Retirement Industry People Moves

Change in leadership at Mutual of America; Beacon Pointe provides investment management for 401(k)s and 403(b)s; new hires at TIAA and Pentegra.

After 21 years as chief executive officer, Thomas J. Moran will retire from Mutual of America Life Insurance Company at the end of March. He will continue serving as chairman, a position he has held since 2005. John R. Greed, the current president, will succeed Moran as president and chief executive starting April 1.

Moran has been with Mutual of America for four decades, joining in 1975, a year after graduating from Manhattan College in New York City. Over the years, he has held key positions before succeeding his predecessor and mentor, William J. Flynn, as chief executive and president in 1994.

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Under Moran’s leadership, Mutual of America expanded its 403(b), 401(k) and 401(a) Thrift plan and individual product premiums, from approximately $225 million in 1994 to more than $1.6 billion in 2015, which represents a compound annual growth rate of 10%. Moran has also served in several insurance industry leadership positions, including his past service as chairman of the Medical Information Bureau and as chairman of the Life Insurance Council of New York.

Moran established the Mutual of America Foundation Community Partnership Award in 1996, and has supported numerous charitable and educational organizations. He has served as chairman of the Board of Concern Worldwide U.S. for more than a decade. He was appointed Chancellor of Queen’s University in Belfast, Northern Ireland, in 2015.

Moran says Greed “has been an integral member of our senior leadership team for nearly two decades. He possesses the right combination of experience, expertise and vision to lead the company, while remaining committed to meeting the needs of our customers.”

Greed was appointed president of Mutual of America last March, succeeding Moran. Previously, Greed served as senior executive vice president and chief financial officer and, before that, as executive vice president and treasurer.

Prior to joining Mutual of America, Greed was a partner with Arthur Andersen. He currently serves on the board and executive committee of the Greater New York Councils of the Boy Scouts of America.

“Tom Moran’s vision, leadership, commitment and compassion are second to none,” Greed adds. “Tom has taught me so much about the retirement savings business over the past 20 years; however, equally as important, he has taught me even more about people, caring, giving back and making a difference in the world however you can.”

NEXT: Beacon Pointe brings on head of institutional plan services

Doug Igel has joined Beacon Pointe Advisors to run its retirement plan advisory practice.

Igel will be responsible for the design, management and delivery of services within the group, leveraging Beacon Pointe’s manager research capabilities and institutional scale.  

Igel was formerly a vice president and managing consultant of the retirement practice at Precept Advisory Group. With the benefit of his leadership and more than 19 years of industry experience, Beacon Pointe will now offer investment management services to 401(k) and 403(b) plans, as well as other services, including fiduciary oversight, plan consulting, fee benchmarking and vendor reviews, participant financial wellness and ERISA (Employee Retirement Income Security Act) plan consulting.

Felix Lin, president of the firm’s institutional consulting services group, cites Igel’s strong, in-depth knowledge and understanding of the 401(k) and 403(b) space and says he is well-positioned to provide clear, objective advisory services and investment guidance for retirement plans, given the amount of discussion around Department of Labor fiduciary regulation.

Igel holds designations as a Certified Investment Management Analyst (CIMA), as an Accredited Investment Fiduciary (AIF), and a Certified Retirement Administrator (CRA). He holds a bachelor’s degree in business administration with a concentration in finance from Colorado State University and a master’s degree in business administration from Regis University in Denver.

Beacon Pointe Advisors is an independent investment advisory firm that reports it has over $7.5 billion in assets under management (as of June 30, 2015).

NEXT: TIAA names chief income strategist

Diane Garnick has joined TIAA (formerly TIAA-CREF) as managing director and chief income strategist.

An industry thought leader with two decades of experience structuring retirement and investment solutions, Garnick is responsible for advancing the strategy, development and modernization of TIAA’s lifetime income solutions across the firm’s portfolio of products and services. In this role she is also tasked with helping to simplify the complexities surrounding lifetime income products for the thousands of institutions and millions of individuals TIAA serves.  

Previously, Garnick was a global investment strategist at State Street Global Advisors and Invesco. She was also a member of the top-ranked Institutional Investor Equity Derivatives research team at Merrill Lynch.

Garnick holds a bachelor’s degree in accounting from Hofstra University, and a master’s degree in finance and strategy from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. She is a Certified Public Accountant (CPA) and serves on the board of the CFA Institute Research Foundation.

NEXT: Pentegra Retirement Services adds qualified plan director in Northern California

Anna Toy has joined Pentegra Retirement Services as a regional director for qualified retirement plan sales in Northern California.

She will spearhead business development in the area, marketing qualified retirement plan and fiduciary outsourcing solutions.

Toy, who has more than 20 years of experience in the financial services industry, has concentrated on retirement plans for the past 10 years. Her previous roles include regional retirement specialist at Principal Financial, regional vice president at Ascensus and retirement services district manager at ADP.

