Deals and People July 14, 2023

Retirement Industry People Moves

Perigon selects Hasan as CIO; State Street appoints Donohue as head of sustainability; GoldTree hires Plotke as principal. 

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Perigon Wealth Management Names Hasan as Chief Investment Officer 

Rafia Hasan

Perigon Wealth Management announced the appointment of Rafia Hasan as chief investment officer to support its national growth strategy. 

“Rafia’s years of diversified industry experience and exposure to rapidly growing RIAs brings an incredible perspective and strategic approach to our team,” Arthur Ambarik, CEO of San Francisco-based Perigon Wealth Management, said in a statement.  

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Hasan will be responsible for enhancing Perigon’s investment strategy, bolstering its investment team and supporting the firm’s growing adviser team. She was most recently the CIO of Wipfli Financial Advisors, an RIA firm with $5.5 billion in client assets, where she led the five-person investment and trading team.  

State Street Promotes Donohue to Oversee Sustainability Efforts 

State Street Corp. announced it has appointed executive vice president Jessica Donohue as head of global investment insights, sustainability and impact, overseeing the firm’s sustainability efforts. 

For more than two decades, Donohue has held a variety of senior roles with State Street, including leading investor behavior research at State Street Associates. She succeeds Rick Lacaille, who announced his retirement earlier this year. Donohue will report to Lou Maiuri, president, chief operating officer and head of investment services. 

“Jessica’s background in research and investment-related insights, coupled with her deep understanding of clients’ unique challenges and the market overall, is precisely what our clients need,” said Maiuri in a statement. 

GoldenTree Asset Management Hires Plotke as Principal in Newport Beach 

Chad Plotke

GoldenTree Asset Management announced the hiring of Chad Plotke as a principal in Newport Beach, California. 

Plotke will focus on business development, covering relationships such as family offices, corporate pensions, health care organizations, endowments and foundations. He will report to Kathy Sutherland, CEO and partner in GoldenTree. Plotke joins GoldenTree from PIMCO, where he was an executive vice president and account manager. 

“Chad brings nearly 15 years of strategy and business development experience across asset classes to GoldenTree and we are excited to welcome him to the team,” Sutherland said in a statement.  

Compliance July 13, 2023

Senate Appropriations Committee Advances Funding for SECURE 2.0 Lost and Found

The committee’s spending bill appropriates $14 million for the creation of a retirement account database.

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The Senate Appropriations Committee advanced a spending bill by unanimous vote Thursday to fund the IRS, SEC, and financial services and government agencies, including specific outlays for SECURE 2.0-mandated regulations.

The Senate bill differs significantly from the spending bill advanced by the House Appropriations Committee on Thursday. That bill is largely the same as the bill that passed the Financial Services and General Government Subcommittee in June.

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Among the differences, the House bill completely revokes the approximately $80 billion in additional funding provided to the IRS by the Inflation Reduction Act over the next 10 years, while the Senate bill only cuts $10 billion. The Senate version is consistent with the debt ceiling budget deal reached in late May by President Joe Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-California.

The House bill also blocks several regulatory proposals from the Securities and Exchange Commission. These proposals would include: climate risk and greenhouse gas disclosure; swing pricing for mutual funds; the safeguarding proposal; mandatory auctions for retail orders (the order competition Rule); Regulation Best Execution; and the update to stock price increments. These measures are absent in the Senate version.

The SEC and IRS would also receive cuts from their 2023 levels for fiscal 2024 under the House bill. The SEC’s budget would be cut by $170 million down to $2 billion, and the IRS by $1.1 billion down to $11.25 billion, in each case specifically targeting the enforcement budget. The IRS cuts come in addition to cutting the $80 billion in additional Inflation Reduction Act funding. The Senate bill appropriates $2.4 billion to the SEC.

The Senate version appropriates $1.884 billion to the Department of the Treasury, excluding the IRS, and the House version appropriates $1.793 billion.

The Senate spending bill appropriates $14 million to the Department of Labor so it can construct the “Lost and Found” database of retirement accounts, as mandated by the SECURE 2.0 Act of 2022. This provision is absent from the House version.

The two competing bills also have very different views on telework. Federal teleworking is a frequent complaint among Congressional Republicans and the House bill demands federal agencies to return to pre-pandemic levels of office workers. The Senate bill on the other hand, instructs the SEC, FCC, and FTC to report the impact of telework on recruitment, retention, and performance to Congress.

The two bills will have to be reconciled before being passed in each legislative chamber, then sent to Biden for his signature or veto.

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