Deals and People July 29, 2016

Retirement Industry People Moves

PGIM Appoints New Managing Director; New VP Joins Innovest Portfolio Solutions, and more.
Reported by

PGIM Appoints New Managing Director  

PGIM, the global investment management business of Prudential Financial Inc., has appointed Cameron A. Lochhead as managing director.

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

Lochhead will focus on managing the company’s relationships while collaborating with some of its biggest U.S. clients including the chief investment offices of institutional, pension and retirement plans.

“With headwinds for global growth, policy uncertainties and volatility, our clients are increasingly looking to us for cross-strategy advice to help navigate market risks at home and around the world,” said James Sullivan, head of PGIM’s Institutional Relationship Group.  “The addition of Cameron to our team demonstrates our commitment to further deepening the insight and solutions we bring to our U.S. institutional relationships.” 

Lochhead joins from Russell Investments, where he was a regional director responsible for managing relationships with corporate and state retirement plan sponsor fiduciaries and executives including treasurers, CIOs, and analysts. Previously, Cameron served in various sales management roles at Guggenheim Partners, Internet Securities Inc., and Thomson Financial Services.   

Lochhead will be based in Newark, New Jersey.
  
NEXT: New VP Joins Innovest

New VP Joins Innovest Portfolio Solutions    

Innovest Portfolio Solutions in Denver, Colorado, has appointed Jared Martin as vice president and consultant. Martin will manage the relationships between service providers and plan sponsors while providing ongoing vendor management services for clients. He will deliver investment consulting services to committees, boards and individuals, as well as lead several special projects for retirement plan clients.  

Prior to joining Innovest, Martin was director of relationship management with ICMA-RC. In this role, he was responsible for the overall business relationship and retention of the clients within his territory. Before becoming a relationship manager, Martin spent eight years as financial planning manager with the company. He is on the board of the Colorado Public Pension Coalition (CPPC).     

Founded more than 20 years ago, Innovest is an independent provider of fee-only, investment-related consulting services. It was ranked among the Top 100 Retirement Plan Advisers in 2016 by PLANADVISER. Innovest was also named the Retirement Plan Adviser Team of the Year by PLANSPONSOR in 2014. 

NEXT: Cavalier Investments Appoints CIO

Cavalier Investments Appoints CIO    

Cavalier Investments has appointed Scott Wetherington as chief investment officer. He will lead the research and investment teams in enhancing Cavalier’s process of identifying leading fund managers. Wetherington will also manage the firm’s new Tactical Economic Strategy.    

Wetherington has spent three decades in the industry and has served multiple roles including strategist, manager and analyst.    

Prior to joining Cavalier, Wetherington served as senior portfolio manager and chief investment strategist for Lindner Capital Advisors from 2009 to 2016. At Lindner, Wetherington was responsible for the firm’s process and portfolio allocation models and lead the research and selection process for mutual funds and ETFs. Previously, Wetherington worked for ING Investment Management as a portfolio manager, overseeing active management of a multi-billion-dollar fixed income accounts.   

“Scott’s decades of experience as a strategist, manager and analyst adds a diversity of perspectives that few in the industry can offer, and we are thrilled that he is joining our executive team,” says Gregory A. Rutherford, chief executive officer of Cavalier Investments. “Scott’s proven commitment to rigorous research and exhaustive due diligence, and his defensive-first approach align with our aim to deliver relative returns in up markets, protect against losses in down markets, and minimize trading costs through all cycles.”

NEXT: Raymond James and Next Retirement Solutions Partner

Raymond James And Next Retirement Solutions  Partner

Raymond James Financial Services (RJFS) has joined forces with Next Retirement Solutions, a team of experienced institutional retirement plan consultants and financial advisors, according to Bill Counsman, RJFS’s Western regional director.

   

“As a group, we continue to innovate in order to provide the very best services for our clients,” says Paul Neuner, managing director-partner of NRS. “By partnering with Raymond James, we felt the environment was conducive to implement new ideas and better serve these important relationships. We believe with the support provided by Raymond James we can not only add offices and team members, but also provide greater customization and depth and breadth of services to our clients.”

Next Retirement Solutions, formerly known as Neuner Retirement Services, is an independent firm offering securities through RJFS.

Compliance July 29, 2016

9th Circuit Weighs In on Dignity Health’s Church Plan Status

The appellate court agreed with a lower court that the health provider’s pension plan did not fit the definition of ‘church plan’ under ERISA.
Reported by

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled that Dignity Health’s pension plan is subject to the requirements of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) and does not qualify for ERISA’s ‘church plan’ exemption.

Agreeing with other circuits, the appellate court held that the plain language of ERISA requires that a “church plan” be established by a church or by a convention or association of churches. The 9th Circuit agreed with a district court ruling that Dignity Health had not argued it could meet that requirement.

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

In its opinion, the appellate court also rejected Dignity Health’s argument that it should defer to a 1983 general counsel memorandum (GCM) from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) in which the IRS determined that the retirement plans in question had not been established by a church but opined that the plans could qualify as church plans if they were maintained either by a church or a church-affiliated principal-purpose organization. The court said an agency’s interpretation of statute is entitled to deference “when it appears that Congress delegated authority to the agency generally to make rules carrying out the force of law, and that the agency interpretation claiming deference was promulgated in the exercise of that authority.” The court noted that the GCM included a disclaimer that it is “not to be relied upon or otherwise cited by precedent by taxpayers.”

The 9th Circuit noted that the district court did not reach the question of whether the “church plan” exemption in ERISA is unconstitutional—a question raised by a recent filing of another lawsuit challenging a plan’s ‘church plan’ status. Dignity Health also urged the appellate court to review the district court’s rulings that the lawsuit was timely, that the plan was not established by a church and that the plan is not maintained by a principal-purpose organization, but the appellate court concluded that “interlocutory consideration of these issues is unwarranted.”

The case was remanded back to the district court for further proceedings. The 9th Circuit’s opinion is here.

«