Deals and People December 8, 2017

Retirement Industry People Moves

AndCo Consulting adds three to Pittsburgh consulting team; Franklin Templeton hires head of client investment solutions; Millennium acquires Inspira and ABG; and more. 

Reported by

AndCo Consulting (AndCo) has announced that it is expanding its Pittsburgh presence with the addition of three new consultants to its local team: Tim Walters, Chris Brokaw, and Chris Pipich. Each consultant has extensive experience in both Western Pennsylvania and nationally within the public, Taft-Hartley, corporate, healthcare and the endowment/foundation spaces.

AndCo has had an office in the Pittsburgh market since January 2015. Subsequently, the firm has steadily grown its local clientele across various plan types, while adding new resources and qualified team members to better service the region. 

Get more!  Sign up for PLANSPONSOR newsletters.

Chris Brokaw and Tim Walters will both join the AndCo team as senior consultants, while Chris Pipich will join as an investment consultant.

Walters and Brokaw officially joined AndCo on December 1. Chris Pipich will join on December 12.

Franklin Templeton Hires Head of Client Investment Solutions

Wylie Tollette will rejoin Franklin Templeton Investments to take on the newly created role of head of client investment solutions for Franklin Templeton Multi-Asset Solutions. He will join on January 8, 2018. 

Tollette will be rejoining Franklin Templeton from CalPERS, where he currently serves as chief operating investment officer. Tollette has close to 25 years of financial services experience, almost two decades of those years with Franklin Templeton. Prior to leaving in 2014, he had served as head of the firm’s performance analytics and investment risk group.

Tollette’s responsibilities will include oversight of client investment solution development for the firm’s multi-asset platform.  As a key member of the senior leadership team, he will partner closely with the company’s global distribution groups on all Multi-Asset Solutions-related opportunities across a broad range of clients. 

Millennium Acquires Inspira and ABG

Millennium Trust Company has announced the acquisition of InspiraFS, Inc. (Inspira) from Ad-Base Group, Inc. (ABG Capital). Inspira will be a subsidiary of Millennium and continue to market its services under the Inspira brand name.

Inspira’s technology platform offers both branded and private-label IRA [individual retirement account] recordkeeping solutions to retirement plan sponsors, financial institutions, corporations, third-party administrators (TPAs), and individual investors. 

The firm says this acquisition is an example of Millennium’s ongoing commitment to addressing emerging client needs, delivering innovative solutions, and strengthening its footprint in the retirement market. Millennium is actively pursuing acquisition opportunities and expects to complete additional transactions during the upcoming year.

OneAmerica Hires Regional Vice President for East Coast Operations

OneAmerica has hired 25-year retirement industry veteran Todd Smiser to helm the company’s East Coast operations as regional vice president of retirement sales. 

Smiser was most recently senior vice president, corporate markets, with Voya Financial. Smiser, who begins this week, will lead a team of approximately 12 regional sales directors with retirement plan responsibilities for the eastern region. 

Glenmede Investment Appoints Portfolio Manager to Small & Mid Cap Equity Team

Glenmede Investment Management LP has announced the appointment of Jordan Irving as a portfolio manager on its Small & Mid Cap Equity team.

Irving joins long-term GIM portfolio managers Robert Mancuso and Christopher Colarik in the management and oversight of all Small Cap Equity and Mid Cap Equity portfolios.

Irving has 20 years of investment management experience. He most recently served as a founding partner and portfolio manager at Irving Magee Investment Management. Previously, Irving worked as a senior portfolio manager for both large and small cap value equity strategies at Macquarie Investment Management (formerly Delaware Investments). Earlier, he was part of the U.S. Active Large-Cap Value team within Merrill Lynch Investment Managers where he worked for six years.

Irving earned a bachelor’s of arts in American Studies from Yale University and a graduate diploma from Oxford University in England.

Administration December 7, 2017

Willis Towers Watson Makes Suggestions for Improving DC Plan Thinking

The consultancy issued a white paper redefined DC plan-related terminology.

Reported by

In a new white paper, “Redefining DC Plans for the Future: Top 10 Updates to our DC Vocabulary for 2018,” Willis Towers Watson delves into the evolving meaning of 10 terms associated with defined contribution (DC) plans today.

Previously, “best practice plan design” referred to a DC plan that was a supplemental savings plan. Participants made modest contributions, with sponsors encouraging them to sign up for the plan by offering them a match. Today, DC plans are participants’ primary, or even their sole, retirement savings vehicle. Many DC plans are tailored for the needs of a company’s unique demographics, Willis Towers Watson says.

For more stories like this, sign up for the PLANSPONSOR NEWSDash daily newsletter.

In the past, sponsors and advisers measured “plan success” by measuring participation, deferral rates and account balances. Today, the focus has shifted to outcomes and participants’ retirement readiness.

Sponsors and advisers used to assess “DC plan risk factors” in terms of compliance errors, piecemeal documentation, poor fund performance, excessive fees, nondiscrimination failures and employee lawsuits. Today, all of those factors still matter, as well as having a workforce unable to retire. Sponsors are also realizing that financial wellness programs are important to lower workers’ financial stress and raise their productivity.

In the past, employers focused on “participant inertia” by educating them about the importance of signing up for the plan, saving enough and allocating their portfolio appropriately. Today, employers now realize they can leverage that same inertia by automatically enrolling participants into their plan and auto-escalating their contributions.

“Participant communications” in the past have all been generic, mostly delivered as printed materials that were mailed. Today, basic communications have become much more customized to various demographic groups and are delivered via various channels.

“Group educational meetings” with a single message have been replaced with educational meetings designed for specific groups of participants, such as those approaching retirement.

“Off-the-shelf target-date funds” (TDFs) as the qualified default investment alternative (QDIA) have been replaced with various options, such as managed accounts or blended funds that also deliver retirement income. Some TDFs have even become customized.

“Participant investment decisions” used to be difficult, as sponsors offered many choices in their investment lineup, often confusing participants. Today’s investment menus are simplified and streamlined.

“Retirement plan investment committees” used to bear the fiduciary responsibility themselves. Today, many are turning to advisers to act as 3(21) or 3(38) fiduciaries.

Finally, “investment menus” used to offer a plethora of choices. Today, they have been pared down and many offer custom multi-manager options focused on participant retirement objectives.

Willis Towers Watson’s white paper can be downloaded here.

«