Toy reports to Pete Swisher, Pentegra’s senior vice president of national sales, who cites her track record, deep knowledge of qualified retirement plan solutions, and strong relationships. She holds FINRA Series 7 and 63 licenses, as well as California Life, Health and Ethics licenses. She holds a bachelor’s degree in finance from San Francisco State University.

Investment Product and Service Launches

Baring Asset Management reveals brand consolidations; Core Bond Fund launched by Vanguard; FTSE Russell moves forward on collaboration with momentum investing specialist Trendrating.

Baring Asset Management Brand Consolidation

Babson Capital Management LLC, its subsidiaries Cornerstone Real Estate Advisers LLC and Wood Creek Capital Management LLC, and Baring Asset Management Limited, announced their intention to combine and use the Barings brand.

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According to the firms, “the combination creates a leading global, multi-asset investment management firm with over $260 billion of assets under management, offices in 20 countries, and over 1,700 professionals.” The newly branded firm will be led by Tom Finke, current chairman and CEO of Babson, and will be headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina.

David Brennan, chairman and CEO of Barings, “who will retire as planned during the summer of 2016,” says this is an “exciting opportunity for the Barings organization to combine with its affiliates to create a new, more diversified global manager.”

“Because of the complementary nature of the firms’ investment capabilities in fixed income, equity, multi-asset, real estate, real assets, and alternatives, no change in investment leadership is anticipated,” he adds. “Furthermore, distribution and marketing capabilities will be combined together to support the new global firm.”

Finke adds that, together, “Babson, Barings, Cornerstone, and Wood Creek offer institutional and retail investors worldwide a compelling array of investment offerings. As a unified firm we will be better able to deliver our diverse and global investment offerings to clients.”

As a result of the combination, the Barings brand and logo will be refreshed to reflect the global nature of the new Barings and signify the unified platform of the affiliates. “The choice to retain the Barings brand reinforces the global aspect of the new firm, the diversified nature of its client base, and the Barings heritage which dates back to 1762,” the firm says.

Babson, Barings, Cornerstone, and Wood Creek are all affiliates of Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company (MassMutual). The firms expect to close the initial phase of the integration during the fourth quarter of this year, subject to required regulatory approval. 

NEXT: Vanguard Launches Vanguard Core Bond Fund

Vanguard Launches Vanguard Core Bond Fund

Vanguard unveiled the new Vanguard Core Bond Fund, an actively managed fixed income offering, available to investors at a cost of 0.25% and 0.15% on Investor Shares and Admiral Shares, respectively.

Vanguard says the fund invests in high-quality bonds across the investment-grade market and limits non-investment grade bonds to 5%. It employs a risk-controlled approach and seeks to outperform the broad investment-grade U.S. fixed income market through disciplined security selection, sector allocation, and duration decisions.

Investor Shares are available with a minimum investment of $3,000, while access to Admiral Shares requires a $50,000 investment. Vanguard points out that the average core bond fund fee is in the ballpark of 80 basis points, making the pricing of the new Vanguard Core Bond Fund very competitive.

Gregory Davis, head of Vanguard Fixed Income Group, says new fund invests primarily in high-quality  bonds across the investment-grade market, including Treasury, mortgage-backed, corporate and asset-backed securities of varying yields and maturities.

“The fund will limit its exposure to non-investment grade bonds to 5%,” he adds. “We believe the fund to be well-suited for investors seeking an actively-managed, high-quality, and broadly diversified holding in their fixed income portfolio.”

NEXT: FTSE Russell Teams With Trendrating 

FTSE Russell, the global investment index provider, has signed a collaboration agreement with the momentum investing specialist and analytics firm, Trendrating.

The agreement will see Trendrating work with FTSE Russell to develop new innovative momentum indexes, according to the firms. The range of products “will incorporate Trendrating’s unique momentum model and supporting data as a core component of the methodology.”

Founded in 2013 by Rocco Pellegrinelli, Trendrating provides a range of tools designed to maximize investment performance and improve risk control. Currently more than 100 institutional fund managers across Europe, the U.S. and Asia use the company’s momentum metrics to help them improve their investment decision making process, according to the firm.

This latest announcement will further expand FTSE Russell’s existing range of factor products, including the FTSE Global Factor Index Series and the FTSE Global Diversified Factor Index Series. 

Mark Makepeace, CEO of FTSE Russell says of the agreement: “As passive investment requirements become increasingly sophisticated, we have seen strong demand for our factor indexes from a variety of market participants. As a result, we are delighted to collaborate with Trendrating to expand our offering by creating a range of new momentum indexes. The products will be developed using both firms’ expertise and supported by FTSE Russell’s longstanding commitment to strong and transparent governance.”

Rocco Pellegrinelli, founder and CEO of Trendrating agrees, adding that “momentum is a strong and persistent factor, rapidly gaining popularity among top global asset managers as a key component in portfolio construction and tactical allocation. This collaboration with FTSE Russell represents a huge leap forward for momentum investing and further endorses our momentum model as one of the leading methods to enable fund managers to harness the power of this important factor.”

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