Deals and People November 9, 2018

Retirement Industry People Moves

VALIC Appoints New Business Development Vice President; JHRPS Promotes Executives as SVP Retires; Aon Adds Sales Director to Pennsylvania Office; and more.

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VALIC has named Bill Abramowicz as vice president of business development for the Midwest region. Abramowicz will cover Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota, North Dakota and South Dakota and will report to Craig Cheyne, managing vice president of business development.

Abramowicz brings over 30 years of experience to the company, including previous roles in defined contribution sales and service. 

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Before joining VALIC, Abramowicz served as a government relations team leader and managing director at MassMutual. He previously held senior sales and management positions at The Hartford and ING/Aetna. He received a bachelor’s degree from Chicago State University, is a certified retirement counselor through the International Foundation for Retirement Education and holds Series 6, 7, 26, and 63 licenses through FINRA.


JHRPS Promotes Executives as SVP Retires

John Hancock has promoted Gary Tankersley to head of sales and distribution for John Hancock Retirement Plan Services (JHRPS). He will report to Patrick Murphy, president and CEO, JHRPS, and join the senior leadership team.

In this role, Tankersley is accountable for growing JHRPS business in all segments of the market, encompassing startups to large organizations and the Taft-Hartley market. He is also tasked with expanding and overseeing JHRPS’ relationship with broker/dealers. He will be based in Denver, Colorado. 

Tankersley has 23 years of experience in the retirement plan services business. He joined John Hancock in February 2000 as regional vice president. He was promoted to divisional vice president for the central region in January 2013 and has served in that role until this announcement.

Also promoted was Abigail Benham into the role of vice president for national accounts, with responsibility for overseeing JHRPS’ relationships with broker/dealers and consulting firms as well as a team of national account managers. She will be based in Boston and report to Tankersley.

Benham joined JHRPS in 1998 as a marketing associate and has worked most recently as manager of national accounts. In that role since 2007, Benham was responsible for developing strategy and executing business plans for several of John Hancock’s largest broker/dealer relationships.

In parallel, George Revoir, senior vice president, national accounts and distribution, will retire from JHRPS in December 2018.

Aon Adds Sales Director to Pennsylvania Office

Aon has appointed John Stuntebeck as sales director.

In his new role, Stuntebeck will be responsible for business development in the non-profit market segment, contributing to the growth and enhancement of Aon’s platform for endowments, foundations, healthcare and other nonprofit entities. He will be reporting to Ed Bardowski, North American sales leader.

Stuntebeck has more than 20 years of nonprofit sales experience. Most recently, he served as a managing director for institutional investments and philanthropic solutions at U.S. Trust, Bank of America Merrill Lynch. He worked on investment and administrative solutions for institutional investors covering defined benefit plans, defined contribution plans, endowments, foundations and nonprofit organizations.

He earned a bachelor’s degree in political science from The Pennsylvania State University and holds Series 7 and Series 63 securities licenses. Stuntebeck will be located in Aon’s Radnor, Pennsylvania office.


CIEBA Elects Board of Directors Chairman

The Committee on Investment of Employee Benefit Assets (CIEBA), which represents chief investment officer retirement savings fiduciaries, has elected Douglas J. Brown as the new chairman of the CIEBA Board of Directors. Brown has served as vice-chair for the past two years and will succeed Andrew Ward, chief investment officer of The Boeing Company, who will remain on the Board.

CIEBA provides a networking and advocacy forum for in-house retirement investment leaders. The organization also publishes thought leadership on investment issues facing both defined benefit and defined contribution investment professionals.

Goldman Sachs Purchases Rocaton

Goldman Sachs Asset Management has entered into an agreement to acquire Rocaton Investment Advisors, in a bid to expand its retirement and advisory platform. This combination will provide a more fully integrated suite of advisory and discretionary services, according to the firms. Terms of the agreement were not disclosed.

Rocaton offers advisory and discretionary investment services to a wide range of institutional clients including retirement plans, healthcare and insurance companies, endowments, foundations and financial intermediaries. The entire Rocaton team will remain in Norwalk, Connecticut.

The transaction is expected to close in the first half of 2019.

Sales Managers Join Macquarie Investment Management

Macquarie Investment Management has announced that Chris Jacques and Corey Mayo have joined as institutional sales managers.

