIB. 

“Ken brings extensive knowledge of ETFs, equities and the capital markets from his work with some of the most respected financial institutions in the world,” says Lloyd. “We are excited to add another impact player to IIB’s roster of talented professionals committed to partnering with research and investment teams. Ken promises to further strengthen our pipeline of research platform group opportunities to achieve our institutional business goals and deliver ETF-related value to analysts and strategists.”  

Bossen graduated from St. John’s University with a bachelor’s degree in economics. 

NEXT: Taft-Hartley Plan Consultant Joins Milliman

Taft-Hartley Plan Consultant Joins Milliman

Milliman, a global consulting and actuarial firm, has appointed Mark Sheytanian as a senior consultant. He joins recent hires Tom Carrabine and John Donohue who will focus on developing innovative strategies for Milliman’s expanding Taft-Hartley business. Previously, Mark was a vice president of Taft-Hartley client strategy at John Hancock. He brings twenty years of experience to his new role.  

“Mark is an unconventional thinker whose innovative approach to business adds tremendous value to our growing base of Taft-Hartley clients,” says Gerald Erickson, principal with Milliman. He is well respected in the industry, and I couldn’t be happier to have him join Milliman’s Taft-Hartley DC practice.”

Founded in 1947, Milliman is an independent firm with consulting practices in health care, property & casualty insurance, life insurance, financial services, and employee benefits.

Compliance September 9, 2016

GAO Makes Recommendations for Lifetime Income Options in 401(k)s

GAO gave the DOL seven recommendations to address 401(k) plan sponsors’ fear of offering lifetime income options in their plans.
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A Government Accountability Office (GAO) questionnaire from 11 401(k) plan recordkeepers showed that most plans covered by the questionnaire had not adopted products and services that could  help participants turn their savings into a retirement income stream. 

GAO noted that responses to the questionnaire represented more than 40% of all 401(k) assets and about one-quarter of plans at the end of 2014. GAO found that of the plans covered by the questionnaire, about two-thirds did not offer a systematic withdrawal option—payments from accounts, sometimes designed to last a lifetime—and about three-quarters did not offer an annuity.

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Concerns about legal risks and recordkeeper constraints may deter many plan sponsors from offering lifetime income options. The GAO pointed out that the Department of Labor (DOL) has prescribed steps plan sponsors can take to satisfy their fiduciary duties when selecting an annuity provider for a 401(k) plan. However, according to industry stakeholders GAO interviewed, those steps are not often used because they include assessing “sufficient” information to “appropriately” conclude that the annuity provider will be financially able to pay future claims, without providing clear definitions for those terms.

Further, GAO found that a mix of lifetime income options to choose from is not usually available. The DOL provides an incentive in the form of limited liability relief to plan sponsors who, among other things, provide participants at least three diversified investment options. However, no such incentive exists for plan sponsors offering a mix of lifetime income options. Without some degree of liability relief, plan sponsors may be reluctant to offer a diverse mix of lifetime income options to their participants.

Stakeholders also told GAO that recordkeepers may make only their own annuities available to the plans they service. The DOL provides guidance on selecting service providers, but it does not encourage plan sponsors to seek choices from their service providers, which may prevent plans from having appropriate annuity options available to offer participants.

The DOL’s guidance on default lifetime income is focused on a particular annuity type used only by a few plans. By issuing guidance encouraging plans to consider letting required minimum distributions (RMDs) be the default distribution process for retiring participants, the DOL may help create lifetime income for participants who do not choose an option, the GAO said.

GAO made seven recommendations to the DOL, including that it clarify the criteria to be used by plan sponsors to select an annuity provider; consider providing limited liability relief for offering an appropriate mix of lifetime income options; issue guidance to encourage plan sponsors to select a recordkeeper that offers annuities from other providers; and consider providing RMD-based default lifetime income to retirees. The DOL generally agreed to the recommendations and told the GAO it would take actions to address them.

The GAO report may be downloaded from here.

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