Jacques will support the Midwest region and is based in Chicago, and Mayo covers the Eastern U.S. and is based in Philadelphia. Both are responsible for building and expanding institutional relationships and enhancing the firm’s growth efforts with corporate and public plans, as well as endowments and foundations.

Jacques joined Macquarie from WisdomTree Asset Management, where he spent eight years as a director of sales in its central territory. Earlier, he served in institutional sales at Olympia Capital Markets Group. He received a bachelor’s degree in finance from the University of Notre Dame.

Mayo previously worked for Dupont Capital Management as a director of business development. Earlier, he was an institutional client service associate at CenterSquare Investment Management and began his career as an RFP specialist with the former Delaware Investments, which was acquired by Macquarie Group Limited in 2010. Mayo has a bachelor’s degree from Bucknell University and a master’s degree from Drexel University.


Edelman Financial Services and Financial Engines Rebrand

Following their merger in the third quarter of 2018, the combined Edelman Financial Services and Financial Engines organization has changed its name to Edelman Financial Engines. 

According to the firm, the new name symbolizes the company’s focus on independent financial planning and investment management for American families.

CUNA Adds Three Sales Division RVPs

CUNA Mutual Retirement Solutions has hired three regional vice presidents in its intermediary sales division. The new hires are Don Oldag, Tiffany Lauer and Ben Fisher.

Oldag, who will focus on Northern California, comes from Voya, where he was a third-party administrator relationship manager, and more recently, regional vice president of sales in Northern California. 

Lauer, who will focus on South Texas, was most recently a regional vice president with Transamerica. She also has experience with Nationwide, John Hancock and CitiStreet. 

Fisher, who will focus on the Mid-Atlantic, previously worked at Nationwide, where he spent over 10 years in various roles, including internal wholesaler and field service representative. For the past five years, he was regional vice president of sales for Northern Virginia and Washington, D.C. 

Benefits November 9, 2018

Crash Course on Social Security From AARP

One key misconception to break is that Social Security is meant to be an adequate source of income on its own for retirees.

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AARP updated its recently launched Social Security Resource Center with an analysis of the 12 most common Social Security misconceptions held by workers and retirees in the U.S.; the publication also discusses solutions and strategies for improving the long-term strength of the system.

According to David Certner, AARP’s legislative policy director, probably the first and most pervasive misunderstanding is that Social Security is at risk of “going bankrupt” in the near term.

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“At the moment, you could say the opposite; the Social Security trust funds are near an all-time high,” he says. “The program really is in good shape right now,” says David Certner. “But we know it has a long-term financial challenge.”

The white paper recounts how, for decades, Social Security collected more money than it paid out in benefits. The surplus money collected from payroll taxes each year got invested in Treasury securities, generating reserves that are now worth about $2.89 trillion.

“But as the birth rate has fallen and more Boomers retire, the ratio of workers to Social Security recipients is changing. This year is a tipping point,” Certner says. “The program will need to dip into its reserves to pay full benefits from this point forward, absent any change to the program. It’s now forecast that the trust fund reserves could be exhausted in 2034. Even if that happens, Social Security won’t be bankrupt. The program will continue to pay benefits, but at a rate of 79% of what recipients expected to receive.”

According to the AARP analysis, some ideas to reform funding are starting to take shape, but near-term Congressional action remains unlikely.

“One proposal is to either raise or eliminate the wage cap on how much income is subject to the Social Security payroll tax,” AARP says. “In 2019, that cap will be $132,900, which means that any amount a worker earns beyond that is not taxed. Remove that cap, and higher-income earners would contribute far more to the system. Other options lawmakers might consider include either raising the percentage rate of the payroll tax or raising the age for full retirement benefits.”

According to AARP, it is important that workers are made to understand their Social Security benefits can be taxed, especially when an individual can draw significant resources from other income sources, such as defined contribution (DC) or defined benefit (DB) retirement accounts. As the white paper recounts, single filers whose combined annual income exceeds $34,000 might pay income tax on up to 85% of their Social Security benefits; couples filing jointly may pay tax on up to 85% if their combined income tops $44,000.

Another key myth to break is that Social Security is meant to be an adequate source of income on its own for retirees.

“The SSA says if you have average earnings, the program’s retirement benefits will replace only about 40% of your pre-retirement wages,” the analysis says. “Nevertheless, 26% of those 65 and over who receive a monthly Social Security benefit today live with families that depend on it for almost all of their retirement income. And 50% of them say their families depend on Social Security for at least half of their income.”

The full publication is available on AARP’s website.

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